Thea and Me There might be instances where, as a reader, one wonders if the author of a novel, play, or story created a particular character based on one’s personality, even if said author never had the opportunity to know the piece’s current reader. Such description perfectly explains how I feel whenever I read Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler; however, I would like to point out that my interpersonal connection is not with the play’s protagonist, but rather how I see a part of my own self in Hedda’s foil, Mrs. Thea Elvsted. Besides the fact that we were both tormented and bullied by at a young age, Thea and I are both independent individuals who like to work to our hearts content, and not conforming to society’s norms towards women. Even though neither of us likes to conform to any type of social norms, I must declare that our opinions quite differ when it comes to matters of the heart, such as uprooting one’s life for a man who is known for his womanizing ways and alcoholic habits.
When we meet Thea in the middle of Act I, she enters the scene as the run-away wife of the lower middle class Sheriff Elvsted, Thea states in the following lines how she feels towards Hedda ever since they were young, “Horribly afraid. Whenever we’d meet on the stairs you always used to pull my hair… Yes, you did-and once you said you’d burn it off.” In other words, one can surely say that Hedda's envy of her spontaneity and non-conformity finds its clearest expression in her threat to burn her hair off. Very much like how Thea was tormented by Hedda in her school days, I was also bullied back when I was in third grade by a girl who liked to prey on students that were academically or physically disabled. Long story short, this “lioness” failed to take into account that what I lacked academically, I made up in motivation, an agreeable personality, and heart; henceforth, I recently arrived at the following conclusion: this girl merely intimidated me for the sole reason that she was envious of me for having the previously mentioned qualities. Aside from our traumatic childhoods involving bullies, Thea and I share the impulse to want to work in adequate professions, opposed to what society dictates a woman’s occupation should be. For example, one should recall the fact that Thea showed no fear when it came to rewriting Lovborg’s manuscript along with Tesman, a quality that defines her as a reliable woman and a driven individual, who is not afraid of trying new things and does not worry about being criticized by the public for doing a man’s job. Like Thea, I have a