Hedda’s cruelty enacts a protest against the good that has become bad

Evidence

Thus, here is the oppressor oppressed in turn; and the men who do violence to him in their turn become masters, tyrants, and executioners: in revolting, the oppressed are metamorphosed into a blind force, a brutal fatality; the evil which divides the world is carried out in their own hearts. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 98 (#expands, via linked claim)

This they manage to do by pathological projection, since even hatred leads to unification with the object—in destruction. This is the negative aspect of reconciliation. Reconciliation is the highest notion of Judaism, and expectation is its whole meaning. The paranoiac reaction arises from inability to expect. The anti-Semites try to realize their negative absolute by their own power, and change the world into the hell which they always thought it was. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 159 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Persecuted victims reproduce the power they fear against others; Violent revolt infects the oppressed with the oppressor’s own evil — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 98; Symbolic threats drive dehumanization and the most vicious cruelty — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 22 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Violent revolt infects the oppressed with the oppressor’s own evil #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 98
• Persecuted victims reproduce the power they fear against others #expands (0.80)
• Hatred unifies with its object through destruction, mirroring reconciliation. #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 159
• Symbolic threats drive dehumanization and the most vicious cruelty #expands (0.72) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 22