The Master Builder "When We Dead Awaken", and "Hedda Gabler". Early reactions to the play by Ibsen's critics were mixed, possibly due its heightened ambiguities. Hilda, for example, seems to alternate roles between an inspiring force, urging Solness to temper his rampant ambition and so find real happiness, and a temptress, pushing Solness to commitments he cannot possibly fulfill. English critic William Archer (the play's original translator) suggests that the play is not as completely symbolic as some have maintained, interpreting it instead as "a history of a sickly conscience, worked out in terms of pure psychology". He notes that, in this regard,
Hedda (film) performance, "This version of “Hedda Gabler” is all Miss Jackson's Hedda and, I must say, great fun to watch ... Miss Jackson's technical virtuosity is particularly suited to a character like Hedda. Her command of her voice and her body," and concluded, "the physical production is handsome, and Mr. Nunn is most successful in preserving the claustrophobic nature of the play without creating a static film. "Hedda" is an imaginative, intelligent film version of a play that I wasn't breathlessly waiting to see at this moment." Judith Crist of Saturday Review wrote, "... a startlingly fresh and perceptive version written