Act 3, Part 1 Summary

This scene is set early the next morning. Mrs. Elvsted and Hedda are both asleep, and Berte enters with a letter from Aunt Julle. Mrs. Elvsted wakes up, and we discover that Lovborg and Tesman never came back from Brack's the night before.

Hedda wakes up as Berte leaves, and Mrs. Elvsted explains that Tesman and Lovborg never returned. Hedda imagines that they stayed up all night at Brack's, that Lovborg was "sitting there, reading aloud, with vine leaves in his hair" and that Tesman didn't want to wake her when he came home and spent the night at Aunt Julle's. Hedda sends Mrs. Elvsted to bed, saying she looks exhausted. When Mrs. Elvsted protests that she wants to know what happened to the men, Hedda promises to wake her up when they arrive.

Berte comes in to tend the fire...