Importance of Character Over Wealth

The challenges facing women in society was a typical basis for debates from as far as the neoclassical era. Hedda Gabler (1891) by Henrik Ibsen is a play that demonstrates the issues faced by high-class women brought up in wealthy families. Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston is a literal masterpiece that illustrates the life of an underprivileged Black woman from the early 1900s. The first woman (Hedda) is the daughter of a prominent General while the other woman (Delia) is depicted as a wash-woman living with her abusive husband. Strangely enough, both women suffer from gender-based oppression and Delia gets lucky when her husband dies. Hedda commits suicide with the hopes of freedom and fear of subjugation. The analysis will focus on the personality, working status, type of marriage, and psychological condition to compare and contrast these two women. The stories of these two women illustrate that a strong personality, with respect to emotional and intellectual maturity, is worth more than material possession or social ranks.
Analysis of Hedda Gabler
According to the play by Henrik Ibsen, the main character (Hedda) is manipulative and secretive when it comes to issues bothering her. The first encounter with this side of her personality occurs in Act one when the young and naïve Mrs. Evsted ends up making some deep confessions to her despite the fact that they were not friends before. The former describes Hedda as a cold-hearted individual back in school but she still confides in her (Ibsen 865).

Interestingly enough, Hedda cannot remember the exact name of the lady and is forced to utter some name ‘Thora’ instead of ‘Thea’ with hopes of getting corrected, “…I’ll call you my dear Thora” (865). Irrespective of the awkwardness, the woman is manipulated to confess her extramarital affair and her decision to leave her current husband. Early on, Hedda created an uncomfortable scene when she pretended that a hat belonging to her in-law, Miss Tesman, belonged to the maid and gives a disapproving comment. He says, “Look, she’s left her old hat lying there on that chair” (860). The comment propels the aunt to leave earlier than expected. These instances prove that Hedda is rude and manipulative with respect to other people. In fact, she goes further to ruin the union between Mr. Lovborg and his lover, Mrs. Evsted. It happens that Lovborg was an ex-lover and she finds it offensive that he wrote an entire book for Mrs. Evsted. She goes ahead to convince her husband that she destroyed the book for his sake to gain his support.
Mrs. Tesman (Hedda) is a young woman from a privileged family and thus, fails to see the need to work. Her husband attempts to develop his career while the wife sits at home welcoming visitors and supervising the house help. The second act starts with a bored Hedda firing the bullet in the sky as a pass time when her husband goes off to visit relatives. Ibsen illustrates an instance where she confesses to her friend, Judge Brack, how dull her life is after she married a specialist. She affirms this fact by saying, “Then what in God’s name am I to do with myself?” (873).When there are no visitors, the woman stays idle at home instead of finding some chores or work to do. The husband appears pressurized to pay bills for the house and the honeymoon on his own. Act one revealed that the aunt was the one who placed collateral in terms of annuity for the new house. This small sacrificial decision iterates the idea of maternal care between George Tesman and Miss Tesman, the aunt. The financial burden falls on the side of the husband with Hedda being either rude or ignorant to the relatives.
Furthermore, the marriage between George Tesman and Hedda appears stronger than anyone would expect given the difference in character. First of all, Mr. Tesman is clearly in love with his wife. The first description he makes of her in the play is that she is ‘very charming, very attractive” (Ibsen 860). He actually makes a comment right after the woman insulted the aunt; this suggests that his love blinds him from seeing the full extent of the insult. Hedda forbids Lovborg from calling her using the maiden name out of respect for her husband. The strength of their marriage is seen after she tells Tesman about the burned book. The husband promises not to tell anyone about the ordeal and is joyful. They both enjoy the advantages of destroying the manuscript of Lovborg and decide to hide it. Tesman finds it interesting that Hedda could do such a nice thing for him and is proud of their unity (903). They both pretend to be shocked when the manuscript disappears and Judge Brack explains what happened to Lovborg as a result. In the process, Tesman promises to help Mrs. Evsted organize a memorial for Lovborg knowing full well that he was now free to become a professor as earlier planned.
The emotional stability of the main character is questionable. She gives random and strange answers about her life despite being newly-married. She tells Brack about how boring the honeymoon was and wonders if pushing Tesman to politics would be exciting for their lives (874). When Lovborg asks her whether he has offended the love she has for Tesman, she says, “Love? Don’t be absurd!” (883) And such a statement confirm the instability within Hedda. The fact that she felt proud when she heard that Lovborg committed suicide creates some worry among readers. The idea of self-empowerment and redemption appealed to her senses. Santorck (76) asserts that human beings are subconsciously drawn to freedom and happiness.The instances of manipulation and utter rudeness made her come off as a confident lady but now, her behavior was unhinged. The final act reveals a woman frustrated with oppression and seeks freedom from her marriage, social ties, and gender-based oppression. Hedda commits suicide in the end. “Shot herself! Shot herself in the temple! Just think!” (910) Is the final word from the husband who is confused and in pain. He failed to see how frustrated his wife was with the marriage and general attitude towards women.
Analysis of Delia Jones
According to details developed by Hurston (1), Delia is a prudent, humble, and religious woman. She comes home on Sunday after receiving communion in church to start off washing clothes. Her husband (Sykes) comes along and ruins the arrangement and color of the clothes. She calls him out for the act and continues doing the chores. The lady protects herself from Sykes when he tries to strike her (1) but with caution because she has no intention of hurting him (2). The good nature comes out when she maintains her temper at an instance in the town square. She stumbles upon a group of men and women chatting about her promiscuous husband and acts modestly. Hurston states, “Delia nodded briefly at the men as she drove past” (3). Her restrain from anger and physical violence is a sign of emotional maturity CITATION End14 p 120 l 1033 (Endersen and Barrett 120). Some of the men there attest to her character by saying that if they had a chance, they would have married her before Sykes had a chance to destroy her.
