Ibsen wrote in a letter to his French translator in 1890,

"The title of the play is 'Hedda Gabler'.  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 as her husband's wife.
It was not my desire to deal in this play with so-called problems.
What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings,
human emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of
certain of the social conditions and principles of
the present day."

So I went to see Mary-Louise Parker in Hedda Gabler on Tuesday.
A bit disappointed by the performances, but MLP was brilliant as
always, and I was stunned by the play's depiction of power dynamics,
what one will do when driven by such a desire for power,
and Hedda's "cowardly" inability to trascend her societal circumstances.

HEDDA.
[Looks up at him.]  So I am in your power, Judge Brack.
You have me at your beck and call,
from this time forward.


BRACK.
[Whispers softly.]  Dearest Hedda--
believe me--I shall not abuse my
advantage.


HEDDA.
I am in your power none the less.
Subject to your will and your
demands.  A slave, a slave then!
[Rises impetuously.]  No, I cannot
endure the thought of that!  Never!


BRACK.
[Looks half-mockingly at her.]  People
generally get used to the
inevitable.

HEDDA.
[Returns his look.]  Yes, perhaps.