work he produces, seeing his new book as her own "baby." Juliana, George's maiden aunt, lives on a small inheritance. When she mortgages her income so that George can buy the fine house for Hedda, she is risking her financial security. She has no means to produce income of her own if it is lost. In this play, only prostitutes, it seems, earn their own money.

The women in the play have status only in terms of serving others, especially men. Hedda acts as daughter and then wife. Thea "saves" Eilert temporarily from his alcoholism and degrading life and inspires his best work. Juliana risks her own financial security for George's happiness and spends her days taking care of her dying sister, Rina. When Rina does die, Juliana envisions no life for herself except to find another sick person to care for.

First of all, it is imperative to understand Hedda's character in the play and to reflect upon issues related to women's rights in Norway in the post-Victorian era. Did Hedda have any choices, apart from being Tesman's wife? If you notice the exchange of dialogues between Hedda and Judge Brack in Act 2, Hedda constantly refers to her state of being bored. Why is she bored? Did she have the right to any meaningful profession apart from being confined to her home and playing the role of a wife? Unlike The Doll's House, in Hedda Gabler, Ibsen subtly explores the issues of women's rights. Perhaps, Hedda's character would not have ended in tragedy or prone to hysterical outbursts if she was meaningfully engaged in a profession.     

Ibsen wrote many plays that challenged Victorian (19thC) notions of women, sometimes creating characters in the form of the “New Woman,” a term used in the press of the day to describe the woman who dared to challenge traditional behavior of women by becoming authoritative, unhappy with their conventional live, and conflicted between wanting to be “womanly” and yet live outside the boundaries of that definition of the time.  Like many “New Woman” characters, Hedda commits suicide at the end because there is no place for her in society: if she conforms she is unhappy, and if she rebels she gives up love and respect of others.  She was a misfit for her time,.  Unlike Nora in Doll’s House, however, she cannot leave quietly because there is nothing quiet or gentle about this character from beginning to end.

This is so good a question that it is too large for this arena, really. This is because a) Ibsen wrote many plays over a long span, and b) the role of women both changed and was complicated. That said, one can say that women in Ibsen are complex, conflicted, and often emblematic or symbolic. What they symbolize or represent changes from play to play, and even in some cases within a given play.

That said, Hedda is a conflicted character. She's torn between multiple motivations and drives. She has the energy to be a social power or a poetic symbol, but she lacks an outlet and so is destructive in the end.