The most striking aspect of this woman is her resolve to work as a wash-woman. Her work is the reason why they have a home and meals every day. In fact, the first encounter with her describes a woman who works on Sunday instead of resting as is expected from most women at that time. She came home from church and started to work (1). Her husband even mocks the behavior saying, “Yeah, you just come from de church house on a Sunday night, but heah you is gone to work on them clothes” (2). Also, the strong working ethics comes off from the fact that she saw her husband with Bertha (the mistress) in town and continues working as normal. She tries as much as possible to avoid the encounter with people because they will discourage her.
Delia and Sykes have a dysfunctional marriage as observed from the extramarital affairs. The first fight they had led to Sykes rushing out of the house and goes into the arms of another woman, Bertha. According to Hurston, the husband did not say where he was going but Delia knew too well (2). As such, she went to bed and cried to sleep. The encounter in town where Sykes showers the woman with drinks as Delia passes by is another example of a broken marriage (3). The situation got worse when Sykes brings a rattle snake home as a way of scaring Delia. The wife did not leave but stays in constant fear of being bitten. In the end, the snake bites and kills Sykes as she watches on. The marriage and its resultant misery would end if she allowed Sykes to die. Besides, even if she tried, he would not make it because “Orlando with its doctors was too far” (9). In a way, the man brought death into his home by killing the happiness and literally through the snake.
The psychological (emotional) status of Delia improved as the plot progresses. The readers met a scared and feeble woman at the start of the story which is bullied and humiliated by her husband. The situation is worse when the mistress at the time comes over to call Sykes when she is around, “Bertha nullified this to a degree, by coming to Delia’s house to call Sykes out to her at the gate” (5). Most of the characters viewed Delia as the weak and harmless person incapable of violence. The moments of humiliation and intense ridicule hardened her. In the end, she watched as the poison sucked the life out of Sykes. She knew that the town people would blame the snake for his death and kill it for her. She had in a way found an easy way to get rid of Sykes and the snake without self-incrimination. More so, her emotions were largely governed by religion. She reportedly told Sykes the previous day that she wanted peace because she was from church (1). She would sing and laugh while working on the clothes because of the fond memories of the time spent in church. Her reaction to comments and general attitude described an emotionally intelligent woman ready to work hard to succeed.
Discussion
Endersen and Barrett believe that higher order qualities such as endurance, wisdom, prudence, and confidence are more important than physical possession (125). They postulate that having emotional satisfaction creates more merit than wealth. Hedda and Delia are reserved with respect to their general attitude. Hedda hid the relationship she had with Lovborg and the burning of the manuscript while Delia limited any emotional outburst to avoid beatings from Sykes. Even so, these two women are different in that one is prudent and humble (Delia) and she got what she wanted in the end. Hedda, on the other hand, was a rude and manipulative lady who killed herself as an act of freedom. Hedda was a stay-at-home wife bored with her life while Delia worked as much as her husband and at time, even more. She worked while her husband entertained mistresses in town. In a way, Hedda was more empowered than Delia and refused to bow down to any form of oppression. Despite the immense power at her hand, Hedda lacked endurance and failed to see how lucky she was. A quick analysis showed that Delia was an African American woman stuck in a bad marriage while Hedda was a White woman with a noble husband and a large comfortable home. Nevertheless, the problems facing these women in terms of oppression were similar. Hedda went through emotional depression because of her limited gender-based role in life as a wife of a specialist. Delia faced both physical and emotional depression from the husband and the neighbors.
Unfortunately, the woman who had a somehow strong marriage (Hedda) failed to utilize that opportunity to improve her life. Delia faced domestic violence and watched the husband move around with mistresses and took the opportunity to grow as a person. In so doing, the latter is stronger in comparison. The incidence confirms that the type of marriage does not determine the nature of a woman. Psychological status of a woman and her reaction to situations determine the outcome of her lifeCITATION Joh141 p 52 l 1033 (Santorck 52). Societal expectation of a woman to live with her husband irrespective of circumstances ruined Delia. Hedda decided to marry Tesman because he was better than the other suitors and not out of love. She was trapped in a stagnant life which made her cunning and self-destructive in nature. Failure to recognize their worth as women came with a price. Delia suffered for fifteen years and Hedda committed suicide.
Conclusion
These two women have a completely different view of the world because of their upbringing and social status. Delia is an African American woman married and working as a wash-woman whereas Hedda is a privileged daughter of a rich man married to another rich man as a housewife. The expectation would be that Hedda would have a stable life with minimal conflicts while Delia faces poverty and instability as the plot progressed. At first, the situation appears as would be expected with Hedda controlling everything in her life. Delia receives beating from her husband and undergoes constant humiliation when Sykes moves around with mistresses in broad daylight. In the end, Hedda commits suicide because of her lack of endurance in the face of oppression. Delia enjoys redemption after the husband dies from snake poison. These two stories are a clear indication that character (in term of intellectual and emotional brilliance) overweighs any amount of material possession.

Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Endersen, Laurence and Philip Barrett. Pebbles of perception : how a few good choices make all the difference. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. Online.
Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat (1926).” 2016. McPherson College. wwwi.mcpherson.edu/~claryb/en255/handouts/sweat.pdf. Accessed on 11 December 2016.
Ibsen, Henrik. “Hedda Gabler.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume 2,2nd Edition. Edited by Rick Davis and Brian Johnston.New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1891. Pp. 853-910.
Santorck, John. A topical approach to life-span development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.