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A Doll’s House- Text Notes
Act One
Context: 1887 Married Women’s Property Act- Before this, a woman had to give everything
to her husband and would not be able to keep her children following a divorce
...
They aren’t very rich, but are middle-class
...

Nora colludes in her own oppression- she plays along with Torvald’s dehumanisation of her
...

Bob receives a trumpet- can always be heard and overpowers all the instruments in
an orchestra
...


Torvald does not let Nora have her own interior life, e
...
he forbids her to eat macaroons,
“Was Little Miss Sweet-Tooth naughty in town today?”
“A secure job, a good income”-Torvald’s priorities in life reflect the society of the time
...

Exposition- when someone fills the audience in on the story- “I remember, your father died
about that time”-Mrs Linde
Linear progression- Nora enters in one door and exits out another- unlike Alison, who goes
back to Jimmy at the end of the play

Victorian Attitudes to Debt and Borrowing Money
Debtor’s Prisons- prisons for people unable to pay their debts, rent or taxes
Until 1970, it was technically possible to be imprisoned for being in debt and unable to pay
...
In some
places, there were separate prisons for debtors, but in most local prisons, the debtors were
simply kept apart from other prisoners in their own wings
...

Debtors did not have to do hard labour
...

Normally, if a debtor had family, they would accompany him to prison
...
They were not allowed to own land (until
the 1887 Married Women’s Property Act), to take out loans or even take their children and
leave their husbands
...

In the Opening Scenes:
“No borrowing
...
When a household relies on debt, it’s slavery, it’s vile”- Torvald
“A wife can’t borrow without her husband’s permission”-Mrs Linde

Opening Scene Notes (Continued)
The idea of debt is tied to morality; moral Victorians were supposed to die without debt or
sin- debt was almost linked to sin (social stigma)
Children were also punished for crimes, e
...
starving children stealing food- unrelenting
legal system; ‘black or white’ approach
Nora has a modern sense of morality- “But I’m going to find out- which of us is right: society
or me
...

Women were either presented as pure and angelic or the complete opposite, e
...
“the fallen
woman”(see later notes)
The era of hypocrisy is shown in Torvald’s approach to saving Nora- once he realises she is in
debt and has forged a signature, he says she is no longer his wife in his eyes, “I won’t have
you near the children”
Both A Doll’s House and Look Back in Anger present an intimate look into these marriages
due to the naturalistic set
...


The closest achievement Nora has is working “like a man”
...

Theme of physically sick vs
...
g
...
“Kristine gave me these”-she is use to lying to
people instead of keeping her proper Victorian vows to be loyal, truthful and pure
...
Her daughter will take on the same role as
her and will be passed from her father to her husband
...

Women could not take out a mortgageunless she had a man’s permission (e
...
her husband
or her father) until the mid-20th century: “A woman in work is taking a man’s job”-Victorian
belief
...


Act One Summary
Nora comes in after a day of shopping for Christmas
...
She flirtatiously asks him for some money which the audience later finds out
is to pay off her debt
...
Nora’s school friend, Kristine,
comes to visit for the first time in years
...
Nora tells Kristine about
the borrowing to which she is shocked
...
Dr Rank also visits and we learn from him that Krogstad is
“morally sick”
...
We learn
that Nora forged her father’s signature, similar to Krogstad’s indiscretion
...
Nora
begs Torvald but to no avail
...


Act Two Summary
Nora invites Kristine over to help her alter her Tarantella dress
...
Nora flirts with Torvald in an
attempt to secure Krogstad’s job but Torvald still sends his dismissal
...
Rank visits Nora to
tell her he is terminally ill
...
He leaves and Krogstad
enters
...
He leaves and Nora tells Kristine that the ‘miracle’ is

going to happen after she explains that Krogstad lent her the money
...
We begin to see a change in Nora as she starts the Tarantella, dancing as if
her ‘life depended on it’
...


Act Three Summary
Music is heard from the apartment upstairs
...

