A Doll’s House
By Henrik Ibsen
A Doll’s House
Some Facts:
• Published in 1879
• Norwegian title: Et dukkehjem
– Title can be also read as “a dollhouse”
• The play was highly controversial when first
published, as it is sharply critical of Victorian
marriage norms.
• Written while Ibsen was in Rome and Amalfi
Amalfi is a town and commune in the province of
Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy.
• The play was born in a time of revolution in
Europe.
Revolutionary
• Charged with the fever of the 1848 revolution, a
new modern perspective was beginning to emerge
in the literary and dramatic world, challenging the
romantic tradition;
• Ibsen has been credited for mastering and
popularizing the realist drama derived from this
new perspective.
• His plays were both read and performed
throughout Europe (in numerous translations) like
no other dramatist before. A Doll's House was
published and premiered in Copenhagen.
A Challenge to Technical
Tradition of the Well Made Play
• The Well Made Play
• a genre of theatre from the 19th century, codified by
Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) .
• It has a strong neo-classical flavor, involving a very
tight plot and a climax that takes place very close to the
end of the story, with most of the story taking place
before the action of the play; much of the information
regarding such previous action would be revealed
through thinly veiled exposition.
• Following that would be a series of causally related plot
complications.
Attributes of a “Well Made Play”
• The plot is based upon a withheld secret, known only to some of
the characters, usually about the play's hero, the revelation of
which provides the turning point of the play.
• Initial exposition provides information, usually by means of
question and answer, about the events that precede the start of the
play (antecedent action) and both leads toward the secret and
withholds it.
• Ups and Downs are generally seen in dialogue, exchanges of wit
between opponents, in which we move closer to the revelation of
the secret.
• Reversal, followed by a revelatory scene (the French critic
Francisque Sarcey called this the scéne à faire) in which we and
the characters in the play learn the secret, often for the first time.
• A plausible dénouement is designed to make everything that has
occurred believable.
• The key to the whole play is that each act or scene repeats this
pattern.
• The majority of well-made plays are
comedies, often farce. In his book The
Quintessence of Ibsenism, Bernard Shaw
proposed that Ibsen converted this formula
for use in "serious" plays by substituting
discussion for the plausible dénouement or
conclusion.
• Thus, plays become open ended, as if there
were life beyond the last act curtain.
• Ibsen's play was notable for exchanging the
last act's unraveling for a discussion.
• Critics agree that, up until the last
moments of the play, A Doll's
House could easily be just another
modern drama broadcasting another
comfortable moral lesson.
• However, when Nora tells Torvald
that they must sit down and
"discuss all this that has been
happening between us", the play
diverges from the traditional form.
• With this new technical feature, A
Doll's House became an
international sensation and founded
a new school of dramatic art.
Where is the Wise Old Man?
• Ibsen's realist drama disregarded the tradition of
the older male moral figure.
• Dr. Rank, the character who should serve this role,
is far from a moral force; instead, he is sickly-rotting from a disease picked up from his father's
earlier sexual exploits--and lascivious, openly
coveting Nora.
• The choice to portray both Dr. Rank and the
potentially matronly Mrs. Linde as imperfect, real
people was a novel approach at the time.
The Feminist Message
• The play rocked the stages of Europe when
the play was premiered.
• Nora's rejection of marriage and
motherhood scandalized contemporary
audiences.
• In fact, the first German productions of the
play in the 1880s had an altered ending at
the request of the producers.
• Ibsen referred to this version as a "barbaric
outrage" to be used only in emergencies.
• Ibsen was reacting to the uncertain tempo of the time;
Europe was being reshaped with revolutions.
• The revolutionary spirit and the emergence of
modernism influenced Ibsen's choice to focus on an
unlikely hero--a housewife--in his attack on middleclass values.
• Quickly becoming the talk of parlors across Europe,
the play succeeded in its attempt to provoke discussion.
In fact, it is the numerous ways that the play can be
read (and read it was--the printed version of A Doll's
House sold out even before it hit the stage--that make
the play so interesting.
• Each new generation has had a different way of
interpreting the book, from feminist critique to
Hegelian allegory of the spirit's historical evolution.
Major Themes
• Women and Men:
– This play focuses on the way that women are
seen, especially in the context of marriage and
motherhood. Torvald, in particular, has a very
clear and narrow definition of a woman's role.
– Torvald believes that it is the sacred duty of a
woman to be a good wife and mother.
Moreover, he tells Nora that women are
responsible for the morality of their children.
– In essence, he sees women as both child-like,
helpless creatures detached from reality and
influential moral forces responsible for the
purity of the world through their influence in
the home.
• Yet precisely what sort of play is it?
• George Steiner claims that the play is
“founded on the belief…that women can
and must be raised to the dignity of man,”
but Ibsen himself believed it to be more
about the importance of self-liberation than
the importance of specifically female
liberation—
• Ibsen’s contemporary, Strindberg, certainly
disagreed, himself calling the play a
“barbaric outrage” because of the feminism
he perceived it as promoting.
