Center for Languages & Translation-M.

A Studies

DRAMA
ASSIGNMENT
A DOLL'S HOUSE

Submitted to:Dr.Munira Al-shamiry | Submitted by:Tasneem Sultan

 Early in the 19th century when it was the hay-day for poetry , plus, novel was
establishing its feet on a solid ground, the dramatic scene in Europe was
undergoing clinical death. Farces and melodramas were plaguing the European
theater. However, the political and social upheavals, the new scientific
discoveries and inventions and other factors were signaling the birth of a new
world and hence a new literature. A number of dramatists took the lead to
change the course of European drama. The winds of change have blown this
time from Scandinavia where the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen
pioneered drama in its modern sense. His play A Doll' House, featuring the
state of women at his time, is considered by many critics the first modern play.
In this essay I am going to discuss the play A doll's House in relation to three
emerging trends in the 19th century and these are: realism, naturalism, and
problem play.

Realism as a trend in literature appeared in the middle of the19th century

though realistic style existed in literary works long before. Realism was an
attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures
and objects exactly as they act or appear in life (Encarta).It was mainly a
reaction to the highly subjective approach of Romanticism. During the late-
nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, drama was profoundly influenced by
Realism. Realist Theater moved away from exaggerated acting styles and
overblown melodrama to create theatrical productions truer to the lives of the
people in the audience. The major realist playwrights treated subjects of
middle-class life in everyday, contemporary settings, featuring characters that
face circumstances akin to those of average people (Brent). The author leaves
his characters strictly alone, never intruding his own person on their company
in some thin disguise or other. There is no copious speech-making. Thoughts
and emotions are expressed solely through character and actions. The premises
of the action are skillfully scattered over the whole plot, instead of being
massed at the beginning according to the old-fashioned idea about
"exposition." The manifestations of realism where clear in the play A Doll's
House. The play was written in prose and characters speak like ordinary people
unlike former play which if not written in poetry contain artificial things such
formal declarations, asides or soliloquys. The author emphasizes realism
through the detailed description of the setting, stage scenery and costumes
which also reflects everyday life:

''SCENE. - A% room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not

extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another
to the left leads to Helmer's study. Between the doors stands a piano .In the
middle of the left-hand wall is a door, and beyond it a window. Near the window
are a round table, arm-chairs and a small sofa…She is in outdoor dress and
carries a number of parcels… '' (Ibsen,p 3)
The subject matter and the characters of the play are taken from topical real life
stories. In other words any 'x' or 'y' from the audience could be in the place of
the personae of the play. The story of Nora's marriage would represent any
middle-class household in Norway or Europe. Ibsen ‘paints ordinary life; his
people are…the people one meets in the City, one’s lawyer, one’s banker, the
men one hears discussing stocks and shares…’as Arthur Symons puts it. Nora
appears as a typical obedient passionate housewife and a caring mother. The
function of woman had been clearly defined. She was to be the helper, the
comforter, the inspirer, the guerdon of man in his struggle towards loftier forms
of existence (Ibsen, (Edmund Gosse on Ibsen’s Social Dramas,the critical
heritage,).A woman should be all this to her husband but at the same she should
be careful not to offend her husband's manliness this message is transferred
through Nora's speech and actions all along the play:

"how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly
independence, to know that he owed me anything! It would upset our mutual
relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is
now."(Ibsen, p23)

Torvald appears as a typical conservative, egoistic, authoritarian husband.

The author was careful also in reflecting the current view of the patriarchal
society, especially, with regards to women's state. We see also how the two
couples are happy about securing a new higher post in work and hence a new
position in society and how appearances would matter much. Nora freaks out
when she feels the danger of ruining her husband's success and decides to leave
in order to save him though she still aspires for something wonderful to
happen, that is, Torvald will take up the whole thing on his shoulder and would
shield her with his manliness. However, this would have been so romantic an
end or perhaps too rare to happen. The stark bitter reality was in the furious
reaction of Torvald who is ready to disown her for his reputation's sake because
no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves which rather reflect his
self-centeredness:

"HELMER.I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora--bear sorrow
and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he
loves". (Ibsen, p.128)

This shows the vast gap between appearance and reality. What seems to be a
happy harmonistic united marriage turns out to be an illusion. For how could
the honor of a husband be separated from the honor of his wife??!!

