Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Miracle and Vine Leaves: An Ibsen Play Rewrought

1979; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 94; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/461797

1938-1530

Arthur Ganz,

Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research

A striking similarity in the choice of characters (a beautiful young wife; a former schoolmate; a rather commonplace husband; a husband's friend, the wife's secret admirer) and in the handling of plot (a threat of blackmail, a struggle for power, a plan for suicide) suggests that Hedda Gabler is to a remarkable degree a more complex manifestation of A Doll's House . Even more intriguing is the heroines' shared aspiration to achieve vicarious fulfillment through an admired man's heroic act. And most significant of all is the identity of their reactions when the man fails. Though Nora finally no longer believes in miracles nor Hedda in vine leaves, each is still pursuing—whether with determination or destructiveness— her ideal (and Ibsen's) of the realized self. Examining the equivalences of character in these works reveals how Ibsen's vision became richer, darker, more ambiguous even as his concerns remained essentially the same.