Hedda Gabler more important than the rational one. Ibsen was interested in the then-embryonic science of mental illness and had a poor understanding by present-day standards. His "Ghosts" is another example of this. Examples of the troubled 19th-century female might include oppressed, but "normal", wilful characters; women in abusive or loveless relationships; and those with some type of organic brain disease. Ibsen is content to leave such explanations unsettled. 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." The play was performed in
Tom Baker Hopkins, and Filippo in "The Rules of the Game". After leaving the role of The Doctor in 1981, Baker returned to theatre to play Oscar Wilde in "Feasting with Panthers" at the Chichester Festival Theatre. The following year, he played Judge Brack in "Hedda Gabler", with Susannah York as Hedda, in the West End. Also in 1982, Baker played Dr Frank Bryant in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of "Educating Rita", alongside Kate Fitzgerald as Rita. He returned to the National Theatre in 1984 to play Mr Hardcastle in "She Stoops to Conquer" in the Olivier Theatre and on a