Um?…An Observation

An observation that I did not seem to notice, at first, in Act One was George Tesman’s loss for words as he continuously repeats little words like “um”, “hm”, or “eh”. After it was pointed out, I think George’s use of these words stood out to me more while reading more of the play. I agree that in a way the use of these words (if they are even considered real words?!?!) did become a little annoying. But, I think this was just a way for Ibsen to characterize George Tesman and that is just the character George is. I also noticed that whenever George uses any of these words, they usually end in a question mark. This leads me to believe that throughout the play George will become a questionable and/or possibly an unpredictable character. Also, George seems to be unsure of himself and not very confident in himself. George just seems to be an insecure person.