Post #8

So I think that in a lot of ways, we could compare Thea to Maria Josefa because they are both arguably the only free women in either of these books. Maria Josefa is free because she doesn't worry herself about stupid things like appearances and what the neighbors will think, etc. and she also is the only in the The House of Bernarda Alba who says whatever she feels whenever she wants to. The same goes for Thea in Hedda Gabler. Thea is the only woman with the courage and freedom to escape her entrapment, and also the only one who competely disregards what society will think, since she says that she knows people will talk about her leaving her husband but she doesn't care. Hedda, on the other hand, is always worried about a scandal and doesn't want people to see what's really going on in her household because she's too afraid of what they'll think of her. This shows that Hedda is not at all as free as Thea is, much like Bernarda was not as free as Maria Josefa.