Krogstad shows up and wonders why she's asked him to talk
...
She tells him she had to do it because the
man had money and she had to support her family
...
Christine admits that she feels the same
way and suggests that these two shipwrecks get together
...
Christine tells him not to
...
Nora and Torvald come back from the party
...
They notice Christine, and greet her
...
Christine takes her leave
...
He spent
the day doing medical research and has found something for sure
...
Rank replies that he will be invisible
...
He notices that someone had been trying to pick the lock
...
Nora blames it on the children
...
Nora tells him he should read
his mail
...
He bursts in and asks if Krogstad's letter is true
...
Torvald makes no mention of
trying to save her
...
A maid enters with a letter for Nora
...
The letter is from
Krogstad
...
Torvald tells Nora that he forgives her
...
It as if his possession of
her has grown even greater
...
Nora accuses Torvald and her father of doing her wrong
...
She says she's leaving him and the children
...
She exits
...
Hope flares up in him
...


The New Drama
During the mid-19th century, there was a gathering insistence that art should follow science
in a more ‘realistic’investigation of the physical world, thereby joining the March of Progress
...
Émile Zola had argued in 1873
that playwrights should be scientists too, “realistically” and tough-mindedly examining in
the lab of the stage the physical operation of human society and consciousness
...

But the “realism”of an art based on illusion, as is drama, was immediately challenged, even
by some of those playwrights labeled as ‘realists’- Ibsen fused realism with symbolism and
flirted with expressionism
...


Marriage in the Victorian Era

The Rules:





Victorians were encouraged to marry within the same class
...

An unmarried woman could inherit money and property after the age of 21, but once
married, all control would revert to her husband
...

Women married because they had a lack of options; they were not formally educated,
and were only instructed in domestic duties
...


Victorian marriage was a social and financial contract from which it was assumed both
parties would benefit
...
The domestic imagery of the
mise en scene at the beginning of both plays suggests a realistic portrayal of marriage,
observed through the ‘fourth wall’
...


A Woman’s Place is in the House
A Woman’s Qualities
To get ready for courtship and marriage, a girl was groomed like a racehorse
...
They were also
expected to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and ignorant of intellectual opinionJimmy accuses Alison of being this
...
A gentlewoman ensured that the home was a
place of comfort for her husband and family from the stresses of industrial Britain
...
He assumed his house would
run smoothly so he could get on with making money
...
Many women adopted the tailor made garment that
showed their more serious concern to be recognised as thinking beings with much to offer
society beyond being a social asset for her husband
...
Many joined
the Fabian society, a group of non-revolutionary thinking socialists
...
Most importantly, brave

women campaigned for votes for women and birth control information even though many
never lived to see the changes they fought for
...
A woman was not encouraged to wear any kind of cosmetics or any other
adornments or to wear clothing that showed her skin or even any stocking or other
undergarment
...

As a result, women were not to advertise their bodies to men
...
Other restrictions included the discouragement of using the word ‘leg’in the
presence of the opposite gender or obligatory use of bathing machines
...

Preachers often argued that prostitution could happen to any woman who violated the
wishes of her husband
...

‘The Angel in the House’ is a narrative poem by Coventry Patmore, first published in 1854
...
It was an
idealised account of Patmore’s courtship of his first wife Emily, whom he believed to be the
perfect woman, with a nature of ideal femininity
...

In 1859, Charles Darwin suggested some species, including humans, had survived and
developed by adapting themselves to existing conditions
...
Nora’s determination to think for herself rather than accept what the Church
has taught her, and Helmer’s shock at the very idea, would have found echoes all over
Scandinavia
...
The shift in
Norway from agriculture to manufacturing had a profound effect on women and the family
...
Now, men and women sat in church as married couples and responded
as part of a family unit rather than as a wider group
...
However, for families as poor as Ibsen’s, it was almost impossible for these rights
to be used, and working women earned far less than men, had little prestige and, in the case
of the middle class, had to give up work if they chose to marry
...

Throughout Europe, agitation for the rights of women had long been a part of the fabric of
revolution
...
Campaigning for the rights of
the working class in France, she declared that socialism and feminism were inextricably
linked
...

