A DOLL HOUSE

Henrik Ibsen

IBSEN-THE PLAYWRIGHT

Norway’s prominent dramatist

Generally acknowledged as the founder of modern

prose drama. He moved away from the Romantic

style, and brought the problems and ideas of the day

onto the stage of his time. Ibsen's famous plays,

Brand (1866 ) and Peer Gynt (1867), were originally

not intended for the stage; they were "reading

dramas".

"... And what does it mean, then to be a poet? It was a long time

before I realized that to be a poet means essentially to see, but

mark well, to see in such a way that whatever is seen is

perceived by the audience just as the poet saw it. But only what

has been lived through can be seen in that way and accepted in

that way. And the secret of modern literature lies precisely in

this matter of experiences that are lived through. All that I have

written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually."

('Speech to the Norwegian Students, September 10, 1874, from

Speeces and New Letters, 1910)

Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, a tiny coastal town

in the south of Norway. His father, Knud Ibsen, was a

prosperous merchant, whose financial failure

changed the family's social position. Later Ibsen

bitterly recalled how his father's friends broke all

connections with him and the "Altenburg Manor",

earlier known for it dinners and festivities. In

disgrace the family moved to Venstøp farmhouse,

provided to them by the creditors.

EARLY LIFE

As a child Ibsen dreamed of becoming an artist. His mother, Marichen

Cornelia Martine Altenburg, was an avid painter, and she loved theatre.

Ibsen's education was interrupted by poverty and at the age of 15 he was

apprenticed to a pharmacist in Grimstad. In 1846 he was compelled to support

an illegitimate child born to a servant girl. Ibsen moved in 1850 to Christiania

(now Oslo), where he attended Heltberg's "student factory", an irregular

school for university candidates, and occasionally earned from his journalistic

writings. In the same year he wrote two plays, Catiline, a tragedy, which

reflected the atmosphere of the revolutionary year of 1848, and The Burial

Mound, written under the pseudonym of Brynjolf Bjarme. Ibsen hoped to

become a physician, but failed university entrance examinations.

ADULT LIFE

Cataline sold only a few copies but The Burial Mound was performed three

times in 1850. The first performance of Cataline did not take place until

1881. After successfully performing a poem glorifying Norway's past, Ibsen

was appointed in 1851 by Ole Bull as "stage poet" of Den Nationale Scene,

a small theater in Bergen. During this period Ibsen staged more than 150

plays, becoming thoroughly acquainted with the techniques of professional

theatrical performances. In addition to his managerial work he also wrote

four plays based on Norwegian folklore and history, notably Lady Inger of

Ostrat (1855), dealing with the liberation of medieval Norway. In 1852 his

theater sent him on a study tour to Denmark and Germany.

Ibsen returned in 1857 to Christiania to continue as artistic director

of the new Norwegian (Norske) Theatre. In 1858 he married Suzannah

Thoresen, the stepchild of the novelist Magdalene Thoresen. Their only

child, Sigurd, was born next year. After many productions, the theater

went bankrupt, and Ibsen was appointed to the Christiania Theatre. To

this period belong The Vikings of Helgoland (1858) and The Pretenders

(1864), both historical sagas, and Love's Comedy (1862), a satire.

Several of Ibsen's plays failed to attract audience. These drawbacks

contributed to his decision to move abroad.

He left Norway for Italy in April, and traveled abroad for the next 27

years, returning to Norway only for brief visits. During this time, when he

lived in Rome, Munich and Dresden, Ibsen wrote most of his best-known

works, among others Brand, inspired by Kierkegaard's idea of subjectivity

as truth. The symbolic tragedy tells about a priest, who follows his high

principles at the cost of the lives of his child and his wife. Its theme, an

individual with his God-given mission pitted against society, reflected

Ibsen's disappointment in weak and spineless politicians. Brand's firm

belief is "No compromise!". At the end Brand admits his own weakness

and is buried by an avalanche.

Peer Gynt (1867), written mostly in Southern Italy, in Ischia and in Sorrento,

was a satiric fantasy about a boastful egoist, irresponsible young man, an

Ulyssean figure from Norwegian folklore. In both of these works the romantic

hero is destroyed and their "ideal demands" are crushed. No doubt the themes

also rose from Ibsen's disillusionment with his countrymen. In 1865 he wrote

to Björnson: "If I were to tell at this moment what has been the chief result of

my stay abroad, I should say that it consisted in my having driven out of myself

the aestheticism which had a great power over me - an isolated aestheticism

with a claim to independent existence. Aestheticism of this kind seem to me

now as a great curse to poetry as theology is to religion."

A Doll´s House (1879) was a social drama, which caused a

sensation and toured Europe and America. In the play a woman

refuses to obey her husband and walks out from her apparently

perfect marriage, her life in the "doll's house". At the the turn-

of-the-century physicians used Nora, whose mood changes from

joy to depression in short cycles of time, as an example of

"female hysteria". Later Havelock Ellis, inspired by Nora's

character, saw in her "the promise of a new social order."

LATER LIFE

Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891 and continued to write until a stroke in 1900. His marriage

was joyless, but he had a few episodes of friendship with young women. In 1898 Ibsen received

the world's homage on the occasion of his 70th birthday. George Bernard Shaw called him the

greatest living dramatist in a lecture entitled 'The Quintessence of Ibsenism'. Ibsen's son

married Bjørnson's daughter Bergliot. The marriage built a bridge of friendship between the

two writers. Their relationship had broken after Ibsen's play The League of Youth (1869), where

the central character resembled Bjørnson. Ibsen died in Christiania on May 23, 1906. The final

years of his life were clouded by mental illness. When We Dead Awaken (1899), Ibsen's last

dramatic effort, showed the influence of Strindberg.

