A Doll's House Context & Critics

1879

1829-1906

• came from an affluent merchant family in Skien, Norway both his parents belonged to the elites

• father was a respected merchant but became essentially bankrupt in 1836 → family reputation suffers

• forced to sell house in Skien and move to summer house outside of the city

• Father’s financial ruin → strong influence on ADH as it mirrors his parents own financial struggles and his works often deal with issues of financial difficult

• wrote to Ibsen about his plays and he became her literary motivations

• the primary motivation to write ADH was due to Keeler

  • Laura's husband got tuberculosis and she had to forge a cheque for the money to cure her husband

  • when he found out he was furious, divorced her, and sent her to an asylum

  • whilst in the asylum, Ibsen was moved to write the play

  • parallels with Nora and Laura’s life but main point of divergence is Nora is able to command agency and leave marriage

• After financial ruin his father became a family tyrant reliant on alcohol

• Feminist critics say ‘Ibsen’s sympathy with women came from his understanding of their powerlessness, and his education began at home’

  • as he saw his father intimidate and bully his mother

  • this experience echoes through unremitting portrayals of suffering women eg. ADH Nora’s struggle in marriage with Helmer (not to the extent of Ibsen’s parents)

• Completely dependent on male permission to do anything eg. Nora’s dependence on Helmer

• Norwegian women’s status made them incapable to do anything independently eg. finances (debts, enter agreements, control their own money)

• Did not have right to vote (1913 so many years later)

• Not expected to work as they depended on their husband, single women had to request employment under supervision of a guardian

• Marriage- living under authority of father → authority of husband

• Time of change for women’s rights

• Formal equality of men and women enacted over this period

• Legislative changes eg. equal inheritance for both sexes, right to work

• Age of majority (legally an adult) for women same as for men

• However these changes were still met with backlash and resistance

  • still not right to vote until 1913

• Main medium for women to express themselves

• Camilla Collet- one of the first writers who did so and went outside the bounds

  • created the first wave of feminism in Norway and was an inspiration for many writers who…

    • spoke for the cause of women and defend oppressed people against societal expectations eg. the wife

• Ibsen was partly an author considered to be part of this movement

• name for strong movement of naturalism & debating literature in Scandinavia

  • replaced romanticism

• characterised by authors who revolted against traditional cultural themes

• adopted more liberal views on sexuality & religion and expressed more interest in scientific breakthroughs instead

• significant influence on feminist movement

• translated into several language and performed widely across Europe

• Men were primary financial providers for family while women were domestic providers (raising children, cooking etc.)

  • Middle-class status enhanced by having a wife who remained at home

  • Pressures for men to keep steady flow of income and stable job eg. Torvald & Krogstad

• Separate Spheres doctrine- men (public) women (domestic, private) they were fundamentally meant for different things in society

• Woman Question-referred to various debates surrounding women’s place in society

  • Ibsen may have been influenced by ideas emerging from these debates

• New Woman- feminist ideal emerged in late 19th century which pushed limits set by male-dominated society

  • eg. Nora to certain extent exemplfies a ‘New Woman’

Realism- theatrical movement that began in 19th century which sought to represent reality

• Uses realist/ naturalist techniques to expose social reality

  • Ibsen portrays a very recognisable Norwegian middle-class setting on stage

• difference between naturalism and realism is naturalism also focused on scientific/ biological aspects that would create present reality (almost extension of realism as it was developed in later 19th century)

Eugene Scribe Victorain drama style with clear structure with there being a complication and ultimate resolution

• ADH shows limits of a ‘well made play’ even while keeping its basic structure

• the resolution is not the one a contemporary audience would be expecting so he ultimately diverts from this structure

Ibsen’s characters also fit melodramatic character tropes initially but he imbues them with psychological realism which ultimately makes them not fit these tropes rigidly as they have more complex characters

• subvert genre to critique these stereotypical tropes offers no patriarchal hero figure

• this fulfills naturalist aims for the play

• Upset many contemporaries who often criticised the ending in particular

• Peterson said lack of reconciliation was a major flaw calling the play ‘ugly’ and ‘distressing’ 1880

• Michael Meyer called the ending ‘illogical’ and ‘immoral’ 1985

forced to create an alternate ending for German audiences after the actress playing Nora refused to perform if it wasn’t changed

• Alternate ending removed Nora’s agency as it ends with her seeing her children falling to the ground and never leaving the house, redirecting sympathy towards Helmer

• Ibsen called the ending as a ‘barbaric act of violence’

Darwin’s cousin in 1860s argued in Hereditary Genius that mental and physical ability and even morality was inherited

contributed to eugenics which was later disproven

Approach to life based on rationality and common humanity, recognising moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone

• importance on human rather than divine matters- self-discovery and self-determination

• the idea of introspection and looking within you to act as a moral guide rather than law or religion dictating it

Ibsen ‘I don’t consider myself a feminist, I consider myself a humanist’

The themes explored in ADH ‘are perfectly recognisable to us today’

The play is described as ‘timeless’

‘He was interested in the individual and the individuals need for self-knowledge and self-determination’

‘Ibsen 'denied any conscious attempt to provide propaganda for the women’s rights movement’

as he was ‘interested in human beings, simply and dramatically’

Nevertheless contributed to the feminist movement

‘Nora feels compelled to leave so that she can grow into an independent adult being’

The play shows ‘critical scrutiny of the lives and values of the bourgeois classes’

‘Nora is aware her personality has been largely constructed by others’

‘Appearances are of the utmost importance to Torvald’

‘The power structure within the walls of the domestic home reflects the hierarchical power structure which prevail in the wider world’

‘But those who participate in the public life also encounter other repressive forces’

‘There is no binary model of wicked oppressive man and virtuous oppressed woman’

Ibsen’s female characters each had an ‘individualised and fully realised personality’

‘belittlement covered by affection’

'‘a woman cannot be herself in modern society with laws made by men, with prosecutors and judges who asses female conduct from a male standpoint’