• Materialism v. People:
– This is particularly important for Torvald,
whose sense of manhood depends on his
independence.
– In fact, he was an unsuccessful barrister
because he refused to take "unsavory cases". As
a result, he switched to the bank, where he
primarily deals with money.
– In other words, money and materialism can be
seen as a way to avoid the complications of
personal contact.
• Images of women:
– Nora, as a symbol of woman, is called a number of names
by Torvald throughout the play. These include
• "little songbird",
• "squirrel", "lark",
• "little featherhead",
• "little skylark",
• "little person", and
• "little woman".
– Torvald is extremely consistent about using the modifier
"little" before the names he calls Nora.
– These are all usually followed by the possessive "my",
signaling Torvald's belief that Nora is his.
– Torvald's chosen names for Nora reveal that he does not
see her as an equal by any means; rather, Nora is at times
predictable and silly doll and at times a captivating and
exotic pet or animal, all created for Torvald.
• Light:
– Light is used to illustrate Nora's personal journey.
– After the turning point of Torvald's claim to want to
take everything upon himself and while she is talking to
Dr. Rank, the light begins to grow dark, just as Nora
sinks to new levels of manipulation.
– When Dr. Rank reveals his affection, Nora is jolted out
of this fantasy world and into reality and insists on
bringing a lamp into the room, telling the Doctor that he
must feel silly saying such things with the light on.
• The Dress:
– Nora's ball dress symbolizes the character she plays in
her marriage to Torvald.
– Take note of when Nora is supposed to be wearing it
and for whom.
• The Tarantella:
– A tarantella is a folk dance from southern Italy that
accelerates from its already quick tempo and alternates
between major and minor keys.
– In its constant fluctuation, it is like Nora's character. In
this Act, it serves as Nora's last chance to be Torvald's
doll, to dance and amuse him.
– Also, the tarantella is commonly (and falsely) known as a
dance that is supposed to rid the dancer of the bite of the
tarantula.
– Applied to the play, its use suggests that Nora is trying to
rid herself of the deadly poison of an outside force,
however fruitlessly.
– Rather than alleviating the bite, though, the music and her
life only continue to accelerate and spin out of control.
Critical Approaches: Feminist
Theory
• Templeton’s critique uses strident quotations and a
sarcastic tone to imply that Ibsen has been “saved from
feminism” by many contemporary male critics. Templeton,
in truth, calls for feminist a re-examination of the character
of Nora.
– What does a feminist reading reveal about the character
of Nora whose life was circumscribed by a patriarchal
society?
– Could Ibsen have written a play with this theme about a
man? Who might have been controlling him?
Critical Approaches:
Psychoanalytical (Carol Tufts)
Tufts asserts an alternative character analysis of Nora. Rather than viewing
Nora as a victim, Tufts frames the psychoanalytic argument of Nora as
narcissistic: Can you find textual evidence that reveals:
•
Grandiose sense of self-importance and uniqueness – exaggerates
achievements and talents, focuses on how special one’s problems are.
•
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or
ideal love.
•
Exhibitionistic: requires constant attention and admiration.
•
Responds to criticism, indifference of others, or defeat with either cool
indifference, or with marked feelings of rage, inferiority, shame, humiliation,
or emptiness.
•
Relationship dysfunctions: Lack of empathy, Entitlement, Interpersonal
exploitiveness or vacillating between the extremes of over-idealization and
devaluation.
Critical Perspective
Henrik Ibsen's plays anticipate major
developments of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries:
• the individual's feelings of alienation and
actual alienation from society,
• the pressures by which society insures
conformity to its values and suppresses
individuality,
• the barriers which modern life sets up
against living heroically.
Discussion Questions
1. How does the character of Nora illustrate the
alienation of women from the 19th century
patriarchal society?
2.How does the character of Torvald Helmer
illustrate Torvald’s struggle to conform to the 19th
century patriarchal society?
3. How does the relationship between Mrs. Lunde
and Krogstad serve to emphasize certain
characteristics of the Helmer’s marriage?
4. How would Dr. Rank’s relationship with Nora, his
illness, and his death serve a symbolic function in
the play?
Sites Cited
• “A Doll’s House” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen5 April 2007
• Gillis, G. J. and Westhagen, Jen. SparkNote on A Doll’s
House. 5 Apr. 2007
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/.
• "Henrik Ibsen” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 5 April
2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen
• "Well-Made Play" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 5
April 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22wellmade_play%22
• William, Robert. “About A Doll’s House.” Grade Saver.
http://www.gradesaver.com/a-dolls-house/studyguide/about/
Connecting with Flaubert’s
Madame Bovary
• Critical Approaches: Which Approach will
you take throughout your reading?
• Thematic/Critical Analysis Panels
• Incorporation of Annotated Text & Add’l
Support (from prof’l readings)
• Socratic Seminar, Bench Mark Lessons,
Panels, & Writings Assignments
The Final Moments
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTGhNw9
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