Erik Østerud

The Acteon Complex: Gaze, Body,

and Rites of Passage in ‘Hedda Gabler’
Hedda Gabler has long been acknowledged as among the most problematic as well as
one of the greatest of Ibsen’s plays, requiring a delicate balance to be struck in production
between a clearly defined social context and the need to express Hedda’s existential
selfhood. Here, Erik Østerud, developing a view of the play which as early as 1893
recognized it as ‘waltz tunes over an abyss of nothingness’, defines the three distinct ‘worlds’
around which Hedda circles – those characterized by Aunt Julie, the red-haired singer,
and Judge Brack – and her struggles to reconcile Løvberg’s impetuous idealism with
Brack’s facade of conformity. Calling upon a wide range of cultual references, but with a
vision focused on the actuality of the play’s scenography, Østerud sees the separate
social groupings as at once interlocked through a mythic analogy with the cult of Dionysus,
and in more contemporary terms giving us an ‘overview of the total economy of sexuality
within a bourgeois society that is dominated by panoptical supervision and strong sexual
repression’. Erik Østerud is Professor of Scandinavian Literature at the University of
Trondheim, having previously taught at Aarhus, Berkeley, and Oslo. His most recent
publication is Theatrical and Narrative Space (Aarhus University Press, 1998).

IN HIS BOOK On the Advantage and Disad- raised by Henrik Ibsen in plays such as
vantage of History for Life, published in 1874, Hedda Gabler.
Friedrich Nietzsche demonstrates how his- This play is concerned with social oppres-
tory is able to strangle all human vitality and sion and opposition – with the subversive
creativity, how history can block out that forces that one individual is able to use to
open horizon that is the basis for its exis- undermine the conservative power structures
tence, and how it can tie all human activity of society. But it is also a play about existen-
down in retrogressive conventionality. In tial angst and an existential yearning for life,
existential terms, Nietzsche ranks the future and about the suppression of the self and of
with its utopian structure ahead of the past. the will to live. The road to freedom lies in
His critique of the cultural learning and re- each individual’s realization of his or her self
finement of his day is based on an ‘optics of by means of an active transgression of the
life’, a ‘hygienics of life’.1 contemporary state of society. This is an act
Michel Foucault makes use of Nietzsche’s which points forwards towards a cultural,
critique of history and society to demon- moral, and aesthetic utopia, at the same time
strate how oppression is the result of various as it elevates each particular individual
discourses that are manufactured by history, above his or her time, and grants them the
or of socially defined forms of customs and privilege of belonging to an intellectual and
institutions. History does not just create its existential avant-garde.
own means of oppression. History also creates Freedom can be found through the impo-
the object of oppression. By causing the opp- sition of a historical caesura, through a van-
ressed to adopt the role that has been offered quishing of the future. Thus time becomes an
to them by the oppressor, power simultane- important element, seen not as a continuum,
ously serves to verify both the institutions but as a break, transition, and renewal. As a
and the forms by means of which oppression result of their fear of modernity, of what is
is enforced.2 This social and historical cri- new, Ibsen’s characters strive towards a ‘reli-
tique provides a background for the issues giosity’ which survives and outlives religion

25
as understood in the playwright’s society. In characterized by the hiding of one thing by
this play, characters who are racked by fear means of the disclosure of something else – or,
of a future seen from the perspective of an age frequently, the other way around. Disclosure
filled with crises and chaos cling to a life sub- and concealment thus become aspects of one
stance in which pre-modern myths and rituals and the same manoeuvre.
endorse their own wavering sense of self. Hedda’s own identity problem is closely
linked to the mask-like and ambiguous
aspects of the visual forms of representation
Visibility and Invisibility
in the play. The concept of theatricality is
In Hedda Gabler’s pre-modern world the gaze helpful when we attempt to describe these
and the body represent antagonistic forces. issues.5 When the play starts, Hedda has
Verbal acts, such as to see and to be seen, reduced her interaction with her surround-
initiate powerful conflicts.3 There is no ‘optical ings to a purely theatrical presentation of
innocence’ in this play. The eye is not inter- herself. She no longer lives her life, she mimes
preted as an organ that passively records it. She stages herself as well as her sur-
without having any connection to the roundings. She has transformed her marital
viewer’s internal world. The gaze is seen as sphere into a simulacrum, one in which every-
bodily-physical; in other words, perception thing – human being or object – is used as a
is conceived of as a subjective, unique, and means whereby her own subjectivity can be
conditional act. Visual experiences that are concealed.
triggered by prevailing norms and conven- This suggests that Hedda is not really
tions contribute to this view of perception. present in her own linguistic or figurative
The overall result is a visual relativity, a expressions. Lou Andreas-Salomé, who wrote
‘perspectivism’. Defining the boundaries about Ibsen’s female characters as early as
between the external and the internal, 1893, calls Hedda ‘a deceptive shell, a mask
between perception and projection, becomes prepared for every occasion’. Hedda’s super-
a problematic matter.4 ficiality, she writes, resembles ‘waltz tunes
The visual conflict area consists of two over the abyss of nothingness’.6 This is a
axes, one of which is the axis of desire, while viewpoint that I am happy to associate my-
the other is the axis of surveillance. The self with.
conflict-filled axis of desire provides a struc-
ture for the love motif in the play, a motif
The Cosmology of the Diana Myth
which is partly organized in voyeuristic-
pornographic confrontations between the sexes, One particular myth from antiquity serves as
and partly in violent-orgiastic ones. Within intertextual reference for the play: the myth
the discourse of surveillance the gaze acts of Diana, the goddess of hunting, and
through the panoptical (all-embracing) agen- Acteon, the hunter. Within the visual aspects
cies of control and censorship. Confronted of the play can be found a pivotal conflict. In
with such a visual police force, the indivi- his Metamorphoses, Ovid describes how the
dual tries to protect him- or herself by means hunter Acteon is roaming around in the
of disguises or concealment. woods one day when he inadvertently comes
The oppositions between what is evident across Diana, who has halted by a lake in the
and what is hidden, what is laid bare and forest with her hunting party. The goddess is
what is covered, what is transparent and in the middle of undressing for her bath
what is opaque, all provide important means when suddenly she becomes aware of being
of expression in both the visual axes. The observed by Acteon. In her fury over the
whole arrangement of stage architecture and violation of her virtue, she exacts vengeance
props constitutes part of the game played by by transforming Acteon into a stag, which is
the visible and the invisible. As a result, immediately attacked and ripped to pieces
reality suffers a form of double-exposure – by his own hunting dogs. Both the voyeur-
or, rather, of multiple exposure. Reality is istic-pornographic and the orgiastic-violent

26
aspects of love stand exposed in this mythic Hedda Gabler’s marital sphere has been
complex. inscribed in the cosmic order outlined in the
Two additional stories of transformation Diana mythology. When the play’s leading
are concealed in this single myth. The first is character first appears on stage a few
the change in the goddess’s temperament minutes into the first act, Ibsen describes
when she abruptly reveals a violent and her complexion as ‘pallid and opaque’. The
brutal side to her psyche. The second is the moment Hedda enters the stage, she iden-
change of roles between subject and object, tifies herself by a remark about the sun and
between victim and aggressor, between the light: ‘Oh! That maid has left the door open
powerful and the impotent, between the – and the sunlight’s just flooding in.’ She
female body and the male gaze. The body is asks that the curtains be closed: ‘It gives
no longer under threat, it is rather the gaze softer light.’ Tesman draws the curtains,
that is under attack – and that is punished. saying, ‘Look, Hedda – now you have shade
It so happens that the Diana of antiquity is and fresh air both.’ ‘Pallid and opaque’,
not only the goddess of hunting and chastity. ‘softer light’, ‘shade and fresh air’ – in this
In Roman culture she is also the moon god- way Ibsen creates a definite formal shaping
dess. She is, moreover, the goddess of child- of the stage set that is comparable to the
birth. It is precisely these aspects of Diana’s magic effects of the moonlight.
multiple and ambiguous nature, full of Even before Hedda appears on stage, we
complexity and juxtapositions, that we can have gained an impression of her from the
trace in the voyeuristic scene with Acteon stories of the past when she used to ride
that links her to the moon. The rhythmic down the road with her father, dressed in a
waxing and waning of the moon are ex- long black dress and with a feather in her
pressed in her psyche, so that she is good, hat. We see her as a horsewoman. In his 1996
amicable, and benevolent in her ‘light’ phases, book The Fatal Hero: Diana, Deity of the Moon,
whereas her ‘dark’ phases reveal her as brutal, as an Archetype of the Modern Hero in English
wicked and destructive. Her ‘light’ variant Literature, Gil Haroian-Guerin describes the
depicts her as a Phoebe-type, whereas the Diana-character from antiquity by means of
‘dark’ alternative is a Hecate- or Cybele-type. such expressions as ‘the huntress free in the
The Dionysian-orgiastic aspect predominates green chase’, ‘the heavenly being untouched
in the cult of Hecate and Cybele, in which by worldly corruption’, ‘the embodiment of
intoxication and sexual drives are trans- light, chastity, and rhythmical renewal’.7
formed into untamed savagery, aggression, Ibsen’s horsewoman emerges from the same
destruction, and death. mythic complexity.8
The lunar associations of the Diana figure
have led to her being seen as the quintes-
Dionysian Birth and Death Rituals
sence of femininity. The moon’s rhythmic
transformations of waxing and waning have Two tableaux in the play demonstrate to the
been seen as an expression of nature’s own full how Ibsen’s stage directions are under-
cyclical processes of creation and destruc- pinned by the cosmology of the Diana myth.
tion, birth and death, which again lead us to The first tableau signifies an initiation into
the female menstrual cycle and the cycle of life, the other an initiation into death. They
birth and death. In like manner, the corres- both represent so-called ‘rites of passage’, and
ponding feminine psychological ups and they both have Hedda (her body/womb)
downs and female mood-changes are seen to and her unborn child (the Dionysian child)
be linked to the moon’s gradual and subtle as their pivotal centre.9 In the first, it is the
changes. These changes are of a different pregnant Hedda (the expectant mother, life
nature from those of the rising and setting in its emergence and development) who is
sun. Traditionally the sun is associated with celebrated; in the other, it is Hedda as sexual
the rational and the masculine, while the object who is in focus. Here, sexuality and
moon is related to femininity. death are joined in a symbiotic unity.

