A masterpiece of modern theater, Hedda Gabler is a dark psychological drama whose powerful and reckless heroine has tested the mettle of leading actresses of every generation since its first production in Norway in 1890. Ibsen's Hedda is an aristocratic and spiritually hollow woman, nearly devoid of redeeming virtues. George Bernard Shaw described her as having "no conscience, no conviction … she remains mean, envious, insolent, cruel, in protest against others' happiness." Her feeling of anger and jealousy toward a former schoolmate and her ruthless manipulation of her husband and an earlier admirer lead her down a destructive path that ends abruptly with her own tragic demise.
Adaptations (3)
Hedda Gabler has been adapted into 3 films, from 1975 to 2025. The most recent is Hedda (2025).
Hedda1975 · film · 102 min · dir. Trevor Nunn · IMDb ↗IMDb6.4Returning from her honeymoon with her husband, scholar Jorgen, the cold and manipulative Hedda Gabler is unmoved by the sacrifices he's made to provide her with an elegant home. But when she learns that Jorgen's rival for a university position, Ejlert, has made a surprising comeback with a recent publication, she's quick to push him back into his former alcoholism, steal the sequel to his book and even encourage the writer to kill himself.
Hedda Gabler2016 · film · 111 min · dir. Matthew John · IMDb ↗IMDb4.6Hedda, beautiful daughter of the late General Gabler, returns from her honeymoon with scholar husband Jorgen to confront the boredom and banality of married life. Although she has little more than amused contempt for her husband, she is pregnant by him and is revolted by the thought of carrying his child and the changes that motherhood will impose upon her future. When the re-appearance of an old flame of hers threatens both Jorgen's career prospects and her own amour propre, Hedda contrives to bring about Lovborg's destruction but, in the process, also brings about her own.
Hedda2025 · film · 107 min · dir. Nia DaCosta · IMDb ↗Hedda Gabler finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.
