By the Bog of Cats vs Hedda Gabler

Though written about a hundred years apart, By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr and Hedda Gabler by Henrick Ibsen are very similar in that they both end on the death of a main character. In By the Bog of Cats, Hester kills her daughter Josie and in Hedda Gabler, Hedda kills herself. Though there is a level of sadness in both these deaths, Josie’s is the much more tragic of the two largely because Hedda is a very unlikable character and Josie is entirely innocent.

Aside from being tragic-By the Bog of Cats—and satisfying— Hedda Gabler-these deaths reveal the roles and issues women faced in both time periods that these plays were written.

By the Bog of Cats is set in a remote area of Ireland in 1998 and follows the story of Hester Swane as she attempts to deal with her abandonment by Carthage Kilbride. Part of her issues with this stem from her mother abandoning her at a young age so by the end of the play she kills her daughter Josie so that she cannot be abandoned by someone else and so that she like her mother will not abandon her daughter as she is contemplating killing herself.

Just before she kills Josie Hester says “I won’t have ya as I was, waitin a lifetime for somewan to return, because they don’t Josie, they don’t” (Carr 68). In this line Hester reveals exactly how deep her abandonment issues go as she agrees to kill her daughter to keep her with her in death.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified

Proficient in: Hedda Gabler

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

It is very clear throughout the play that Hedda loves her daughter which makes this death especially tragic as she realizes what she has done.

On the other hand Hedda Gabler is much less tragic because the character of Hedda is much less sympathetic and her death does not move readers the way Josie’s does. Though there are many people who clearly care for Hedda, her character is so cruel that it is hard for an audience to feel any sympathy for her death and instead this ending feels much more satisfying. This death does not appear tragic because she has brought it upon herself because she cannot handle the idea of a scandal when others discover that

the gun Eilert used was hers and that in order to keep this a secret she will forever be under the thumb of Judge Brack who is the only one who knows that the pistol was hers. As the Judge explains all of this to her Hedda says, “I’m in your power. Dependent on your will and your demands. Not free. Still not free! No. I couldn’t bear that. No” (Ibsen 332). Throughout the play she is very concerned with what others think not only of herself, but of those she associates with partially because she envies their freedom in being able to not worry about what others will think about them. It is because of this fear of the judgement and the realization that she will never be free that Hedda decides to take her own life, and to readers this is a relief because Hedda is so unlikable.

Aside from bringing closure to both plays, these deaths also point to the roles of woman in the time periods they were written, which for both characters were also leading causes of murder in Hester’s case and suicide in Hedda’s case. In both cases the women are very much controlled by the men in the play and crave more than what they have-Hester desires the love of Carthage and Hedda desires freedom. This desire for love on Hester’s part leads to the murder of her daughter because she is so afraid that Carthage may take her daughter away that she cannot possibly bear the thought of losing the one person she truly loves and who loves her. On the other side is Hedda is ultimately chooses suicide as her chance at freedom not only from the control of men, but also from society as a whole because she cannot fathom the possibility of a scandal ruining her life. It is this that ultimately makes both plays tragedies because, both women were pushed to their actions by oppressive societies. The deaths in both these plays reveal how important the judgement of others are to woman in any time period and the lengths these women will go to in order to find freedom from men and society.