Besides being a realistic play the play is naturalistic. Naturalists believe that
a person is a product of heredity and social environment. We find the shadings
of this view in the characters of A Doll's House. Nora and Christine, for
instance, are victims of their society. This is much pronounced in the case of
Nora when she is obliged to forge the signature of her father to borrow the
money because laws do not permit women to borrow money without the
permission of their guardian like a husband or a father. Nora's father was about
to die and her husband was a strict barrister who would not put up with debts.
Therefore, Nora is torn between two choices either she forges the signature to
get the money and save her husband's life or to follow the rules and put her
husband and family at risk. Finally, she takes the bold step and forges the
signature, breaking the inconsiderate law. This, of course, costs Nora her
family life later on because the reaction of her husband is in line with the
conventions of the society. Seemingly, in Nora's case, she would be a victim to
the social environment either she forges the signature or not.

"NORA. I don't believe it. Is a daughter not to be allowed to spare her dying
father anxiety and care? Is a wife not to be allowed to save her husband's life? I
don't know much about law; but I am certain that there must be laws permitting
such things as that. Have you no knowledge of such laws—you who are a lawyer?
You must be a very poor lawyer, Mr. Krogstad.(Ibsenpp. 44-45)

Both Nora and Christine are forced into unsatisfactory unharmonious

marriages. Christine marries an old seemingly well- to-do man because her
family is so poor and she wants to provide for her old mother and young
brothers. This makes her desert her love Krogstad. Krogstad, as a result, is
disappointed and emotionally disturbed which leads him to commit an
indiscretionary act in his job, the thing that costs him his reputation. Although
Krogstad wants to change he seems not to be able to get rid of the stigma of his
past act which chases him like a curse. He is even about to lose his job because
of it. That is why he feels obliged to fight for his future even at the cost of
blackmailing Nora. Another character is Dr.Rank who suffers from genetically
transferred disease that is a result of what he describes as his ''father's youthful
amusements''

''RANK. With death stalking beside me?--To have to pay this penalty for another man's
sin? Is there any justice in that? And in every single family, in one way or another, some
such inexorable retribution is being exacted'' (Ibsen p69)

A Doll's House is a problem play because it deals with a serious problem in

society. Problem plays intend to highlight certain problems and evoke the
interest and intention of the audience to the problem. They are usually designed
to change the public opinion. A Doll's House is a typical and significant
example of problem play. It questions women status in society and exposes the
ugliness of some of taken for granted conventions and habits. It is even said a
decade after Ibsen wrote "A Doll's House," laws were revised so that married
women in Norway did gain control over their own finances. Problem plays are
usually tragedies. The tragedy springs from the individual's conflict with
traditions. Some critics say that Ibsen killed off tragedy in its traditional form
but at the same time he revived tragedy from its artistic decline in the 19th
century.
"The Greek belief in a blind all-ruling Fate is revived in a form to
correspond with our present beliefs…Science has persistently and
consistently hammered into our consciousness the law of nature by which
the Past is responsible for the Present. "Heredity is Nemesis without her
mask; the last of the Fates, and the most terrible." … We are led in medias
res, into a portentous situation, with the crisis impending. The events
whose influences now conspire to the tragical working-out belong to the
long ago; our eyes are gradually and in a natural manner opened to the
past history, which is skillfully resolved into dialogue" (Otto)

Nora works against all odds to bring happiness to her house even if she has to
suffer. When she finds herself unappreciated she experiences a bitter sense of
disillusionment that makes it unbearable for her to live a false life. Her speech
at the end pins down the crisis that was prevalent in most households at that
time.

"NORA. It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with papa, he told me
his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed
from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me
his doll-child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls. And
when I came to live with you--
HELMER. What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?
NORA.[undisturbed] I mean that I was simply transferred from papa's hands
into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got
the same tastes as your else I pretended to, I am really not quite sure which—I
think sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When I look back on it, it
seems to me as if I had been living here like a poor woman--just from hand to
mouth. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you would
have it so. You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault
that I have made nothing of my life.

With a desire to startle the audience and make them think, Ibsen chooses to
make Nora desert her husband and children all of sudden which was neither
expected nor accepted at that time. That is why, some playhouses throughout
Europe at that time refused this end and demanded Ibsen to alter it and make
Nora stay for her children .Ibsen responded though the other end is less
effective and renders it a comedy rather than a tragedy and it still puts women
in the sacrificing side.
Works Cited
Brent, Liz. "REALISM IN THEATER AND DRAMA." Literary movements for students (2009):
668.

Encarta. Realisim in Literature. 2009.

Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House." ICON Classics, 2005.

Otto, Heller. Henrik Ibsen,Plays & Problems. Boston: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, 1912.