27
 Let us start with the blessing scene from accompanied by remarks which charge the
the first act, and consider the background to scene with a strong sense of the sacred. It is
this scene. Aunt Julie has arrived early for a as if by means of a ritual kiss she seals an
morning visit to the newly-wed couple. interpretive view of Hedda that has been
During the visit she has tried to work out brought about by her own gaze. The thrice-
whether Hedda is pregnant or not, but in repeated ‘lovely – lovely – lovely’ is like a
vain. Tesman does not understand such paean miming the hymn of worship ‘holy,
matters, nor does he comprehend the hints holy, holy’.
that Aunt Julie drops. The aunt is about to This remark, along with the kiss of bless-
leave empty-handed, when a remark from ing, casts Hedda in the role of Madonna in her
Tesman makes her stop and pay attention: aunt’s personal sanctuary, one which contains
all of those virtues to which she has devoted
tesman. . . . But, Auntie, take a good look at her life and self-image, one that is summed
Hedda before you leave. See how charming
she is! up in the concept of agape: a compassionate
miss tesman. But George dear, there is nothing giving, and even self-sacrifice. The illusory
new in that. Hedda’s been lovely all her life. image of Hedda that she momentarily wor-
(She nods and starts out, right.) ships incarnates in her mind all those virtues
tesman (following her). But have you noticed of agape that are expressed in the tender, self-
how plump and buxom she’s grown? How
much she’s filled out on the trip? sacrificing, and compassionate mother-figure.
hedda (crossing the room). Oh, do be quiet – ! Through its identification with the Madonna,
miss tesman (who has stopped and turned). Filled agape is associated with the start of life, with
out? life in its infancy and growth, with femininity
tesman. Of course, you can’t see it so well as a mysterious, life-giving force.
when she has that dressing gown on. But I,
who have the opportunity to – The image of the Madonna, the Christian
hedda (by the glass door, impatiently). Oh, you virgin, interferes with the image of the pagan
have no opportunity for anything! virgin, the ‘bright’, smiling, benevolent Diana,
tesman. It must have been the mountain air, goddess of childbirth. As the aunt contem-
down in the Tyrol – plates Hedda, her gaze has a double aspect.
hedda (brusquely interrupting). I’m exactly as
I was when I left. It desexualizes her. In contrast, Hedda’s hus-
tesman. Yes, that’s your claim. But you band’s gaze is an act of pure sexualization of
certainly are not. Auntie, don’t you agree? her self. Neither Aunt Julie nor George
miss tesman (gazing at her with folded hands). Tesman are capable of seeing or desiring the
Hedda is lovely – lovely – lovely. (Goes up to ‘complete’ Hedda.
her, takes her head in both hands, bends it down
and kisses her hair.) God bless and keep Hedda
Tesman – for George’s sake. (p. 704–5)10 A Ritual Celebration of Death
The gaze and the body are both present as If this sequence can be seen as a kind of
protagonists during this exchange of words, divine service, the subsequent scene could
as both George Tesman and Aunt Julie gaze be likened to a black mass, a satanic ritual
at Hedda’s body.11 The husband’s gaze is which celebrates Death. This scene takes
of a different order from that of the aunt. place in the penultimate act. Hedda has just
His gaze sexualizes the object of desire; said goodbye to Løvborg. She has given him
mentally penetrating her clothing through to one of her pistols, telling him to use it, and
her naked body, which he has had the privi- that it must happen ‘beautifully’, which
lege to observe on certain occasions. he promises her. His precious manuscript
A completely different ‘interpretation’ of remains with Hedda. In the sequence which
Hedda’s physique takes place in the mind of follows she vents her hatred, her jealousy, and
Aunt Julie, a mind that is full of wishes and her destructive urge on this manuscript:
desire. She imposes a reading of ‘mother and Hedda listens a moment at the door. Then she goes
child’, a Madonna icon, onto Hedda’s body. over to the writing table, takes out the envelope
The aunt’s ‘one-eyed’ gaze at Hedda is with the manuscript, glances inside, pulls some

28
 of the sheets half out and looks at them. She then nine is depicted in the shape of Death – as
goes over to the armchair by the stove and sits, Death’s tool.
with the envelope in her lap. After a moment, she
What is striking is the extent to which these
opens the stove door, then brings out the manuscript.
hedda (throwing one of the sheets into the fire two tableaux merge the two ritual articu-
and whispering to herself). Now I’m burning lations that occupy a central position in the
your child, Thea! You, with your curly hair! Dionysian cult: the death-ritual sparagmos, in
(Throwing another sheaf in the stove.) Your child which the Dionysian child is torn to pieces,
and Eilert Løvborg’s. (Throwing in the rest.)
and the birth-ritual liknites, in which the child
Now I’m burning – I’m burning the child.
(p. 762) is reassembled and brought back to life.

This is in every respect a reversal of the pre-

Eros and Agape
vious scene. It is just as charged with intense
eroticism as was the earlier scene, although This is how Hedda Gabler’s sexuality is in-
the investment in passion is different. In this scribed into the paradoxical opposition bet-
scene it is eros rather than agape that reigns. ween growth and destruction, between the
Again we see the womb (with the child) at fertile and fatal forces in Diana mythology.
the absolute centre of the ritual. The parcel That which is mythic, ritual, and iconogra-
containing the manuscript is placed there, phic structures Hedda’s world in patterns
and it is from this particular spot that the that are pre-modern – or demi-civilisées, as
ritual act, which resembles infanticide, is per- Arnold van Gennep puts it.
formed. Hedda says, ‘Now I’m burning your In psychological terms, this sublunary
child, Thea! You, with your curly hair! Your world discloses a fundamental split in the
child and Eilert Løvborg’s.’ The wording is sexual instinct. I have used the terms eros
that of the hypnotic, repetitive rhetoric of the and agape, but this duality can also be ex-
ritual, used in the same way as was the word pressed in other contrasting terms, such as
‘lovely’ in the first scene. those of the flesh and the spirit. If we are to
The symbolic act of murder will also come describe the cosmological order that is out-
to involve Hedda’s own child by George lined by the Diana-myth, it is important to
Tesman. The child which was dedicated to life point out the way in which all existence is
in the blessing ritual of the first act is here structured in sacred and ritual ways around
sacrificed. The same womb that in the first act life’s beginning and end, entry and exit, or in
is carrying Life proves now to be trans- other words birth and death. Ibsen’s char-
formed into a ‘place’ of Death. Eros has been acters bring to life these strong libidinous
transformed into a drive towards destruc- attachments to transitional situations. The
tion, hatred, and the need for revenge. These ritual celebrations which take place as mani-
drives are discharged in a form of evil desire, festations of life and death give the partici-
in dionysian-orgiastic destructive urges. pants in such ‘mystic rites’ a stronger sense
If the hair was seen as a symbol of angelic of being. For them, the microcosm of the
love in the initial scene, then fire (the stove as stage is inscribed into a macrocosmic order.
sacrificial site) is here seen as the symbolic Mythos, rite, and cosmos – the whole sub-
element through which these destructive lunary form of existence and existential in-
drives are manifested. (Note how Hedda sight – lead reality into ahistorical formations.
threatens to singe Thea Elvstedt’s hair on a But, as I suggested earlier, Ibsen’s outlook is
couple of occasions during the play.) The not an ahistorical one. On the contrary, his
power of Death threatens the power of Life. approach has its historical co-ordinates. Ibsen
The pistol that Hedda gives to Løvborg is not pre-modern, but modern. Let me try to
also belongs to this ritual. In this sequence point out the historical co-ordinates which
we meet the other side of the moon goddess: are established in the play, in order to qualify
Diana the avenger, the hunting goddess with and further to define the sublunary world
her flashing, dangerous weapons, the furious within which these characters have incarcer-
Cybele. This is an allegory in which the femi- ated themselves. I will do this by introduc-

