After a six-months wedding trip, the bride and groom have returned home. Aunt Julia, George’s aunt, arrives to welcome them the following morning. As the curtain rises, the motherly old lady enters the well-furnished living room. She hands a bouquet of flowers to Bertha, the servant, who places them among the others which decorate the room at every corner. The aunt and the maid converse about the newlyweds, remarking with wonder and pride that the orphan nephew Miss Tesman raised is now a professor married to General Gabler’s daughter.
At this point George enters, greeting his aunt with warmth and affection. She inquires about the honeymoon, expecting to hear details of the romantic journey the young couple took touring southern Europe. Instead, George delightedly recalls his tours through the archives and the collections of various libraries in order to gather research materials for his intended book, “The Domestic Industries of Brabant during the Middle Ages.” His aunt, still curious, asks if George has “anything special” to tell her, if he has “any expectations,” but George merely answers that he expects to be appointed a professor. Aunt Julia mentions George’s former colleague Eilert Lövborg. Despite publishing a recent book, she says, Lövborg has fallen a victim to his own misguided excesses. She is glad that her nephew’s abilities will no longer be eclipsed by Lövborg’s.
This brilliant but undisciplined young man was in love with Hedda some years ago, and they were close comrades. Confessing to her all his extravagant dissipations, his ambitions, the young man exposed his soul to this sheltered girl who was fascinated by a knowledge of life forbidden to her. When the friendship became serious, Hedda threatened Lövborg with her pistol, and he disappeared from her life from that moment on. George has no knowledge of his wife’s former relationship with his friend.
The brief mention of Lövborg prefaces Hedda Gabler’s entrance. She is tall and lovely, about twenty-eight years old, and responds coldly to the warmth of Miss Tesman’s greeting. She is obviously bored by George’s relatives and shows no interest when her husband exclaims with pleasure over the pair of his old slippers Aunt Julia has brought him. Embroidered by Rina, the invalid sister of Miss Tesman, the slippers recall for George cherished memories of his childhood.
Hedda abruptly changes the subject, complaining that the servant has thrown her old bonnet on one of the chairs. The hat, however, belongs to Aunt Julia, who has just purchased it in honor of George’s bride. To overcome the embarrassment, George hastily admires the bonnet, then bids his aunt admire Hedda’s splendid appearance and to note how she has filled out from the journey. Angry, Hedda insists she looks the same as always, but Miss Tesman is enraptured at the implied pregnancy. Emotionally, she blesses Hedda Tesman “for George’s sake.” Promising to call each day, she takes her leave.
The maid announces an unexpected caller, a younger schoolmate of Hedda and a former acquaintance of George. Nervous and shy, Thea Elvsted explains the purpose of her visit. For the past year, Eilert Lövborg has lived in her house as tutor to her husband’s children. The writer’s conduct this past year has been irreproachable, Thea says, and he has managed to complete his successful new book while at the Elvsteds’ without once succumbing to temptation. Now that Lövborg has left their village, she is worried, for he has already remained a week “in this terrible town” without sending news of his whereabouts. Thea begs the Tesmans to receive him kindly if Eilert should visit them. Eager to extend hospitality to his former friend, George goes to write a letter of invitation.
Left alone with Thea, Hedda aggressively questions the reluctant younger woman, promising that they shall be close friends and address one another as “du.” Thea admits that her marriage is not a happy one. She has nothing in common with her elderly husband, who married her because it is cheaper to keep a wife rather than a housekeeper to look after the children.
Gaining confidence, Thea tells Hedda how a great friendship grew between Lövborg and herself until she gained an influence over him. “He never wrote anything without my assistance,” she proudly declares; sharing Lövborg’s work was the happiest time she has known all her life. The relationship means so much to her that Thea has run away from home in order to live where Eilert Lövborg lives.
Yet her happiness is insecure, she tells Hedda. Although Lövborg had mentioned it only once, a woman’s shadow stands between them. Hedda intently leans forward, eager to hear more. All that Lövborg said, Thea replies, is that this woman threatened to shoot him with a pistol when they parted. Mrs. Elvsted has heard about a red-haired singer whom Eilert used to visit, and she is especially worried now that this woman is in town again.
The maid announces Judge Brack, a family friend who has arranged George’s affairs so that he could borrow money for his wedding trip and the villa that Hedda had set her heart on. A handsome mustached gentleman, carefully groomed and youthfully dressed, enters. About forty-five years old, Brack is very smooth in manner and bows gracefully when he and Thea are introduced.
The judge talks with George about his debts while Hedda sees her guest to the door. When she returns, Brack announces his bad news: because Lövborg’s book has been received so well, the writer might favorably compete for George’s promised professorship. George is thunderstruck, but Hedda shrugs indifferently. “There will be a sort of sporting interest in that,” she says, and her husband apologizes for being unable to provide the necessities she expected: a livened footman, a saddle horse, means for “going out into society.” After Brack leaves, Hedda concludes wearily, “I shall have one thing at least to kill time with in the meanwhile—my pistols, George.” She crosses to the next room, smiling coldly at her startled husband. “General Gabler’s pistols!” she adds mockingly, and the curtain rings down.
