On the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: "My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife.

Thanks to a relationship with Hedda's old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted (who has left her husband for him), Eilert shows signs of rehabilitation and has just published a bestseller in the same field as George's.

George returns home from the party and reveals that he found the complete manuscript (the only copy) of Eilert's great work, which the latter lost while drunk.

Examples of the troubled 19th-century female might include oppressed, but "normal", willful characters; women in abusive or loveless relationships; and those with some type of organic brain disease.

Bernard Paris interprets Gabler's actions as stemming from her "need for freedom [which is] as compensatory as her craving for power... her desire to shape a man's destiny.

[15][2][3][4] A 1902 production starring Minnie Maddern Fiske was a major sensation on Broadway, and following its initial limited run was revived with the same actress the next year.

Many prominent actresses have played the role of Hedda: Vera Komissarzhevskaya, Eleonora Duse, Alla Nazimova, Asta Nielsen, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Eva Le Gallienne, Elizabeth Robins, Anne Meacham, Ingrid Bergman, Peggy Ashcroft, Fenella Fielding, Jill Bennett, Janet Suzman, Diana Rigg, Isabelle Huppert, Claire Bloom, June Brown, Kate Burton, Geraldine James, Kate Mulgrew, Kelly McGillis, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Jane Fonda, Annette Bening, Amanda Donohoe, Judy Davis, Emmanuelle Seigner, Mary-Louise Parker, Harriet Walter, Rosamund Pike and Cate Blanchett.

A revival opened in January 2009 on Broadway, starring Mary-Louise Parker as the title character and Michael Cerveris as Jørgen Tesman, at the American Airlines Theatre, to mixed critical reviews.

In 2005, a production by Richard Eyre, starring Eve Best, at the Almeida Theatre in London was well-received and later transferred for an 11½ week run at the Duke of York's on St Martin's Lane.

In April 2009, a modernized New Zealand adaptation by The Wild Duck starring Clare Kerrison in the title role, opened at BATS Theatre in Wellington.

The production starred Rosamund Pike as Hedda, earning praise for her compelling and multifaceted performance, which highlighted both the vulnerability and manipulative strength of Ibsen's iconic character.

[20] Vahid Rahbani was summoned to court for inquiry after an Iranian news agency blasted the classic drama in a review and described it as "vulgar" and "hedonistic" with symbols of "sexual slavery cult.

[23] A 2012 Brian Friel adaptation of the play staged at London's The Old Vic theatre received mixed reviews, especially for Sheridan Smith in the lead role.

The production featured Emma Hamilton in the title role, with her performance receiving attention for its emotional depth and complexity, capturing the struggle of Ibsen's protagonist.

[27] In 2015, Hedda Gabler was staged at the Taras Shevchenko Dnipro National Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre in Ukraine.

The production, which received mixed reviews, was directed by Eduardo Vasco and presented a text that was adapted by the Spanish playwright Yolanda Pallín with Cayetana Guillén Cuervo playing the lead role.

[29][30][31][32] Tony Award-winning director Ivo van Hove made his National Theatre debut in London with a period-less production of Ibsen's masterpiece.

Glenda Jackson was nominated for an Academy Award as leading actress for her role in the British film adaptation Hedda (1975) directed by Trevor Nunn.

German director Andreas Kleinert adapted the story to early 21st century Germany in his 2016 film Hedda, starring Susanne Wolff and Godehard Giese.

[39] [40] The 1998 play The Summer in Gossensass by María Irene Fornés presents a fictionalized account of Elizabeth Robins and Marion Lea's efforts to stage the first London production of Hedda Gabler in 1891.

In the Netflix animated show, Bojack Horseman, an episode features the main character putting on a stage production while in prison with inmates playing the roles.

[41] A production at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts featured a male actor, Sean Peter Drohan, in the title role.

John Cale, Welsh musician and founder of American rock band The Velvet Underground, recorded a song "Hedda Gabler" in 1976, included originally on the 1977 EP Animal Justice (now a bonus track on the CD of the album Sabotage).

The Norwegian hard-rock band Black Debbath recorded the song "Motörhedda Gabler" on their Ibsen-inspired album Naar Vi Døde Rocker ("When We Dead Rock").