Answer:
The words fruitless and vain are common synonyms of futile. While all three words mean "producing no result," futile may connote completeness of failure or unwisdom of undertaking. resistance had proved so futile that surrender was the only choice left How do fruitless and vain relate to one another
The poetic pattern for this work is A-B-A-A-B
The deed that Hedda refest to here is what she thinks is Lovborg’s suicide.
Hedda, while talking to Brack, characterizes Lovborg's suicide as "<em>the last great act</em>", claiming that she admires that "<em>he should have the will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life</em>".
She believes that Lovborg was brave upon deciding to take his own life so young, as the quote clearly states ("a deed of deliberate courage".)