Thora...I mean Thea

Ironically, Thea is one of the most courageous women in Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler. Based upon Thea's physical description, she seems to be the typical woman, very feminine and soft spoken. While Thea may actually be both of these things, she is definitely not a punk. When her marriage goes sour (honestly, it doesn't seem like it was ever sweet) Thea leaves. Thea knows that she cannot be with this man. She also knows, people are going to criticize her for breaking societal expectations. However, these people are not living her life. They could never truly understand what Thea experienced in her marriage. Not only does she leave her husband, she writes. What...a female writer? I know this seems totally lame, but this was the way things were. Women did not work and certainly were not writers. On top of all of this, Thea co-authored the book with Lovborg, her lover whom she left her husband to be with. I have to admit though, the one thing I did not like about Thea was the way she let Hedda disrespect her. Hedda manipulated Thea to find out what she wanted to know and even used physical force. Okay... Thea this would have been a good time to exercise some of that courage you had built up. NO Hedda is all I wanted to hear her say...N-O! But overall, Thea was a very likable character who pushed the boundaries and made the play a little more interesting.