Socialist feminists like Eleanor Marx embraced the possibility of debate on what was known
as the ‘Woman Question’
...

During Ibsen’s lifetime, parliament passed new legislation about divorce, age of consent,
venereal disease and homosexuality
...
Feminist critics have pointed out that patriarchal society has
always seen the essential natures of men and women as different, but not as equal
...

Both Helmer and Nora can be seen as performing their gender stereotypes
...
”Both of them literally dress up in order to express their stereotypes more
clearly: Nora as the peasant dancing for Helmer’s pleasure, he as the master of the dance in a
cloak which suggests his ‘great wings’
...
In Victorian society, the home was the basis of
morality and a sanctuary free from the corruption of the city
...
This
perception of femininity led to the popular conclusion that women were more susceptible to
disease and illness, and was the basis for diagnosis of insanity in many female patients in the
19th century
...
With so little,
power, control and independence, depression, anxiety and stress were common among
Victorian women struggling to cope with a static existence under the thumb of strict gender
ideals and unyielding patriarchy
...
For hysterical
women and their families, the asylum offered a convenient and socially acceptable excuse for
inappropriate and potentially scandalous behaviour
...
The plight was closely associated with the anonymity granted by the city, which left
women vulnerable to temptation, alone and outside the protection of the home
...
This was usually at her husband or father’s request, and she
generally had no right to contest or appeal
...
The doctor ruled the asylum like a father ruled his family
...

Elizabeth Packard won freedom after being confined to an asylum by her husband
...


Hysteria and Psychoanalysis
Most Victorian physicians claimed women were more susceptible to nervous breakdown and
neurasthenia
...
The most commonly prescribed
treatment for an unmarried woman showing signs of hysteria was to find a husband
...
Jimmy rejects the weak female

stereotype but generalises about ‘the female’
...


Morality












Difference between right or wrong, e
...
homosexuality was immoral but is no longermoral relativism (shown by Nora)
Victorian morality, e
...
wrong for a woman not to fulfil her marital contractual
obligations
...

Krogstad: ‘The law is not interested in reasons” morality = society is immoral
Nora: “I did it for love” Nora’s moral relativism is almost naïve, but she has made a
marriage contract with Torvald and has to fulfil it
...

Male gaze- women are observed by men- a modern audience would recognise this
...

“My independent little creature needs a helping hand?”  Dramatic irony: Nora has
saved his life but he does not know this
...

Torvald scares Nora by unknowingly telling her that she has polluted her children’s
souls, “Each breath children take in a house like that is a lungful of deadly germs”
...


Themes in the play







Marriage
Men/Women
Social class
Individual vs
...
The fantasy is ending
...


Tarantella- An Italian Folk Dance
In Italian culture, the word ‘tarantella’ evokes images of a frenzied spinning dance
traditionally played at weddings
...
In the courtship version of the dance, the
woman uses rapidity and liveliness to excite the love of her partner
...
The dance is one of

unity and separation which sees the dancers flying into each other’s arms, only to be bound
away again
...

Origins
There are three known origins of the Tarantella:
1
...
Town folk would play music and the afflicted person would dance non-stop to
avoid succumbing to the poison
...
A religious story of the St Vitus Dance tells us that it originated from an outbreak of
dancing in the Middle Ages
...
They danced and sang so loudly that they disturbed the priest
...
The outbreak of dancing went unexplained until the realisation that they had
been bitten by a tarantula
...
In the villages of Toranto and Tarantum, women working in the fields would use
frantic dancing when they were bitten by spiders in order to sweat out the venom
through their pores
...
In Buzabatt, Persia, there is a Tarantella dance similar
to the one in southern Italy
...
The Saltarello in
Rome and Venice also bear some resemblance to the Tarantella
...
He is aware of the need to
change but his methods are also immoral
...

Torvald: considers himself as one of the most moral characters, reflected in his attitudes
and views
...
Ibsen uses him
as a comment on society’s views in this period
...

