Hedda Gabler

As the play's title character, Hedda Gabler is in a position of great power. She often uses, and abuses, that power to exploit those around her in order to get what she wants. In all reality, the power she wields is a projection of her own fears and social shortcomings. She has placed herself in a precarious position, and has become a victim of her own design. Hedda Gabler is both a victim and a victimizer.
Right in the beginning of the play, we can see that Hedda takes a savage delight in using people as means to an end. In this scene, Miss Tessman is worried about what Hedda will think about the new bonnet she bought, saying, "Hedda needn't be ashamed of me if we happened to go out together" (Ibsen, 433, lines 46-48). By making the matriarch of her husband's family fear her in such a way, Hedda demonstrates her manipulative might. Hedda hates her husband's family because she feels that she has moved down in society by marrying Tessman, especially since he relies on his aunts for financial support. Hedda feels that she must remind at every turn that she is of a higher social and economic class.
She reinforces this need by interrupting others often. Later on in the scene, Hedda interrupts her husband and his aunt to falsely accuse the servant girl of leaving a bonnet lying around. It is obvious that she knows that the bonnet really belongs to Miss Tessman, but by associating it with someone of a very low socio-economic class, she increases her manipulative power over Miss Tessman. She again interrupts her husband later on to deny the suggestion that she may be pregnant. For Hedda, bearing her husband's child will trap her forever in a world that she believes she does not belong in. She wants to make herself aloof and untouchable. A baby would bring her down to their level.
Hedda is not satisfied with making base insults, to cement her control over her new family, she resorts to abusing them behind their backs. She refuses to let the issue of the bonnet rest, and continues to harass Miss Tessman about it while she is not there, saying, "No one does that sort of thing" (Ibsen, 437, lines 42-44). This statement suggests that Miss Tessman is uncultured, uncouth, and not suitable for Hedda's company. She then attacks a girl she went to school with and her husband used to be interested in. Hedda says that she was always "showing off" her hair (Ibsen, 438, lines 3-5). Hedda is actually just jealous of Mrs. Elvsted's hair. Hedda has dark, thinning hair while Mrs. Elvsted's is healthy and blonde. If the condition of hair is indicative of character, Mrs. Elvsted is clearly more virtuous than Hedda. Hedda is jealous that Mrs. Elvsted does not have to resort to manipulation to exert her influence over Lovborg.
As much as we love to hate Hedda, one must also realize that she is as much a victim as she is an abuser. First and foremost, she is a victim of society. As a woman during this time period, it would have been financially impractical, not to mention socially unacceptable, if she had not married. By marrying Tessman, Hedda felt that she was making the most practical decision. After all, he had told her that he could support her, but, as it turns out, his aunts have him by the purse strings. Tessman knows that he has married up in society, and constantly tries to live up to her standards. Hedda has become fed up with his charade, and while talking to Judge Brack she comments on it, saying, "Tessman is forever worrying about how people are to make their living" (Ibsen, 444, lines 13-14). The tone of this statement suggests that Hedda may wish that she could support her husband and have it be socially acceptable, or perhaps that she had married a different man; one that doesn't rely on his aunts for money, and can support her lifestyle to which she is accustomed.
Her frustration with her place in society in reinforced later on in the scene when she argues with her husband about people coming to visit them. Hedda tries to remind Tessman that they had had an agreement when they were married: "It was part of our compact that we were to go into society - to keep open house" (Ibsen, 445, lines 32-34). Both people are afraid of visits from various people, though neither of them would ever admit it. Tessman is deathly afraid of people from Hedda's former social circle coming and seeing just how poor they really are, and Hedda is terrified of people that her husband socializes with visiting and completely immersing and trapping her in this situation.
Hedda is also a victim of her marriage. She does not try to hide her hatred for Tessman and her socio-economic situation. On the contrary, she will tell anyone that will listen to her. In Act II, that person is Judge Brack. She gets him alone and lets her hatred rear its ugly head, saying "And then, what I found most intolerable of all...was being everlastingly in the company of - one and the same person" (Ibsen, 446, lines 88-89, 91-92). In her old life, Hedda probably had men breaking down the door to come see her, Tessman included. It wasn't the prospect of romance that Hedda enjoyed about this, it was the everlasting attention and multiple people under her control. But, now that she is married, many of the visitors have disappeared, the attention has dropped off, and Hedda does not like it. Marriage is supposed to be centered around two people, and Hedda despises this concept.
Hedda makes it very clear that she did not marry Tessman out of love, only necessity. She may have loved Lovborg, or rather loved that she could more easily control him, but he could not feasibly support her. She married Tessman because it was "correct" to do so; she says that Tessman is "correctness itself" (Ibsen, 447, line 39).
Another element of being trapped in her marriage is that Hedda was bound by her fear of financial insecurity. It would be unthinkable for her to go to work, but she also knew that her inheritance would not last forever, so she could not remain single. At least with Tessman, there is a steady source of income, however small. Hedda makes it seem that she had no choice but to marry Tessman: "[He] was bent, at all hazards, on being allowed to provide for me" (Ibsen, 447, lines 53-54). She later rages at allowing herself to be taken in by his promises, allowing herself to be dropped into "genteel poverty" (Ibsen, 449, line 96).
Hedda's rage stems from her many, deep-seated fears. When Lovborg confronts her about her marriage to Tessman, trying to convince her to leave with him, Hedda balks. Even though Lovborg offers everything she wanted, freedom in her relationship and financial independence, it would have been socially disastrous for her to leave her husband for a character such as Lovborg. For Hedda, scandal and controversy are unacceptable; she would rather die.
Along with scandal, Hedda is deeply terrified of not being in control. When Lovborg stands firm against Hedda, she falters, saying "I...have no sort of power over you?" (Ibsen, 456, lines 7-8). Hedda is incapable of functioning if she has no one to control. This fear is ultimately realized when Lovborg commits suicide. The choice to shoot himself in the chest was meant to show Hedda that she no longer had any sort of power over him.
In the end, both fears are combined when it is revealed that Hedda was involved in Lovborg's suicide. The scandal and loss of control proved to be too much for her to handle, and she also commits suicide. But she does it in a such a way to prove that she still had some measure of power over Lovborg. By killing herself in the way that Lovborg couldn't, a shot through the head, it is like she is reprimanding him for making the decision to shoot himself in the chest. In the end, Hedda proved that she was still in control, perhaps not at the level that she would have liked, but she still wielded some measure of power.

Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. "Hedda Gabler." Masterpieces of the Drama. 6th ed. Pp. 431-474. MacMillan Publishing. New York. 1991.