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 scholars and activists. Some saw Nussbaum as an archetypal victim of domestic violence whose actions were controlled and restricted not only by her abusive partner, but also by the culture at large that denies the seriousness of abuse in the home. Other leading feminists—notably Susan Brownmiller—suggested that while Nussbaum suffered violence from her partner, she also have shared full culpability for Lisa's death. Books by Nussbaum include: 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,