Mrs Linde: considers herself to be a moral character in that she gave up her life for others
...
Has she done anything
immoral?  She married out of a sense of duty to her family rather than for love, making
Krogstad bitter in the process
...
She begins to see herself as immoral
...

Dr Rank: makes many comments on people who are morally rotten
...

Imagery






Inheritance: morality can be passed on from parents to their children
...
Ibsen challenges the ideas of morality through the
character of Nora
...


Language






Nora: mixture of wheedling and assertiveness
Torvald: sense of his own importance
...
There is self-righteousness in her morality
...
No debt! Never borrow!

Nora:

Being a lawyer is so uncertain… especially if one isn’t prepared to touch any
case that isn’t- well- quite nice
...


Mrs Linde:

I am both proud and happy that I was able to make my mother’s last months
on earth comparatively easy
...
There’s a moral cripple in
with Helmer at this very moment
...

The law does not concern itself with motives
...


Torvald:

Krogstad didn’t do that (take his punishment)
...
And that is what has morally destroyed him
...
Every breath that
the children draw in such a house contains the germs of evil
...


Nora:

I’m telling you, no-one knows anything about this
...
(Prepared to accept responsibility)

Torvald:

… for 8 whole years, she who was my pride and joy- a hypocrite, a liarworse, worse- a criminal! … All your father’s recklessness and instability he
has handed on to you! No religion, no morals, no sense of duty! I am
condemned to humiliation and ruin simply for the weakness of a woman
...
It was
tantamount to a rejection of God and was part of a general revolution of ideas and theories in
the 19th Century
...

Free will became more of a possibility once the absolute belief in God had been shaken
...
” New moral codes have to be developed
...


Social Realism
Ibsen’s plays are a microscopic dissection of society and human consciousness (psychology
over action)
...

Use of authentic setting and props  ‘realism’/naturalism
But also uses symbolism
Rise of middle-class bourgeoisie in 19th Century
Social realism interested in middle-class domestic life and capital as power
The stage apron was discarded and bordered with a proscenium arch effect; as if it was a
framed picturethe audience were peering through the fourth wall
There was no authorial intrusion on stage/no real conclusion to the plays
No moral is clearly pointed out- the play is not didactic (moralistic- good people flourish and
the bad are punished)  the meaning resides on the subtext and details
Ibsen adopted ‘realism’ to use the surface to show depths
‘Realism’ extends to psychological realism- Ibsen: “I am certain of the individual in every
aspect of his humanity
...

He tackled unconventional subjects using the conventional well-made play structure (e
...

syphilis, homosexuality, war, women’s rights, and euthanasia) suspense new radical
untried ideas, like Osborn

In the late 18th century, romanticism had given way to the ‘Enlightenment’ in which scientific
approaches were favoured over religion or orthodoxy- feelings had given way to scientific
discovery

Act Two (continued)
“Torvald hates dress-making” – misogynistic  Torvald does not want to see the reality
associated with women and does not want to see anything before it is in its perfect form (like
Jimmy)
“He’d have lost his job if you hadn’t been sent to inquire
...
He is in a tenuous position
and is afraid of losing his respectability, or rather his patina of respectability
There is more social mobility in ADH- Torvald has broken into his new position of bank
manager
...

“You mean if my little terrier got her way? I’d be a laughing stock”  Torvald wants respect
and is concerned with appearances and what everyone else will think
...

“And they say he is a good worker
...


Nora:

Yes
...


There is a qui pro quo here, with dramatic irony playing a part
...

“I won’t hear; make all the noise you want
...
She
practices meaningless things while he takes on his role as a man and works
...

“La lala
...
However, Nora does face up to reality, while Alison stays with Jimmy
...
I don’t really need help”  Nora has her own moral codes,
whereas Torvald sticks to society’s morals
...


The Influence of Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the
Rights of Women, 1792) and John Stuart Mill (On Liberty,
1859)

Wollstonecraft, who Ibsen would have likely read, decried, “the prevailing opinion, that
women were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be
obtained by their charms and weaknesses”
...

