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 Nussbaum Hedda Nussbaum Hedda Nussbaum (born August 8, 1942) is an American woman who was caretaker for a six-year-old girl who died of physical abuse in 1987. The death of the girl, Lisa Steinberg, sparked a lengthy and controversial trial and media frenzy. The legal case was one of the first to be televised "gavel to gavel." Supporters characterized Nussbaum as a victim of horrific domestic abuse at the hands of her live-in partner, Joel Steinberg. Critics suggested she was a consensual partner in a sado-masochistic relationship and an unprosecuted co-conspirator in the young girl's death. Before meeting Joel Steinberg in