A craving for life and the pursuit of happiness are concepts everyone cherishes in Everyones goals and ambitions for the future vary from one to thenext, yet each person shares a common bond, each hope for their own personal happiness. The search of the truth and the power it produces cause internal conflict during onespursuit of this so-called happiness. The search for this is not made without obstaclesalong the way. One must overcome the tribulations handed to him or her by his or hersociety. Often women have a more difficult time breaking through the chains that societyhas cast upon them. In three specific instances, Hedda Gabler from Hedda Gabler, Jessiefrom Night, Mother, and Sally from Lips Together Teeth Apart are all strong femalecharacters created to display a womans search for a way out of the bonds of her society. These powerful women characters do so in similar ways as well as different ways, eachaccording to the plot of her own play. Hedda finds a way out after the internal conflictshe faces concerning her true freedom in the society that distorted her, Jessie desperatelysearches for the truth while juggling the two sides of her character, death-seeking andlife-affirming, and Sally seems to begin to face, but also unleash, the harsh truth wheneverit comes to her, even at the most inopportune times. Although all of these womenapproach their bondage in different ways, they all seem to accomplish the same thing: areality check. However, Sally accomplishes more than Hedda and Jessie because shefaces the music and doesnt give up in the end by taking the easy way out, as the othertwo women do. Sally, the most modern woman out of them all, has a little bit morewillpower inside of her to go on with her life and simply learns to face the truth and to notbe afraid of it.In Henrik Isbens Hedda Gabler, he masterfully portrays the main character,Hedda, as neither a monster nor a saint . . . [she] is simply a tragic character ...