29
ing an important optical concept which I is found in the invisible and, at the same
have borrowed from Michel Foucault: the time, omnipresent nature of power.
social panopticon. Foucault sees the visual power structure
which gradually developed inside prisons
as emblematic of all control systems which
The Social Panopticon
were set up in connection with the social
This is a concept that has gained consider- processes of rationalization and moderniz-
able currency following Foucault’s widely ation during the development of capitalism
read study of the history of systematic in the nineteenth century. A whole range of
imprisonment entitled Discipline and Punish: ‘prison-like’ institutions mushroomed in dif-
the Birth of the Prison. In this work, Foucault ferent communities, and this contributed to a
demonstrates how methods of punishment situation in which people were kept under
changed drastically in Europe during the supervision, checked, convicted, and sorted
period stretching from the eighteenth cen- into groups representative of opposing inter-
tury to the early nineteenth century. In 1750, ests: the law-abiding and offenders, deviants
corporal punishment still dominated the and normal people, the healthy and the sick.
penal system, but by 1825 this type of pun- For Foucault, the ability to see, to have full
ishment had more or less been replaced by control, to expose, goes along not only with
what Foucault calls the disciplinary prison power, but also with knowledge. For Foucault
regime. Punishment, which earlier had been the gazing eye is an aggressive organ which
focused on the body and involved the use of inserts and imposes its presence with the in-
violence and torture, now used the gaze as tention of exposing, colonizing, and obtain-
the prime aggressor. From this point on- ing comprehensive knowledge. Knowledge
wards, supervision and control became the equals visibility, transparency. In bourgeois
most important elements in the penal system. society, the public domain is identified with
Foucault found the model for a discipli- an omnipresent, omnipotent eye that controls,
nary prison regime in Jeremy Bentham’s disciplines, and socializes the individual, all
dissertation Panopticon (1791). In this work in exquisite taste. The fact that the prisoner
Bentham provides an architectural account will gradually internalize a supervisor’s gaze,
of how the constant supervision of prison and so will slowly become his own keeper, is
internees could be organized. Bentham’s an important element in this penal system.
model consisted of a circular building or ‘The soul’ becomes a socialized public organ
chain of buildings with one central watch- which keeps ‘the body’ locked up.12
tower surrounded by cells. The tower was A system such as this is bound to produce
studded with windows, to allow the warden counter-strategies. The best protection is to
a full view into every cell and into each cor- develop techniques of camouflage. There is
ner of every cell. In this way one man could one character in Greek mythology who is,
single-handedly control everything that went above all, the master of ways of disguising
on among the confined prisoners from his and redoubling himself: Proteus. Like a
panoptical position in the tower. Prisoners, chameleon, he is able to change his colour
on the other hand, were unable to see their and shade so as to match his surroundings
supervisor. and thus to avoid being recognized. In a
In this way, the gaze relationships in society in which power is associated with
Bentham’s panopticon display a brutal dis- visibility and transparency, there is a kind of
tortion of symmetry. In this social structure, freedom – or, rather, counter-force – that
power is associated with the ability to see, accrues to whoever can master the protean
whereas a lack of power is associated with ability to create invisibility.
the inability to see and with the knowledge Protean techniques of concealment seem
that you might be under surveillance even more powerful when the one who is
without your knowing it. Thus what is new invisible gains the overview and control over
in and essential to Bentham’s power regime the sphere of vision enjoyed by the panop-

30
ticist, and thus becomes the unseen onlooker, a tion; it is both desired goal and self-inflicted
manipulator who knows how to pull all the exile. On the outside, Hedda flaunts the social
strings from where he sits, hidden in the success of her marriage; inside she invites ‘a
wings of life – a mastermind of theatricality, third party’ in to keep her entertained –
as it were.13 because she is bored. Outer decency, inner
I believe that the scenic-spatial architec- frivolity.
ture which Ibsen outlines in Hedda Gabler can In this way, space – spatiality – becomes
be described in terms of the polarity between the most essential means of expression in
public (panoptic) visibility and private (pro- Hedda Gabler. The dialectical coupling of two
tean) invisibility. One particular scene from such opposite actions as those of conceal-
the beginning of the play demonstrates how ment and disclosure is characteristic not just
the spatial composition of meaning is con- of Hedda in the theatrical stage-setting of
trolled. In this scene, Hedda has just told her private sphere, but also for the play as a
Judge Brack that she had been bored being whole. I will look more closely at the duality
with her husband on their honeymoon. Brack and ambiguity in this ‘Hedda-Gablerian’
is ‘comforting’ her: ‘Fortunately the wedding sphere by discussing the three different
trip’s over now.’ But Hedda does not agree, cultures of intimacy which I believe can be
and she goes on to express herself in spatial traced in the play. The term ‘the intimate’
metaphors: plays an important part here, as does Hedda’s
favoured expression: ‘deviously’.
hedda (shaking her head). The trip will go on –
and on. I’ve only come to one stop on the
line. The Three Cultures of Intimacy
brack. Well, then what you do is to jump out –
and stretch yourself a little, Mrs Hedda. I suggested earlier that we see a culture of
hedda. I’ll never jump out. love and a pursuit of individual autonomy
brack. Never? unfold in the play. I will try to keep in touch
hedda. No. Because there is always someone with thematics, issues, and means of expres-
on the platform who –
brack (with a laugh). Who looks at your legs,
sion by borrowing some ideas from the
is that it? German sociologist Georg Simmel. In his
hedda. Precisely. Soziologie from 1908 Simmel devotes a whole
brack. Yes, but after all – chapter to the so-called geheime Gesellschaft.14
hedda (with a disdainful gesture). I’m not The relevant chapter is headed ‘Das Geheim-
interested. I’d rather keep my seat – right
here, where I am. Tête-à-tête.
nis und die geheime Gesellschaft’, and in it
brack. Well, suppose a third person came on Simmel discusses the way in which cultures
board and joined the group. of secrecy arise in societies in which the
hedda. Ah! That’s entirely different. (p. 726) public sector supervises various types of life-
manifestations by means of censorship, pro-
Here we see how connections are drawn bet- hibitions, and policing.
ween the honeymooners’ railway compart- Simmel claims that the worship of the secret
ment, the institution of marriage as such, the renders possible an extraordinary expansion
villa that the couple have settled into, and of life, a liberation of desires and needs
the stage, so that a panoptical space appears which otherwise would be kept locked up,
out there in the public sphere and a protean and he sees cultures of intimacy or secrecy as
space in here in the intimate sphere. The forms of counter-cultural expression. By
institution of marriage (the compartment, means of rituals, these expressions reveal, in
the villa, the stage) secures for Hedda a distorted ways which border on the anar-
protected intimate sphere, a free space sur- chistic, how the visible world suppresses
rounding her. In here she can compensate for human needs.15 Where an offensive counter-
the panoptical terror out there. culture will turn outwards towards society,
Thus the marital sphere is a combination and by so doing will display itself and seek
of a panoptical prison and a protean fortifica- positions of power, a comparable but defen-

31
sive counter-culture will be motivated by its private parlour. Aunt Julie is in charge of the
inherent weakness and need for protection, third cult. In this case, Aunt Julie’s home is
and thus will seek inwards towards the well- the sacred centre, where her terminally ill
defined, enclosed, and concealed. Simmel sister Rina is being nursed. Each of these
sees such cultural forms from a historical three cultic forms has its special ritual prac-
perspective, as transitional phenomena, com- tices, its special ritual objects, its own fixed
parable to social endeavours and constella- congregation, its own iconography, and, as
tions which are either on the rise but cannot I suggested above, its own temple.
as yet assert themselves fully, or on the way In my opinion, these three places of wor-
out because they represent earlier stages of ship – Judge Brack’s bachelor flat, Diana’s
development. parlour, and Aunt Julie’s home – form a
According to Simmel, cultures of secrecy social topography of desire, and the ritualized
are like miniature societies that deal with the practice which takes place in connection
same problems as society at large, such as with these places of worship represents an
the relationship between the individual and equally comprehensive social economy of
the collective and between self-fulfilment desire. Thus these factors come to represent
and law-abiding behaviour, but that do this society at large, which is the society Ibsen
by cultivating one specific aspect of life that presents us with in the play.
is expanded so as to constitute a totality Thus Hedda as character comes to repre-
within each individual culture. The ritual sent the society within which she lives. The
regulations which these cultures impose up- play Hedda Gabler introduces us to a bour-
on their members are designed to strengthen geois society in which the libido, which
and to make absolute the needs and interests should be directed outwards towards the
these regulations themselves cultivate. public sphere in the social-transformational
The cult of secrecy flourishes behind closed creation of a new world, has been barred,
doors, in small groups or circles, where the so that it is turned inwards towards the
members congregate around some kind of enclosed, veiled, and private space, and is
esoteric body of knowledge which must expressed in sublimated, fragmented, and
remain secret. Social solidarity is based on perverted forms.
mutual trust, and each individual member is A pathological public sphere (a control
expected never to reveal the secret, which is society structured like a panopticon) gener-
embodied in the maintenance of strict ates an equally pathological private sphere.
boundaries between those who have the The cultures of intimacy function to dis-
knowledge and those who have not, bet- charge needs in ‘non-contemporary’ pockets
ween ‘us’ and ‘the others’, in Arnold van of society, in spaces lacking change or
Gennep’s terms. The initiated make use of renewal, in exiles lacking historical or social
mechanisms of segregation in order to create co-ordinates. Cultures of intimacy are ritual
an image of their own aristocratic uniqueness. incantations from a historical reality which is
I believe that it is possible to isolate three constantly threatening to change. A culture
distinctly different cultic areas or cultic forms of intimacy is an expression of life which has
which can be classified within Simmel’s been formed in an atmosphere of anxiety.
scheme as outlined above. The Diana mytho-
logy theme runs through all three of them.
Julie’s Circle
Each of the three cultic areas has its own
leader and topographic centre. Judge Brack In Aunt Julie’s home, her sister Rina is lying
is a prominent member of one of these cults. in her sickbed, unable to cope without the
The members of the cult meet in the judge’s love and care of other people. The heart – or
private bachelor flat. Another cult leader is totem-pole – of Aunt Julie’s whole existence
the red-haired singer Diana. Her worship is found in this circumstance. She has re-
takes place, usually, in connection with the stricted all of her love to the practice of those
soirées which she regularly holds in her assorted caring functions that her sister’s