In Torvald’s eyes, Nora is nothing more than a silly “squirrel” and a “little skylark”
(diminutives), whose thoughts are non-sensical and typical to any other woman’s
...
This is best depicted by
her self-realisation and awakening towards the end of the play;
“[Daddy] used to call me his doll-child, and he played with me the way I used to play with
my dolls
...
”
Alison is similar to Nora in this way, as she adopts Jimmy’s beliefs and doesn’t challenge
them
...
Once
accompanied by the gift of beauty, these attributes will ensure them the protection of a man
(their main purpose was to marry and bear children)
...
”
This is evident in Torvald’s treating Nora like a child
...
On the other hand, he also
treats her like a sexual object that he fantasises about
...
This is in line with the Victorian fantasy
of making women into pure objects
...
g
...

John Stuart Mill, an influential philosopher, wrote in his essay, “The Subjection of Women”,
that women were, “wholly under the rule of men and each, in private, being under the
obligation of obedience to the man with who she has associated her identity”
...


Ibsen and the Well-Made Play
“A plan is to a play what it is to a house” – Ernest Legouvé




1830s- Eugène Scribe created a new model of dramatic structure; the pièce bien-faite
(well-made play), based on the playwright’s ability to tell a dramatic story while
generalising the maximum interest and excitement in the audience
...
















Ibsen may have been more interested in character than in plot, in the psychological
histories and experiences of his characters as they react to the problems of
contemporary society and the agonies of the spiritual states
...

Late ‘point of attack’  facts are commodities
...

Usually, the audience knows more than the characters do
...

o Act 2  Mrs Linde wrongly guesses the identity of Nora’s creditor and in
doing so, gives Nora the idea of asking for money
...

The main action of the play hinges upon the delivery of Krogstad’s letter and on the
moment Torvald reads it
...

Final discussion between Nora and Torvald was the “theatrical novelty” of Ibsen’s
dramaturgy; “an exposition in the first act, situation in the second, and unravelling in
the third- the discussion is the test of the playwright”
...

The way in which a woman appeared was a direct reflection of her husband
...
Rank looks on, standing by the piano” this is an example
of the male gaze and the objectification of Nora
...
This is a metaphor for the final scene
...
”  This was considered immodest, and so, it could be
thought that Nora is casting off society’s morals here
...
”  This is similar to when Alison ignores Jimmy- it is a passive
aggressive sign of protest
...
”  Nora cannot use a form of protest verbally so she uses
dance as an outlet
...
Women’s silence is taken as consent but is actually a form of protest
...

Rank: Let me play
...

Rank:

(to Helmer as they go in) She’s not… ah…?

Helmer:

No, no, no
...


This is a reference to Nora’s suspected pregnancy
...
Therefore, biological blame was placed on being a woman, which led to
belief that there was something shameful about being a woman
...
This is a reference to the Victorian legend of the “madwoman in the
attic”- a hidden aspect of women that they were not allowed to share
...
This is similar to LBIA, when
Jimmy objectifies Alison in the third person, “That’s her, isn’t it? Behold, the Lady
Pusillanimous!”

Act Three Notes
“Lies, deceit- a criminal!” Torvald’s hyperbolic speech here is typical of the Victorian
melodrama
...
Jimmy is the opposite of this, as he is more
realistic than Torvald
...
Do you understand what you’ve done?” This is the qui pro quo
of the scene, and there is a crystallisation that the miracle will not happen for Nora
...
” This shows Torvald’s possession
...
He changes his love for her almost immediately
...
Torvald also always takes the moral high ground, like Jimmy
...

“Say you’re ill
...

“You loved me as all wives should love their husbands
...

“So I shared your taste, or pretended to, I’m not sure which
...
This is also seen in how Jimmy forces his opinions on Alison
...
Other images (Nora's

hiding things, the Christmas tree, macaroons, the loan, Nora wanting to 'tear herself to
pieces') are also effective
...
Obvious examples include Torvald's
pet names for Nora, her petty lying and deliberate seductiveness, money exchanged for love
(with both Torvald and Rank), money equating to class (central to the play), Nora's almost
prostitution of herself, children's games, the stripped Christmas tree, black clothing, the
Tarantella dance, the 'light' Nora offers Rank in his last scene and this thanking for it, the
masquerade costume, the stove and the closed door to Helmer's study behind which he reads
Krogstad's letter
...
The language is economical, pregnant (loaded with meanings)- not because all
speeches are short and crisp, but because hardly any speech includes words which don't
relate to the drama
...
This is a sacrifice of one kind of 'poetry' for another
...


