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 ( ). 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 openly covets 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. 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.

CHARACTERS Nora Helmer – wife of Torvald, mother of three, is living out the ideal of the 19th- century wife, but leaves her family at the end of the play. Torvald Helmer – Nora's husband, a newly promoted bank manager, suffocates but professes to be enamoured of his wife. Dr. Rank – a rich family friend, he is secretly in love with Nora. He is terminally ill, and it is implied that his "tuberculosis of the spine" originates from a venereal disease contracted by his father. Kristine Linde – Nora's old school friend, widowed, is seeking employment (named Kristine in the original Norwegian text). She was in a relationship with Krogstad prior to the play's setting. Nils Krogstad – an employee at Torvald's bank, single father, he is pushed to desperation. A supposed scoundrel, he is revealed to be a long-lost lover of Kristine. The Children – Nora and Torvald's children: Ivar, Bobby and Emmy Anne Marie – Nora's former nanny, she now cares for the children. Helene – the Helmers' maid The Porter – delivers a Christmas tree to the Helmer household at the beginning of the play.

MAJOR CONFLICTS Nora vs. Self Nora vs. Torvald

MAJOR THEMES The role of women Families & parenthood Truth vs. deception Appearances vs. reality