32
illness demands. Love is not something that chastity, he channels her love into cascades
Aunt Julie can express or understand in any of tenderness, worried concern, and bound-
other way. Her daily nursing of her sister is less devotion. This is a mother’s love; these
more than a regular act of love. It is a sacred are the manifestations of agape. The premise
act which constantly confirms the meaning of for the ‘child’ that Thea and Løvborg are ‘be-
her existence. As soon as her sister dies, Julie getting’ is chastity.
informs Hedda that she is quite prepared to The ‘child’ is Løvborg’s intellectual crea-
have another person who is in need of care tion, one which Thea has partly inspired (her
in her house. The empty space, the empty ‘pure soul’ is intrinsic to his work), partly
core of meaning, must be refilled. written down for him. This ‘love practice’ is
This type of love is what we call agape. We labelled with precious names such as ‘inspir-
saw it at work in the so-called blessing scene, ation’ and ‘companionship’, and it cannot be
in which the aunt used her gaze to construct seen as anything other than a set of gargan-
a mother/Madonna image from Hedda’s tuan exercises in the difficult art of subli-
pregnant appearance. The full content of the mation. One large area of a real existence –
aunt’s cultic world seems to reside in this act that area that deals with sexuality – has been
of blessing. She mirrors her own identity in trimmed away from the kind of life that the
the image that she has evoked in Hedda, and two are planning to share.
thus she herself becomes a mother in her In the act of love, Thea performs the role
own self-perception. It is that mythic self- of ‘virgin’ who ‘is giving birth’. She is the
insight, within which mother, Madonna, ‘bright’ Diana, ‘goddess of childbirth’ – a
birth, and self-sacrificing, life-giving love are happy force of destiny who intervenes in his
all included in one symbiotic union, that life for the purpose of guiding him onto the
makes Aunt Julie perspire the way she does, right track. ‘Acteon’ must withhold his desire.
and that trims away everything in her life This makes their relationship extremely vul-
that cannot be fitted into such a perception. nerable, something that becomes evident the
Aunt Julie draws tight boundaries around minute Løvborg breaks away from his haunt
the limits of her range of understanding, and in the country house that Thea is sharing
the circle of members of her cult is strictly with Sheriff Elvsted, and moves to the city.
sheltered from the outside world. The group Anything can happen to him here. The
comprises her nephew George, her sister Rina, city holds all the temptations to which he
the late Jochum, and her maid Berta. Julie could possibly imagine abandoning himself
would like to include Hedda in the group, during his renunciation of Bacchus and
but there are certain aspects of Tesman’s wife Venus out in the countryside. Thea follows
that she cannot understand or come to terms after him in order to guard his every move
with. The frame that encloses the worship of and to force him into a moral rejection of
this cult of intimacy is that of the family anything to which he might be tempted to
circle. Family secrets, such as Hedda’s preg- succumb. A significant motive behind her
nancy, and family relics, such as Aunt Julie’s love is a profound anxiety for the world,
hat and bonnet and Tesman’s slippers, con- something that they have both suppressed in
stitute some of the ‘glue’ which bonds these the practice of their love. The world she
people together in intimate, tender, and dreads is identical to the world in which the
caring relationships. Generous exchanges of red-haired singer exists, someone of whom
caresses also form part of this cult. Løvborg used to be a fervent admirer earlier
We should add that Thea Elvsted, who in his life.
clearly is not a member of the cult, seems
to be practising the same love cult in her
The Red-Haired Singer’s Circle
relationship with Eilert Løvborg. Løvborg is
not supposed to touch her; for him she is Judge Brack refers to the red-haired singer
defined in terms of ‘look, but don’t touch’. who holds her soirées in her parlours in town
By trapping her visually in an image of as ‘a mighty huntress – of men’; furthermore

33
she carries ‘loaded weapons’, and she is a tioned as a prop in the game of chastity, here
‘powerful woman’. And her name is Diana. takes on a quite opposite meaning and func-
Note that it is her use of weapons which lies tion. It becomes a thanatological instrument
behind the mix-up between her and Hedda. of destruction. Lechery has become aggres-
The weapons are emblematically linked to sive and deadly serious. All of a sudden the
the central female character in the cult – a whore turns into a goddess of death.
modern variant of ancient Diana worship. This is the kind of thanatology that Hedda
On the surface, the soirées the singer practises when she burns Eilert Løvborg’s
holds are perfectly decent events at which it manuscript in a fit of hatred, jealousy, and
is natural to imagine that the use of weapons vengefulness. In this sequence the orgiastic
and the spirit of the hostess will suffice to cult makes itself known through a hyper-
ensure that the cult will not cross the bounds bolic expression of passion, one that then
of decency. However, behind this bourgeois turns into a yearning for annihilation. Here
camouflage things are very different. In we come face to face with the ‘dark’ sides of
reality these parties take place on the Mount the moon goddess.
of Venus. They are nothing but wild and I see Diana’s parlours as a representation
uninhibited celebrations of intoxication and of the bohemian circle that existed within the
lasciviousness, excesses which come into social topography of Ibsen’s time and with
being because of the denials of desire people which he was familiar. ‘Løvborg has a lean-
are forced to endure outside the Mount of ing towards “The Bohemian”,’ states Ibsen in
Venus, or, rather, in other parts of society. his notes to the play. Here he gives this type of
In other words, this place of worship is a aimless, disorganized, and uncontrolled anar-
place in which to unwind. Here, there is no chism a voice. There is a clear and rebellious
chastisement and there is no temperance. As potential in the strong vitality and the orgi-
a result, the orgiastic mood may easily tip astic fury displayed by the bohemians, but
over into aggression and violence, and even their protest has no cultural or political means
the motif of destruction and tearing exists by which to express itself. Its manifestations
within this cult, as is also the case in the are all negative; it is destructive without con-
Dionysian cult this celebration imitates. ‘I structing anything new on the ruins of what
have torn my own life to bits’, Løvborg says it has torn down.
at one point, thus linking this act to the des- Diana’s ‘space’ is, then, like Aunt Julie’s, a
truction of his own lifework. As mentioned homogenized visual sphere within which any
above, this motif also plays an important perception is of a physical nature: that is, a
part in Diana’s punishment of Acteon. product of the subjective and mental capacity
The parties at the red-haired singer’s place of the observer. This means that, whenever
frequently end in fist-fights and scuffles with the red-haired singer is present, concepts of
the police, with scandal and social stigmat- one type of femininity, one that sees female
ization following in the wake of these orgies. sexuality as an aggressive and deadly serious
In the last resort this is a cult concerned with force (and a force which generates anxiety),
destruction and death. This becomes most will always occur. This represents the threat
blatant on the occasion of Løvborg’s death. of castration. Conversely, a Madonna icono-
He is found shot in Miss Diana’s boudoir – graphy is constantly being recreated around
after wild excesses. It is never established Aunt Julie. These two female images are dia-
who actually fired the shot; but this is not lectical opposites – or, rather, each constitutes
important. It is more important to note that the other’s Otherness.
the bullet strikes him in the groin.
Now Eros has been metamorphosed into
Brack’s Circle
Thanatos. The ‘place’ of Life has turned into
the ‘place’ of Death. The emblem of the cult My final point in this discussion of the
– the pistol – that was originally meant to cultures of intimacy concerns the Brackian
serve as protector and keeper, and that func- variation of the cult. This is the most impor-

34
tant cult, because it is here that Hedda ends in a sublime performance of the art of con-
up barricading herself. In contrast to the two versation. They are verbal worshippers of the
other cults, this sees the imaginary world, cult of intimacy; or, rather, they are verbal
that is, the mental sphere, as its field of play. ‘libertines’.
Let me focus on one particular scene: ‘Our circle’ Hedda calls it on one occa-
Brack’s arrival at the Tesman home right at sion. ‘Our set’ is another of her expressions.
the beginning of the second act. The judge ‘Our circle’ encloses its own specific things,
has chosen to arrive through the garden, a secrets, and witticisms in ways that express
liberty to which Hedda immediately res- superiority and exclude outsiders. ‘Unadult-
ponds by raising one of her pistols and aim- erated liveliness’ Hedda calls it at one point,
ing at him while she comments jocularly that for which Brack has an undoubted talent.
she is about to shoot him: ‘That’s what comes These are the kind of stories he loves to serve
of sneaking in the back way.’ And then she his audience at his bachelor parties, where
fires into thin air. you have to be ‘true to the principle’ to be
After this simulated drama – one that is allowed to take part, and at which the level
no more than a game and a minor diversion of vulgarity is of such a nature that decent
between the two – a dialogue starts in which women cannot be present. Hedda would
they entertain each other in an equally very much like to be there, but only as an
jocular manner by telling stories about a ‘invisible’, an ‘unseen viewer’ or ‘listener’.
dressing scene at which Brack could have
been present had he but arrived a bit earlier.
The Verbalization of Sexuality
In this scene the focus is on Hedda’s dressed
or undressed body, and the whole situation If Brack is to be invited to join a ménage-à-
becomes sexually charged. Already, we find trois with Hedda, he has to promise to be
allusions to another ‘text’, the myth of Acteon able to ‘talk about all kinds of lively things’.
and Diana. In this dialogue Brack represents This kind of amusement works as an aphro-
Acteon, while Hedda plays the part of Diana. disiac for the imagination in the life of an
Characteristically, the manner in which otherwise under-stimulated female sexuality.
Brack and Hedda handle such motifs is by It invigorates Hedda’s existence within the
transposing their dramatic content from the only arena in which she is active at this
world of reality to the imaginary sphere, point, which is the mental arena. Adultery is
within which everything threatening and not something she wants to commit, but to
dangerous is transformed into role-playing imagine such a relationship and to direct it as
and titillating word-play, into a kind of ver- if it were real, is very tempting to her. Her
bal ping-pong between two skilled perfor- modus vivendi is that of the appearance of her
mers in a balancing act. Everything naughty existence once it has been emptied of the
and taboo is merely hinted at in each line, but content of her reality.
it is not seriously acted out, nor is it intended Another situation that belongs to this
to be put into practice. register of intimacy is that of the youthful
‘Devious’ is one of Hedda’s most highly tête-à-tête between Løvborg and Hedda, the
valued words. Using an expression such as one that created such a dramatic ending for
this implies an ability to turn a remark so as them both, an event that forms the basis
to make it suggest, rather than state directly. of everything that takes place on the later,
For there are shadowy areas between what present-day stage, and that I have accord-
remains hidden and what is out in the open, ingly named the primal scene. What happens
between what is concealed and what is laid here is that Løvborg whisperingly confides
bare, and it is these areas that constitute the to Hedda about those uncontrolled binges
focus of the play, even in this kind of verbal and orgiastic excesses of his, those that last
exchange. It is in this borderline zone that days on end at the red-haired singer Diana’s
Hedda and Brack cultivate their art with place. These confessions allow the chaste
such virtuosity. Together, they are involved Hedda to obtain a glimpse of a world with

