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Characterisation in Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
Literary devices used in a doll's house
Characterisation in Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
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A Push to Freedom in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House Sometime after the publication of "A Doll's House", Henrik Ibsen
spoke at a meeting of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights. He
explained to the group, "I must decline the honor of being said to have
worked for the Women's Rights movement. I am not even very sure what
Women's Rights are. To me it has been a question of human rights" ( ).
"A Doll's House" is often interpreted by readers, teachers, and critics alike
as an attack on chauvinistic behavior and a cry for the recognition of
women's rights ( ). Instead its theme is identical to several of his plays
written around the same time period: the characters willingly exist in a
situation of untruth or inadequate truth which conceals conflict and
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House (1879). Trans. Rolf Fjelde. Rpt. in Michael Meyer, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th edition. Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999. 1564-1612.
In the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, several literary lenses can be used to better help understand the storyline. The most prominent lens used throughout this play is gender. It plays a large role in the story A Doll’s House. Nora, the protagonist is faced with many challenges because of the normalities of 19th century society. She must overcome these difficulties throughout the play.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, and Writing. By Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 2011. 1709-757. Print.
The words predator and prey paint images animals. There are only two outcomes in the situation these words suggest. One animal will escape with its life, and one animal will go hungry, or one animal will have a meal, and one will make sacrifice its life for the other’s nourishment. Predator and prey can also describe the actions of people. There are some preconceptions of which people will play the role of predator and which will play the role of prey, men usually predator, and women usually prey, but in his play A Doll House Henrik Ibsen plays with these expectations, and depicts many different people taking on the roles of predator and prey in the society of 19th century Norway. Within A Doll House, Ibsen employs diminutive language, illness,
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House" The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Kelly J. Mays. Eleventh ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2013. 1447-96. Print.
5. Ford, Karen. "Social contrains and painful growth in A Doll's House". Expanded Academic ASAP. Methodist College , Fayetteville , NC . 30 Octuber 2005
Phylogeny versus misogyny, arguable one of the greatest binary oppositions in a work of literature, is present in Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 Norwegian play A Doll’s House. The title itself suggests a misogynist view, while the work mainly consists of feminist ideology, as Ibsen was a supporter of the female as an independent, rather than a dependent on a male. Nora knew herself that her husband did not fully respect her, and this became a major conflict in the play as Nora progressively became more self-reliant in the play. Ibsen created Nora to give an example for all women, showing that they are more than what their husbands make of them. The misogynistic views in the play can be seen through Nora’s husband Torvald, due to the fact that he believed, as the majority of males did at the time, that women were not equal to them socially. This opposition caused a major conflict between the couple that progressed throughout the stage production.
An underlying theme in A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, is the rebellion against social expectations to follow what one believes in their heart. This theme is demonstrated as several of the play's characters break away from the social norms of their time and act on their own beliefs. No one character demonstrates this better than Nora. Nora rebels against social expectations, first by breaking the law, and later by taking the drastic step of abandoning her husband and children.
Those of you who have just read A Doll's House for the first time will, I suspect, have little trouble forming an initial sense of what it is about, and, if past experience is any guide, many of you will quickly reach a consensus that the major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men.
“A principal tenet of Marxist criticism is that human consciousness is a product of social conditions and that human relationships are often subverted by and through economic considerations.”(Witham and Lutterbie) A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, can be interpreted and critiqued in many different ways. One of these ways is the Marxist approach. This way of thinking can basically be summed up by saying this: Money changes people’s thinking and actions. The main characters in A Doll’s House are all affected by this idea and it makes the acquisition of money and a higher social status the most important thing to them. Therefore, a Marxist theme is shown throughout the play through the speech and actions of Nora, Torvald, Mrs. Linde, and Krogstad.
Women of the 19th century were trapped in their societal roles. There was no way out. Rights were unattainable: no matter how many rights movements occurred, such as the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights. A women’s place in society was determined by their husband’s status; there was little to no way to obtain a job, a women could not even decide for herself whether or not she wanted to be married or have a child. The male role in the woman’s life took over all decisions and property. Women were seen as the property of men, like their dolls. This idea of a women being a doll was especially evident in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian dramatist, he became known as the father of modern realistic drama. He became popular because of the ridicule he received for “revealing a women’s need for independence from male authority” (feminist literature). While most characters in the play remained obedient to their societal roles, one woman took her life into her own hands. Mrs. Linde, after the death of her husband, learned to stand on her own two feet with no ones help. She got a job, a house and learned to stand on her own two feet. Even though Mrs. Linde played a minor role in the play, her life became a model for the feminist movements because she defied female stereotypes for her time period.
Henrik Ibsen’s, A Doll’s House, took a very different outlook on society in not showing
[This is the text of a lecture delivered, in part, in Liberal Studies 310 at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. References to Ibsen's text are to the translation by James McFarlane and Jens Arup (Oxford: OUP, 1981). This text is in the public domain, released July 2000]
sure the children don’t see it till it’s decorated this evening”(Ibsen 892). There is also a
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Ibsen : Four Major Plays - Volume 1. Trans. Rolf Fjelde. New York: Signet Classics, 1992. 43-114. Print.