— Concept
Hedda's old friend and lover, Ejlert Lövborg, has returned to town. She'd
always romanticize him and would think of him as almost like a god-like
figure 'with vine leaves in his hair'.
The fire appears when Hedda instructs her maid to put more wood
in the stove but eventually decides to do so herself. It takes her near
to the destructive element of fire, which is, in a sense, an image of
Hedda’s soul.
The fire almost burns out overnight (when Lövborg is disappointing
Hedda’s ideals by getting drunk) but she brings it back to life, along
with a new plot for Lövborg’s fate, proving herself just how powerful
her influence on him still is.