35
which she is not yet acquainted, but which she not imitating the ancient ars erotica, but rather
is straining at the leash to be invited to join. a scientia sexualis, one that is even staged in
Løvborg’s frankness creates a bond of pseudo-religious terms. ‘Didn’t you feel, on
intimacy (a ‘companionship’) between them, your part, as if you wanted to cleanse and
one that will reveal its true value in the fact absolve me – when I brought those confessions
that they share a secret – they know some- to you?’ Løvborg asks Hedda (p. 739, my
thing that nobody else knows! ‘When I look italics). In this ritual of confession, Hedda
back on it now, there was really something is trying to maintain her love relation to
beautiful and fascinating – and daring, it Løvborg in the form of discourse. This is a
seems to me, about – about our secret close- form of a cult of intimacy that liberates the
ness – our companionship that no one, not a imagination at the same time as it bars the
soul, suspected’ (p. 738). The scene evolves way to action and reality. Everything
like a ‘rite of passage’, one in which the becomes internalized. Factual events are re-
novice is verbally initiated into the sexual located into the world of the imagination –
secrets of the adult world. and they remain there, in claustrophobic in-
In his History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault carceration.
describes how Victorian sexual puritanism In terms of the panoptical control of
in the nineteenth century was linked to a society, there is a double kind of freedom in
‘verbalization of sex’. Sexuality as such is this Brackian culture of intimacy. As we all
suppressed, but it reappears as language, as know, thoughts cost nothing. They can be
inter-locution.16 Sexuality is transformed into enjoyed incognito. But there is also a free-
‘discourse’. This is what Hedda is doing. She dom in the theatrical. Total theatricalization
is verbalizing sexuality. means that you have free access to different
Foucault sees the verbalization of sexu- elements of reality, and can thus utilize them
ality as a phenomenon which developed out as props in your own play; everything can be
of a long and ascetic tradition in our culture. used in the construction of illusion and self-
He connects this phenomenon to those peni- disguise. There is an element of pleasure in
tential monastic exercises and confessional being able to ‘master’ the world in this way,
practices which can be traced all the way to master the field of the gaze and to produce
back to the Middle Ages. The important the visual at the same time as your own self
thing within the ritual of confession is not is invisible – an unseen observer. I see Hedda’s
only to confess to acts that transgress the dream of vine leaves in association with this
law, but also to transmute one’s desire into a manner of staging her surroundings as well
form of discourse. Nothing, or as little as as her self.
possible, must escape this act of verbaliz-
ation, even though the words that are used
The Libertine in the Panopticon
must be subject to censorship.
Furthermore, Foucault maintains that the Before I conclude my discussion of the
tradition of confession continues in the scientia Brackian culture of intimacy, I want to look
sexualis of the nineteenth century, or that briefly at the character of Brack himself.
‘scientization’ of sexuality that is the will to Ibsen’s descriptions of his physiognomy sug-
knowledge within medicine, physiology, and gest a man with strong sexual needs that
psychology. In his view, scientia sexualis have been brought under careful control. His
replaces the ancient ars erotica, which he meticulously groomed appearance bears wit-
claims has almost disappeared from western ness to how important his social position is
civilization, as it has been suppressed by the to him. Later on in the play, Brack comes
Christian ideas of confession, spiritual guid- over as the incarnation of social conformity,
ance and soul-searching. correctness, and a controlling panopticism.
If we see Løvborg’s and Hedda’s tête-a- But we sense the libertine behind this solid
tête as the prelude to such a ritual of initiation and respectable public mask. His libertinism
to love and sexual activity, then it is certainly finds its true expression in carefully choreo-

36
graphed verbal advances towards Hedda. dominated by panoptical supervision and
We sense that the mediation between, on the strong sexual repression. Put together, Brack’s
one hand, external discipline and respecta- bachelor flat, Diana’s parlours, and Aunt
bility, and inner frivolity on the other, is of a Julie’s home represent a single social topo-
precarious nature. graphy of sexuality.
In the final act Brack obtains a hold on Right from the beginning of the play we
Hedda that enables him to push her into are invited into a home in which things are,
granting him sexual favours without endan- as yet, not quite in order. The villa taken over
gering his own external bourgeois image. from the widow of Minister Falk had of
And here the judge has no inhibitions what- course been furnished while the newly-weds
soever. All at once the power relations bet- were on their honeymoon, but ‘the finishing
ween them have been reversed. He is no touch’ is still lacking. Questions arise as
longer the household’s ‘tame cock of the to whether the furniture should have dust
walk’. Now he sees himself as the hunter. covers, what is to be done with the two
The knowledge that he will shortly be able to empty rooms between the back parlour and
‘bring down his game’ pushes him into a state Hedda’s bedroom, at what time morning calls
of power-lustful rut. Here, as everywhere should be made, whether a guest should be
else in the play, sexuality is surrounded by allowed to leave a hat on a chair in the living
an aura, one composed of images of violence room, whether it is acceptable to force one-
and destruction. self on the family via the garden. There are
But before this change of atmosphere takes questions to be settled about where Hedda’s
place between Hedda and Brack, he is her piano should be placed, about the correct
mentor in her rehearsal of the self-efface- lights in the living room, about parcels, suit-
ment which guides her right into marriage cases, and flowers. In short, we are presented
to George Tesman, a relationship in which with a succession of questions about place.
everything is appearance and passion is not All of these issues apparently concern tiny,
an issue. Løvborg, on the other hand, is the insignificant matters, but they all become
knight-in-shining-armour in her life. Løvborg significant in this story of oppression, a story
is the hero who was supposed to guide her which is really about the battle that is going
towards self-realization and social transgres- on between the three cultic groups over a
sion. And where Løvborg is the ideologist common territory. It is about the need that
and the utopian in Hedda’s life, Brack is the these groups have to manifest themselves, to
manipulating conformist. If Brack is a per- colonize the home, to define its sphere, to fill
son of appearances, then Løvborg keeps his it with their personal cultic interests. We are
emotions on display. Where Brack is pliant talking here about a plurality of views and
and discreet, Løvborg is rough, impetuous, interpretations of the same visual sphere.
and lacking all prudence. Ibsen has chosen The chaos of conflicting interests that is
the tension between these two characters – disclosed in such battles demonstrates how
that is, between the utopia of the future and sexuality in a repressive bourgeois society is
the dystopia of the past – as a setting within split up and parcelled out in small enclaves
which to present his principal character. that wage territorial war on each other and
that attempt to steal space (and thus influ-
ence) from the others. The question of room,
Dystopia and Utopia
of the acquisition of space, of forcing others
So far I have outlined three cultic spheres – out so that you can conquer more territory,
three intimate groups that are internally at thus becomes charged with meaning, as did
war with one another, and whose activities the opposition between outside and inside.
are determined by strong mechanisms of ex- Thus, the architectonic metaphor applies
clusion or inclusion. Together, these groups also to domestic interior decoration. There is
give us an overview of the total economy of a shortage of room. Internal warfare prevents
sexuality within a bourgeois society that is any initiative from developing. All efforts

37
are squandered on the internal battle. The on the way home’, Hedda says, ‘slightly
libidinous resources within each human raising her voice’, which is obviously meant to
being are pushed inwards in contraction and be heard in the back room. This is the open-
not outwards into expansion. Eilert Løvborg’s ing of a dialogue between them in which a
dream about ‘the forces shaping the civiliz- connecting thread leads back to the trauma
ation of the future’ and the ‘lines of develop- they share from the past. Visually, the room
ment’ in the future meets its negative mirror is open to view, but in auditory terms the
image, its dystopia, within these cultures of members of one group can choose to be
intimacy. The dynamics of the time that we isolated from the other just by lowering their
encounter physically and in the passage of voices. Thus the conditions for having an
time have been withheld and transformed intimate conversation are present. Hedda
into a kind of spatial war of position that is has seen to that. She stages the whole scene.
potentially explosive. Very effectively, she evokes Løvborg’s old
This requires me to discuss the historical, passion for her. This she does by manipulat-
social, and cultural implications of Hedda’s ing his imagination, within which she feeds
story. In order to analyze the process of his mental images with situations, constel-
development in the play, I will start in the lations, and iconographic versions of them-
middle, in a scene that I see as the core of the selves. All of these have their origins in the
play, and one that I think provides us with a ‘romance’ which this whole stage arrange-
feeling of how marvellous the possibilities ment echoes; the situation of his sitting with
for visual expression on stage can be. I call Hedda in her new home is in plastic terms
this scene the ‘Punch Scene’, and it comes a repetition of the sexually highly charged
towards the end of Act Two. tête-à-tête they had a long time ago in Hedda’s
parental home.
On that occasion, it was not Brack and
Hedda Stages the ‘Punch Scene’
Tesman who were watching them from their
This scene gathers together most of the char- observation post in the background, but
acters in the play in one single sequence of Hedda’s father, General Gabler himself. From
events. The author arranges his characters in his position in a chair by the window, sitting
staged contrasts to one another, as if they with a newspaper in his hands, he had full
were arranged in tableaux within which the control over what was going on between the
two rooms at the director’s disposal are care- two young people on the sofa. On that occa-
fully exploited. sion they were not looking at photographs,
The sequence opens with Hedda inviting but at an illustrated magazine. On the pre-
the gentlemen to a glass of punch, which text of being interested in the pictures, they
she serves in the open back room that has were able to whisper extremely passionate
General Gabler’s portrait hanging over the and intimate exchanges without the general
sofa. Tesman goes in with Judge Brack, noticing anything at all. Paternalistic ‘panop-
whereas Løvborg, who has turned down the tical’ supervision on his side provoked a
offer to join them as he no longer drinks ‘protean’ hiding procedure on the part of the
alcohol, stays with Hedda. She invites him to young couple.
join her in looking at the photographs from We know what all this involves: Løvborg
her honeymoon. In this way the grouping of confided in Hedda about his excesses, which
the protagonists is clear: one group at the could continue for days on end, whereas she,
front and one at the back. In the back room equally covertly and thus innocently, stimul-
Tesman and Brack sit drinking, smoking, ated his ‘verbalization’ of sexuality by means
and talking, while they keep an eye on what of her so-called ‘devious questions’. On that
is going on at the front of the stage, where previous occasion, their own practice of the
Løvborg has taken the seat next to Hedda. cult of intimacy was carried so far that the
‘I can show you some photographs, if you fantasies that Løvborg brought out, with help
like. Tesman and I travelled through the Tyrol from his curious, inquisitive partner, almost

