Since Hedda Gabler exploded on to European and American stages in the 1890s, the play and its title character have troubled and transfixed audiences, performers and critics the world over. This sourcebook balances essential reprinted texts with incisive commentary to: set the play within the contexts of Norwegian nationalism, the women's movement and the cultural movement of Naturalism; examine and emphasize the links between the performance and criticism of the play, from 1890 onwards; offer a guide to key passages in the play, showing how a knowledge of the play's contexts, performance history and critical fortunes can give rise to exciting new readings of the text; and prepare readers for further study of the play, with suggestions for reading on specific issues of interest.

In these three unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the problems of personal and social morality that he perceived in the world around him and, in particular, the complex nature of truth. The Pillars of the Community (1877) depicts a corrupt shipowner's struggle to hide the sins of his past at the expense of another man's reputation, while in The Wild Duck (1884) an idealist, believing he must tell the truth at any cost, destroys a family by exposing the lie behind his friend's marriage. And Hedda Gabler (1890) portrays an unhappily married woman who is unable to break free from the conventional life she has created for herself, with tragic results for the entire family.