1. Pre-reading for “A doll’s House”
REalism
Pre-reading for “A doll’s House”

2. Artistic Movement: Realism
Reaction against overdone emotional nature of Romanticism
Sought to portray everyday events, people, images as they were
Developed during mid-1800s
French were concerned with democracy and giving voice to the “common man”
focus on the working class

3. Realism, continued Gustave Courbet:
"painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist in the representation of real and existing things.”
Coincided with:
Socialist philosophies
Friedrich Engels’ and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto

4. Young Women from the Village, 1852 Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet

5. The Gleaners, 1857 Jean-François Millet

6. First Class Carriage, 1864 Honore Daumier

7. Third Class Carriage, 1864 Honore Daumier

8. Realist Literature
Focus on everyday activities instead of romanticized, stylized interpretations
Authors:
Honore de Balzac: La Comedie Humaine
George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans): Middlemarch
Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Guy de Maupassant
Anton Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard; other plays and many short stories
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Edith Wharton

9. Realist Literature
It is attention to detail, and an effort to replicate the true nature of reality
Realism rests upon the strengths of its characters rather than plot
They are psychologically complicated, multifaceted, and with conflicting impulses and motivations that replicate the daily tribulations of being human.

10. realism Main characteristics: Faithful representation of life
Concentrating on middle-class life
Scenes of humble life
Criticism of social conditions
Characters are center of interest as opposed to a plot
Subjects portrayed with simplicity and respect but little elaboration
Honest, matter-of-fact style
Objects or figures are represented impartially and objectively

11. A Doll’s House
By Henrik Ibsen

12. 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.

13. 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
The choice to portray both Dr. Rank and the potentially matronly Mrs. Linde as imperfect, real people was a novel approach at the time.

14. 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. (REALISM)
Ibsen's play was notable for exchanging the last act's unraveling for a discussion.

15. 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.

16. The Feminist Message
The play rocked the stages of Europe when the play was premiered.
Nora's actions 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.

17. Critics’ Reactions
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, calling the play “swinery” because of the feminism he perceived it as promoting.

18. Significant Ideas in the Play
Relationships between Women and Men
Gender roles, family roles, and social norms
Economic class structures