38
became real. His confessions, which were the events of the past, it is because time and
full of regrets and penitence from the start, place have not actually changed for Hedda
turned into a kind of verbal pornography since then. Figuratively speaking, Hedda is
which brought out an aggressive lewdness still in her father’s house. The future which
in him, so that he lost control over himself her life once led her to hope for has not come
and was on the verge of laying hands on his within her reach. She has remained on the
chaste listener. Panic-stricken, Hedda seized threshold of life.
one of her father’s pistols and used it to
chase him out, threatening to murder him.
Løvberg’s Torment
Diana seeks revenge!
Chastity was the focus of conflict in this Hedda made a mistake then, and Løvborg
scene. From a wider perspective, this was erred along with her. The obvious, reciprocal
about an existential threshold situation (‘rite erotic attraction between them, along with
of passage’), a transition from childhood to the fact that they were united in a yearning
adulthood, from being a minor dominated for a richer life-realization, should have meant
by the father (the parents) to reaching auto- that this moment would become a genuine
nomy as a sexually mature woman. It was starting point, one at which an existence could
here, at this crucial moment in her life, that be conquered, and where a historically new
Hedda stopped the movement towards the sexual, moral, and spiritual starting point
attainment of sexual and social maturity could be brought into being. Here, a poten-
which had already started inside her, and tial existential and historical transcendence
insisted on remaining in the role of the chaste lay open to them both. Here, their utopia
woman – as the Virgin. Her passion, which became possible.
had been brought out by the sexually highly How important this event was to Løvborg
charged atmosphere between herself and is revealed in the fact that he is never able to
Løvborg, was now invested in self-defence, go beyond the trauma that the event created
which thus took on very aggressive forms, as in him. ‘The woman with a pistol who threat-
she also had to combat her own desire. The ened to shoot him’ has been continually pur-
couple turned into their own oppressors. suing him like a phantasm of anxiety, and it
This gentle, innocent girl was suddenly has wrecked his love life ever since. Løvborg
transformed into a furious avenger. Hedda has let himself go in Diana’s parlours and
became split in two. Her virginal condition boudoirs, and has regretted it afterwards
became chronic and perverse. As in Wilde’s (and even at the time), to seek penance and
character of Salomé, uncrowned femme fatale social restoration in Thea Elvsted’s caring
of decadence, purity is transformed into a and considerate but chaste embrace.
lust to kill, and what is highly desired is also His sexual life has never been sorted out.
most intensely hated. Hedda also directs her He has not been able to achieve a ‘synthesis’
hatred against her own sexuality. Metonym- in his life. He has not been able to realize the
ically, the pistol thus comes to represent her utopian vitality he once had – and still has –
own sexuality. It is when we see Hedda with visions of accomplishing. Hedda’s experi-
the pistol in her hand that she becomes a ments with him as the ‘hero draped in vine
doubled Diana, une vierge lubrique, both leaves’ in the play’s present do not change
whore and Madonna – or, as Ibsen calls her this condition. They increase his level of
in his ‘Notes’, ‘the lovely marble girl’. passion for a while, but that is exactly what
It is precisely in this, her rite of passage, makes him vulnerable, because it intensifies
that Hedda steps out of time and history and his sense of disintegration. The more he lets
into the world of myth and ritual. This is off steam in orgiastic behaviour, the more
where she stops her own life, allows it to violent his feelings of self-denunciation and
congeal into images, into iconographic and self-contempt become afterwards.
theatrical representations of herself. When In the end his strong sexual impulses are
the events in the Punch Scene seem to repeat so violently opposed to one another that life

39
itself becomes a torment. Bodily needs are in its unique existential force. It is at this pre-
suffocated by the straitjacket of the ‘soul’ – to cise moment Hedda’s move away from life
use Foucault’s words. Løvborg no longer begins – from Løvborg’s utopia to Brack’s
wants life, but he does not have the courage dystopia – and she never rejoins life again.
or drive to end it. Hedda’s intentions were to While Løvborg’s passion takes him out-
release his repressed sexuality. Instead, she wards to life’s crises, discords, and conflicts
intensifies it, at the same time as she concen- with the two Diana-figures as his focus for
trates it. The result of such an act of violence orientation, passion takes Hedda away from
is that his sexuality takes revenge. Thus it is all this and inwards towards the Brackian
nature’s own forces – the very rhythms and world of pretence, in which all human acti-
logic of life and death – which are at work vity has been reduced to staged and worded
within the tragic structure of the play, and divertissements, and in which life has been
which cause Løvborg to go under. A yearn- transformed into ‘lively things’, and existen-
ing for life has turned into disenchantment tial sincerity has been transformed into play,
and ennui. games, irony, and protean maskings. Hedda
can stage herself as extremely malicious
towards Aunt Julie in the hat scene, and as
‘Freeedom to’ and ‘Freedom from’
affectionate and caring when Thea comes to
In the course of the tête-à-tête that takes place her in need of help, but she herself does not
during the Punch Scene, Hedda at one point actually take part in any of this. Her subjec-
leans over towards Løvborg in order to tivity is elsewhere.
confide something to him that she has never Again a reference from Kierkegaard comes
revealed to anyone else. This something con- to mind. While Kierkegaard’s concept of the
cerns that fatal moment in the past when moment contains a positive and progressive
everything should have been settled, but possibility for freedom, a freedom to, then in
nothing became what it was meant to be. contrast the Brackian cultic practice, which
Hedda cultivates, unfolds in a freedom from.
hedda. When I didn’t dare to shoot you – The freedom from is a freedom that is set apart
løvborg. Yes?
hedda. That wasn’t my worst cowardice – that
from reality and that wants to have nothing
night. to do with reality. The absolute freedom from
løvborg (looks at her a moment, understands, and is a kind of freedom that Kierkegaard sees
whispers passionately). Oh Hedda! Hedda in connection with romantic irony. It is the
Gabler! Now I begin to see it, the hidden nature of romantic irony never to unmask,
reason why we’ve been so close! You and I – !
It was the hunger for life in you –
never to show its true self, forever to be
hedda (quietly, with a sharp glance). Careful! changing masks or roles in confrontations
That’s no way to think! (p. 740) with one’s surroundings. Everything turns
to nothing for such an ironic individual, as
This is a confession at the same time as it is a he negates everything, so that nothing is left
disavowal. What Hedda is saying was true behind except irony itself. Hedda is related
once. She has never been closer to life than to this category of ironists. She takes nothing
she is now. But this is why the pistol became seriously – enough. Her superficiality, in Lou
so imperative to her. The pistol saved her Andreas’s words, resembles ‘waltz tunes
from what she desired – and feared – most of over the abyss of nothingness’.
all in life. The moment of freedom and truth
was to be found at this time. It is when free-
Following the Fable
dom makes itself known as possibility that
anxiety emerges, so that she must find courage Let me follow the development in the drama
in order to conquer this freedom. If there is from the first to the final act. Hedda has not
no courage, then freedom will lose out. This been many hours in her new home before a
is what happens to Hedda at this crucial feeling of spleen overpowers her. Nothing
moment, which is genuinely Kierkegaardian of what she has acquired – her house, her

