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
Mel and Norma Gabler "Phil Donahue Show" (3 times), ABC's "Nightline", NBC's "Today", CNN's "The Freeman Report", PBS's "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour", CBS's "Morning News", PBS's former "Firing Line" with William F. Buckley, Jr., Jerry Falwell's "Old-Time Gospel Hour" and CNN's former "Crossfire" with Patrick J. Buchanan. After Mel Gabler's death, columnist Gary North wrote that if one wants "a model of what the 'little guy' can do, begin with the Gablers." Mel and Norma Gabler Melvin Nolan Freeman Gabler (January 5, 1915 – December 19, 2004) and his wife, Norma Elizabeth Rhodes Gabler (June 16, 1923 – July 22, 2007) were campaigners against public