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
Hedda Wrangel Hedda Wrangel Anna Hedvig "Hedda" Wrangel née "Lewenhaupt" (11 December 1792 in Forstena – 24 July 1833, in Ovesholm) was a Swedish composer. Hedda Wrangel was the daughter of colonel count Gustaf Julius Lewenhaupt and Anna Helena Alströmer, and married in 1810 at Karlberg Palace to the courtier Baron Henning Wrangel af Adinal. Her husband was known for his hot temperament, love life and duels. The couple mainly lived at Sperlingsholm manor. She had no children. Esaias Tegnér portrayed her in a poem (1827) in which he wrote: "When she sings, oh, breathing stops, and the tongue of gossip itself