40
husband, her marriage – provides her with one for which Løvborg has paid dearly to
any appetite for life. She is beginning to per- experiment with.
ceive that she has paid too much for her safe It is entirely in line with Ibsen’s symbolic
exile from the challenges of life. topography that Hedda sends her vine-
Meeting Løvborg again causes her to leafed hero to Brack’s bachelor party so that
glimpse a hope of something different. Thea’s he can realize his own self by putting her
close relationship to him evokes memories in vision into operation. It is here, in this highly
Hedda of what she had once shared with charged but action-free and escapist world
him. Is it possible to recapture what has been that her vision really belongs. Løvborg’s
lost? She wants to try. She wants to plunge strong appetite for life cannot be satisfied
back into life, using Løvborg as an instru- by such scanty fare, and therefore every-
ment. This is what her dream of vine leaves thing falls to pieces. His sexual nature revolts
is all about. The lines are full of pathos when against such manipulation. His body reacts
she tries to put her dream into words. She to the imprisonment of his soul.
believes in it, she wants to believe in it.
We see the results. The present-day Hedda
The Tragic Movement
is experienced enough to know precisely
how to arouse Løvborg’s passion once more, Thus Hedda’s stage arrangement is all a
and how to steer him in the direction she gigantic illusion. It is a denial of life camou-
wants him to go. She brings Løvborg’s libido flaged as an acceptance of life. She equips
up to the pressure she wants by creating Løvborg twice for his mission. He denies her
such a piquant stage arrangement and by utopia both times. Life itself reacts inside him,
efficiently evoking imaginary images. Her against her. The first time his defeat does not
technique has been brought to perfection awaken any instincts in her. The second time
during countless ‘rehearsals’ with Brack and the result points directly to what she has
the ‘set’. caused to happen, directly towards the ‘place’
Her technique is alternately to stimulate where all these fatalities have their source: in
and to restrain, to add fuel to the fire, but to the sexual organ. Løvborg is actually shot in
dampen it down when it threatens to flare the groin. When she hears this, Hedda ex-
up too violently. Her aim is to bring Løvborg claims: ‘What is it, this – curse – that every-
into a state of orgiastic agitation – thus the thing I touch turns ridiculous and vile?’
Dionysian symbol of the vine leaves – in There is a note of slumbering self-insight in
which visions multiply and he, in a potent these words.
existential condition, will imagine that the For Aristotle the three concepts of the
world is at his feet, but where all this will go complication, the crisis (peripeteia) and the
on without reality ever being disturbed by dénouement constitute the continuity of the
his movement of self-expansion. For what is tragic fable. He understands this as an un-
involved here is internalization. We are broken chain of events, one that is structured
talking about purely mental conquests. around a necessary or probable ‘change from
This is what Hedda perceives as courage, misfortune to fortune or from fortune to
beauty, and a desire for life. This is the vision misfortune’.17 He defines the complication as
within which she imagines herself as united the chain of events leading up to the specific
with Løvborg in a relationship which brings event that causes the crisis, whereas the
together eros and agape, within which that dénouement is the chain of events from the
which is sexually aggressive, Dionysian, and beginning of the crisis to the end. The pur-
orgiastic is on the one side, and what is pose of the (predestined) crisis is to open
gentle, pure, and generous is on the other: up for a discovery, followed by a cognition or
two Dianas welded into one. It is meant to be recognition (anagnorisis).
a harmonic union of opposites, a synthesis, The complication in Hedda Gabler occurs the
whereas what it is in reality is an oxymoron, moment the pistol is used for the first time
a compound of two impossible contrasts, (the primal scene). The crisis (peripeteia) be-

41
gins when the dream of the vine leaves is left side of the stage, while the other happens
transformed into its opposite, and it is fully on the right. On the left side of the stage
realized when the pistol fatally interferes Thea and Tesman are clearing a space on
with the course of events for the very last Hedda’s desk in order to start the task for
time and selects the genitals as the place of which they are both burning now. They want
discovery or recognition (anagnorisis). to reconstruct Løvborg’s manuscript. Thea
But the play does not end here. Let us pulls a copy of what Hedda had destroyed
have a closer look at the final act. In the out of the pockets of her dress. And so the
opening lines a double rite of passage is sug- two of them sit down together and start
gested. The transitions between life and working.
death intersect. Aunt Rina has just died, and The process gathers speed. Tesman really
Aunt Julie, dressed in mourning, comes in to likes organizing and collecting things, as we
announce the death herself to Hedda – ‘here have already seen. Thea ‘inspires’ him, just as
in the house of life’. she earlier used to ‘inspire’ Løvborg. Tesman
declares with uncommonly strong pathos for
miss tesman. At my house now we’ll be sewing him that it can be done, it must be done. ‘I’ll
a shroud for Rina. And here, too, there’ll be
sewing soon, I imagine. But a far different give my whole life to this!’ he adds. There is
kind, praise God! an element of determination and authority
in his behaviour which has never been there
Hedda stands right at the intersection of the before. This left side ‘freezes’ into a tableau
crossed forces joining these two processes, that holds all the values and configurations
united with the forces and rhythms of life of agape, such as generosity, self-sacrifice,
through the child she is carrying, and linked chastity, and the Madonna-icon. A dismem-
to the harvest of death through her part in bered Dionysian child is reassembled and
Løvborg’s farewell to life. That is why she is brought back to life (liknites). Aunt Julie takes
dressed in black. Thus the sublunar world possession of the left half of the stage.
forces its lumbering presence onto the stage. On the opposite side of the stage, another
For a moment Hedda cherishes the illu- configuration is about to take shape. Here,
sion that Løvborg’s death has somehow Brack has commenced his negotiations with
given her a grip on life through the spell- Hedda. After she handed the pistol over to
binding witches’ sabbath towards the end of Løvborg, who consequently died under sus-
the third act. This changes her appearance pect circumstances in Diana’s boudoir, Hedda
abruptly for Aunt Julie and for her husband. is under threat of police interrogation and
A kind of existential gravity seems to have public disgrace. As we know, nothing is more
emerged in her mind, which has changed alarming to her than the panoptically penet-
her communication with her surroundings rating eyes of society. But Brack promises to
to something more than pseudo-communi- keep quiet about who the owner of the pistol
cation, a pseudo-communication in which is, even though he attaches certain condi-
self-exposure and self-camouflage have be- tions to his promise. These conditions are not
come two sides of the same coin. The news openly expressed, but the message is clear.
of Løvberg’s death fills her with a secret This is about crude sexual blackmail.
exaltation; an erect column of identity seems If Hedda is completely ignored by the
to have been raised in her mind. She seems group to the left of the stage, then, in return,
to have found a basis by means of which she she is brutally forced into place by the tab-
can express herself. leau to the right – in her role as the judge’s
unwilling sexual object. Løvborg re-emerges
in this configuration as well, but this time in
The Juxtaposed Tableaux
the guise of Brack – as an orgiastic lecher
But then the denial comes: two diametrically lacking restraint, within whom sexuality and
opposed movements are delineated in what violence have entered into symbiotic union.
follows on stage. The first takes place on the Also here the concept of action is essential.

42
Brack has left his phantasmal universe, ready goes as follows: the past has caught up with
to replace imagined lechery by more concrete Hedda and is punishing her for her hamartia.
actions. The red-haired singer’s circle is re- This punishment is effected by letting the
constructed at stage right, and the Dionysian real world occupy her space and rendering
death-ritual (sparagmos) begins. her histrionic character homeless. She no
This is how a vengeful past turns against longer has a stage to act on nor any sur-
Hedda to force her into the perverted exis- roundings that she can shape.
tence generated by herself through her over- When Hedda vacates that space – a space
powering existential angst. The returning that is obsessed with the realities of life and
avenger is a parody of everything she had death, and is thus uninhabitable for her – she
ever dreamed of in terms of an audacious leaves with a couple of farewell lines: ‘Well?
indulgence of life and a transgression of bour- Getting on with it, George? Huh?’ and then,
geois conformity and conventionality. And ‘Imagine that!’ By using such a parroted
now this perverted life floods back – in a form of words, she manifests her distance,
medley of puritanism and lechery, ingenu- her fundamental homelessness in relation to
ousness and artful scheming, triteness and what is happening around her. Thus she
brutal cynicism – and demands that she take disappears into the back room and draws the
part in it: the ‘blonde’ Diana to the left of the curtains behind her – as if the stage curtains
stage, the ‘dark’ one to the right. An acting have fallen. This is a retreat into the ‘theatre
world has been brought on to the stage, and within the theatre’, into theatricality, invisi-
this has transformed Hedda’s props and bility, solitude, unworldliness, emptiness, dis-
puppets into a massive and immobile reality. embodiment, a living death.
Brack’s verbalization and stage directions Suddenly a wild dance melody is heard
seem to have lost ground. from this claustrophobic room – which natur-
ally represents the self. This is a desperate cry
for help from Hedda’s own pent-up zest for
End of the Inauthentic Life
life. It is the revolt of the body against the
Hedda’s response to this challenge is suicide. discipline of the ‘soul’, in Foucault’s words.
The shot in the back room can be interpreted For it is through the body – incarnated in the
in two ways. What immediately becomes unborn child – that Hedda is linked to the
apparent is that Hedda’s shot has allowed world. The revolt within her takes the form
her to realize what she had wanted Løvborg of a Dionysian sparagmos, in which both
to do, and what she previously had charac- libido and the death-wish are involved. So
terized as a courageous act, a manifestation strong are these urges that they are able to
of ‘strength and the will to break away from conquer the fear of the scandal that her
the banquet of life’ – in time. Brack’s last line suicide is bound to provoke.
supports such a positive interpretation. ‘But For the remaining characters on stage,
good God! People don’t do such things!’ Thea, Tesman, and Brack, the two visual for-
Exactly! For the panoptical eye, this is the mations to which they now belong testify
ultimate scandal. But from another perspec- to the ultimate truth about them. In the two
tive, the perspective which Hedda has tried tableaux, content and expression have become
to establish, an act like this may be seen as a synonymous concepts. These characters are
courageous break with bourgeois society, the what they say and what they reveal, and their
great shattering act which will start ‘a new existence seems meaningful, albeit from a
life’, which will establish ‘new values’. A limited perspective. The pulse of life is throb-
transcendence. bing in their veins, and it brings them into
But this is a naive reading of the text, one active relation to one another – either in lov-
in which not even Hedda believes. An alter- ing and generous self-sacrifice or in lechery
native interpretation is to be found in the and lust for power.
prolongation of the clues that I have detailed Hedda is different. For a moment she
earlier in my analysis. This interpretation seems to be part of this great rhythm of life