"A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively

masculine society, with laws framed by men and with judicial system that judges

feminine conduct from a masculine point of view." (from Ibsen's Workshop, 1912)

OTHER

Ibsen used A Doll’s House as one vehicle for

questioning the importance—and the tyranny—of

wealth. This play comes from Ibsen’s middle period,

when his most radical ideas were presented.

WORKS CITED

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsen.htm

TERMS TO KNOW

External conflict – between Helmer and his wife Nora

Interior conflict – psychological conflict within a person

Exposition – some speeches, incidents, or scenes give an additional

dimension to explain background information that will have an effect

on character development. Ibsen weaves the exposition into the

drama itself (compared to the classics of Greek drama or

Shakespeare, where a chorus or character gives an initial speech that

is almost an orientation). Ibsen challenges his audience to understand

—almost participate in—the gradual rise of tension in the conflict

MORE TERMS

Round characters – fully formed characters with an interior life

Flat characters – have limited personalities and offer the audience little

real interest. The role of a flat character is to participate in incidents that

move the action forward or to behave in a predictable way that moves

another character to change.

Dynamic character – when a character does grow or change. It is more

likely that a round character will also be a dynamic character, but it is NOT

a requirement.

Static characters – characters who stay the same, developmentally; most

flat characters are static and are limited in the ability to change or grow.

EVEN MORE TERMS

Stock character – these are almost like mass-produced items that are

kept in stock in a store: you know exactly what you are buying. A stock

character is a stereotype, manifesting universal characteristics (ex: the

dumb blonde, a belligerent cop, the whining brat, the prejudiced

Southerner). In this play, it is the nursemaid who is the stock character

(loyal, patient, supportive).

Foil – the less developed character is used as a point of contrast in which

a dynamic character’s growth is made more noticeable by the sameness of

the foil. Often, a stock, flat, or static character is used as foil (this notion

is used to good effect in Act III).

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Metaphor of the “little squirrel” – note the significance of

this in the play.

Little imagery is used because it is a realistic play.

Strong visual symbolism used to convey the play’s points.

Monologue – sustained speech by a single character who

reveals something of his or her inner workings. In Act III,

both Helmer and Nora have monologues that explain their

world views.

FREYTAG’S PYRAMID

Designed by a German critic, Gustav Freytag

Normally designed with the five-act play in mind

Ibsen experimented with form as well as subject with this

method.

A Doll’s House has several elements of the “well-made play”, but

it departs from this model in important respects. Chief among

these is the closing structure of the play. This play has a longer

denouement, with an ending that shocked audiences in Ibsen’s

day. It has a non-traditional resolution.

IRONY

Situational irony – occurs when the reality of the

situation is not what appears on the surface

Verbal irony – occurs when a character makes a

comment that is heard one way but meant in

another.

Irony used to foreshadow other events in the play.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

Published in 1879 while Ibsen lived in self-imposed exile, though

he was very closely attuned to social developments in his native

Norway as well as to the mores in the rest of the continent.

England had a large influence politically and militarily.

Queen Victoria set standards for middle class behavior; men

were to be held up as the superior being in the household. Art

and literature depicted the calm household under the quiet

authority of the male.

But challenges to this established concept were

being published and were considered shocking and

radical. Charles Dickens exposed the bare and

brutal underbelly of Victorian life (the disregard of

the poor, class inequities, exploitation of those in

domestic service/manual labor because of their lack

of educational access, and the effects of alcohol,

poverty, and abuse).

Women didn’t have the right to vote. In GB, the first resolution

proposing that women be empowered to vote was introduced into

Parliament in 1851. The effort failed. Social critics began to think

and write about he penalty society paid when only half of its

members participate as voting citizens.

Subjection of Women was published in 1869, ten years before A

Doll’s House. A second bill proposing women’s suffrage was

reintroduced in Parliament in 1870. Women sought newspaper

coverage as one way of achieving their aim. Political action took

place. Now it was in the mainstream, spreading to novels and plays.

Women gained the right to vote in Norway in 1913. Finland was

next.

Suffrage was extended to women over 30 after the

First World War in GB. In the United States, women

were granted the right to vote by the 19th

Amendment in 1920.

Other social reforms began to take place: property

rights, the role of women in the workplace, and

access to education.

LITERARY CRITICISM

Women had a very narrow role in society; in some

countries, they couldn’t even borrow money, nor

could they own property. Middle- and upper-class

women were generally educated at home if at all,

and they were not prepared for careers.

Literary critics tended to accept the status quo for

women. When this play was published, it was

regarded as quite a radical work because of the

inversion of social order that occurs in the play.

Feminist critics, beginning in the 1970s, have argued for a

reexamination of such works with the goal of gaining insights into

the evolving role of women and understanding how both women

and men have used women in literature to further certain points

of view.

Ibsen demands close study for his use of women as protagonists

and fully formed characters. Ibsen’s female characters were

intended to drive home the point that no society can flourish if

half its members are in bondage. Nora’s character is designed to

advance the argument that women be full participants in society.

A woman can be a better wife and mother if she is fully actualized

—meaning, if her own intellectual and emotional needs are met in

the process.