43
and death, and not only part of, but in heroic the protean concealed. ‘Not so loud. That dis-
confrontation and interaction with it through gusting judge is watching you,’ Hedda says
her attempt to stage Løvborg’s death. But on one occasion to Thea. Is this a protective
when the tableaux move on to the stage so gaze, a censorious gaze, or a lecherous gaze,
as to conquer it with gravity, factuality, and or is it all three at the same time? A remark
fullness of being, it becomes evident that such as this gives us an idea of the kind of
Hedda does not belong here. Her life is and visual minefield that Ibsen’s characters have
will remain inauthentic. Out there in the to navigate.
wings she becomes a victim of the powers of There is another dimension to the Acteon
life which she – with Løvborg’s help – has complex which I have hardly touched upon
attempted to master. in this discussion, but which Peter Brooks
In this way society ‘freezes’ in its pre- emphasizes in his Body Work. For Brooks the
modern (sublunary) expression in this final need to see is linked to the need for insight,
scene. There is nothing new under the moon the need for truth. Scopophilia belongs to
– there cannot be anything new! Løvborg’s Epistemophilia:
utopia has not been realized, and Hedda’s
dream of the vine leaves stands revealed as The truth is not of easy access; it often is repre-
sented as veiled, latent, or covered, so that the
nothing but self-delusion. The only form of a discovery of truth becomes a process of unveiling,
‘rite of passage’ allowed by Ibsen to pave the laying bare, or denuding.19
way for a new historical starting point, the
transition from child into adult, was never Brooks points to Jean-Paul Sartre’s use of the
completed.18 Acteon complex as an image of a western
tradition within epistemology:
Summary and Perspective Any research always involves the idea of a nudity
that one exposes by putting aside the obstacles
The Acteon complex has been the starting
that cover it, as Acteon pushes aside the branches
point for this investigation. I have pointed to the better to see Diana at her bath.20
echoes of the myth of Diana and Acteon that
resound as motifs in Hedda Gabler. Thus I For Brooks, Sartre’s image signifies how the
have been able to focus on Diana iconog- act of cognition within this tradition has
raphy, on perverted virginity, on a life that been represented as a male activity, while the
has come to a halt, but, most of all, on the female has been linked to the enigma towards
core of the conflict that is involved in the which the act of cognition has been directed:
confrontation between the gaze and the body.
This confrontation was emphasized again in The point[s] from which vision is directed at the
connection with the socially determined world, have largely throughout western tradition
been assumed to be male, perhaps especially
power structure to which characters in the within the history of philosophy. That which is to
play were subject, one which was organized be looked at, denuded, as sphinx, or as woman
by means of a panoptically supervising gaze. herself.21
Furthermore, I discussed how the dialec-
tics between gaze and body, between the I believe that the tragedy of Hedda Gabler can
gaze’s need for exposure and the body’s be comprehended in its totality within such
need to conceal itself, was reproduced, so to a masculine-epistemophilic perspective. If
speak, in the play’s linguistic expression, we choose this interpretation, then it is the
where to expose and to conceal become female/the feminine (Hedda) who consti-
elements of one and the same movement. tutes the enigma which the play sets out to
This makes ambiguity a special characteristic investigate, whereas the man becomes the
of the text. ‘The devious’ is Hedda’s name poetic gaze (Ibsen’s own) that is involved in
for this phenomenon. This is the transition- chasing this enigma through all four acts of
point between the visible and the invisible, the play, and that comes up with the answer
between the panoptically transparent and in the end: there was nothing behind the last

44
veil, Hedda was without a core, she was 7. Gil Haroian-Guerin, The Fatal Hero. Diana, Deity of
the Moon, as an Archetype of the Modern Hero in English
pure deception. Literature (New York: Peter Lang, 1966).
It strikes me that Hedda’s no to life dis- 8. It is worth speculating on whether the names are
guised as a yes to life causes the truth-seeking symbolic. I suspect that the name Gabler has its origins
in Ibsen’s associating the name with the hunted animal
Ibsen to confront the same in-depth hermen- in the myth of Acteon and Diana. In German there is a
eutic problems as are raised by Friedrich type of deer called ‘Gabelhirsch’. The term ‘Gabler’ can
Nietzsche in his critique of Richard Wagner’s also be found. According to my dictionary this is a
hunting term for the same animal: ‘weidmännischer
art. According to Nietzsche, Wagner’s decad- Bezeichnung für einen Rothirsch (Gabelhirsch) oder
ence was so well camouflaged that it seemed Rehbock (Gabelbock) mit einfach verzweigtem Geweih
salubrious. The problem for a man such as bzw Gehörn’.
9. In this connection, see Arnold van Gennep, Les
Nietzsche, one intent on living life to the full, Rites de Passage (Paris: Picard Editeur, 1981, 1909). The
was to be able to distinguish one thing from Norwegian translation by Erik Ringen, Rites de passage.
another, to be able to see through this staged Overgangsriter (Oslo: Pax Forlag, 1999), contains a
Foreword by Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, in which she defines
form of deception. Vitality had to conquer an rites of passage as follows. ‘Rites which involve a
opponent whose resistance lay in his enor- change of place, status, social position, or age’ (p. 9).
mous talent for mimicry. Such rites are associated with weddings, funerals, bap-
tism, confirmation, crossing of boundaries, the transi-
Ibsen and Nietzsche share their hermen- tion from one season to another, and so on. Van Gennep
eutics of suspicion, just as they are united in associates these in particular with ‘half-civilized societies’
the worship of a utopia of vitalism, an ‘optics (les demi-civilisées), societies based upon magical-religious
forces, although they are also to be found in secular
of life’, a ‘hygienics of life’; but where Ibsen societies such as our own.
believes in an exorcism of truth in his 10. All textual references to Hedda Gabler are from
scopophilia, Nietzsche’s perspectivism is char- Ibsen: the Complete Major Prose Plays, trans. Rolf Fjelde
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965).
acterized more by scepticism and relativism. 11. My inspiration for this discussion of the
However, Nietzsche definitely belongs – as relationship between gaze and body has been Peter
does Kierkegaard – to Ibsen’s ‘chosen kin’. Brooks’s analysis of Madame Bovary in his Body Work:
Objects of Desire in Modern Narrative (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1993). See also Frederik Tyg-
Notes and References strup, ‘Realisme og symbolsk form. Balzac, Flaubert,
Proust’, in Jørgen Holmgaard, Gensyn med realismen,
1. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage and Skrifter fra Center for Æstetik og Logik, Vol. 1 (Viborg:
Disadvantage of History for Life, published in Danish by Medusa, 1996).
Helge Hultberg, introduction and textual revision by 12. Foucault puts it as follows: ‘A “soul” inhabits
Jens Erik Kristensen and Lars-Henrik Schmidt (Copen- him and brings him to existence, which is itself a factor
hagen: Gyldendal, 1994). in the mastery that power exercises over the body. The
2. See Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison soul is the effect and instrument of a political anatomy;
(London: Allen Lane, 1975, 1977); Madness and Civiliz- the soul is the prison of the body’ (p. 30).
ation: a History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (New York: 13. See Richard D. E. Burton, ‘The Unseen Seer, or
Pantheon Books, 1965, 1971); and The History of Sexu- Proteus in the City: Aspects of a Nineteenth-Century
ality. Volume I: The Care of the Self (New York: Vintage, Parisian Myth’, French Studies, XLII, No. 1 (Jan. 1988).
1976, 1990). 14. Georg Simmel, Soziologie: Untersuchungen über die
3. In this context see Erik Østerud, ‘Henrik Ibsens Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Gesammelte Werk, Vol. 2
teatermaske. Tablå, absorpsjon og teatrikalitet i Vilanden’ (Berlin, 1983).
(‘Henrik Ibsen’s Theatre Mask: Tableau, Absorption and 15. ‘Durch die rituelle Form erweilert sich der Son-
Theatricality in The Wild Duck’), Edda 3/93. derzweck der geheimen Gesellschaft zu einer ge-
4. I have dealt extensively with this topic in my schlossenen, sowohl soziologischen wie subjektiven,
‘Introduction’ to Erik Østerud, ed., Den optiske fordring. Einheit und Ganzheit. Es kommt dazu, dass durch sol-
Pejlinger i den visuelle kultur omkring Henrik Ibsens for- chem Formalismus ebenzo wie schon durch Hierarchie,
fatterskab [The Optical Demand: a Survey of the Visual die geheime Gesellschaft sich zu einer Art Gegenbild
Culture of Henrik Ibsen] (Aarhus: Universitetsforlag, 1997), der offiziellen Weltmacht, zu der sie sich in Gegensatz
and in Erik Østerud, Theatrical and Narrative Space: stellt’ (p. 292).
Studies in Ibsen, Strindberg, and J. P. Jacobsen (Aarhus: 16. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I,
Aarhus University Press, 1998). op. cit.
5. On the concept of the theatrical, see in particular 17. Aristotle, Poetics.
Michael Fried, Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and 18. See Erik Østerud, ‘Peer Gynts “overganger” ’
Beholder in the Age of Diderot (Chicago: University of (‘Peer Gynt’s “Transitions” ’), Agora 1/2000 (Oslo), for a
Chicago Press, 1980). discussion of the concept of transition.
6. Lou Andreas-Salomé, Ibsen’s Heroines, ed., trans., 19. Op. cit., p. 94.
and with an introduction by Siegfried Mandel (Redding 20. Ibid., p.96.
Ridge, Conn.: Black Swan Books, 1985), p. 130. 21. Ibid.

45
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