Thesis and Tragedy
"There are two kinds of spiritual law, two kinds of conscience: one is a man's, the other
quite different, is woman's
...
" -- Ibsen
We can link this back to the three doors- the fact that Nora is secluded from the male domain
and the outside world, and forced into the female domain of the nursery shows that women
are always subjected to man's views
...

At the end, the wife in the play feels trapped, and does not know what is right or wrong
...


Beyond Feminism
On the occasion of Ibsen's 70th birthday in 1898, the Norwegian Association for Women's
Rights gave a dinner in his honour
...
I'm not sure I know what they are
...

There is no contradiction between his speech and his notes of 20 years before
...

On the issue between Nora and society: either she is ignorant, immature and irresponsible as
Helmer says she is, or she is right in breaking a law that will not let her spare her dying
father anguish and save her husband's life
...
In either case, Nora is 'right', society, 'wrong'
...

Tragedy: But thesis is not play; Nora's triumph is tainted
...
To assume that such was Ibsen's intention
is to have difficulties reconciling it with the actual characters: Nora, selfish and silly, slyly
manipulative, a romantic sentimentalist; Helmer, successful, protective, and intelligent, with
taste, wit and charm, affectionate, ardent lover and a 'good' husband
...
Nora is naive, possibly a less than
ideal mother, certainly prostituted in her role as his helpless, adorable little plaything
...
The society that lets men
'own' women forces women to disown themselves
...


Act Three Notes
This act is when we finally see the striking differences between Torvald and Nora
...
However, when Nora faces
the moral dilemma of having to spare her dying father anguish and save her husband's life,
she takes on jobs, and risks everything by forging a signature to save her husband's life
...

It could be thought that Mrs Linde needs Nora to realise how toxic her environment is and
for Torvald to realise what Nora has done for him
...
Far more becoming
...
Helmer is more concerned with the luxury of
having time to embroider, and does not want to see knitting as he believes it is ugly
...
Also, as Mrs Linde is not married, Torvald believes that he can tell her what to dohe can put her in her place as he is a man
...

"For little Nora
...
" Nora infantilises herself along with Torvald, so no one
expects her to know anything- they underestimate her
...

"Won't? Won't? I'm your husband!" This conveys Torvald's entitlement to Nora
...
" Rank and Nora both protect Torvald, but he still thinks that he
is more important
...


Men's Conjugal Rights in the Victorian Era


A bride had to obey as part of her vows before God
...

Adultery was grounds for divorce for the man, but not the woman
...
Sir Matthew Hale
said in 1736 that it was impossible for a husband to be tried for rape, because, through
marriage, the wife had "given herself up" sexually to her husband and could never retract
that consent
...

As Oswald Dawson put it in 1895, a wife was, "at the mercy of the carnal appetite of the
man
...


Comparing Ibsen and Osborne
Biographical Context
Ibsen
 Born 20/3/1828 in Skein, Norway
...
His father took to drink
and became violent towards Ibsen's
mother
...

 Age 16- apprenticed to a pharmacist
...
he became
involved with a young girl and got her
pregnant- he financially supported
the child but did not have anything to
do with it
...
He
became involved with the artists and
playwrights of his day
...

 1858- married and became Artistic
Director of the Norwegian Theatre
 Became well-known- especially due
to the controversial ADH and this
helped his financial success as well
...


Osborne
 Born in London, 12/12/1929
 His father was a commercial artistOsborne adored him but despised his
mother, a cockney barmaid: "She was
my disease"
...

 He was educated privately at Belmont
College due to a legacy from his
father but was expelled with few
formal qualifications
...

 1950: married Pamela Lane
...
This was his third play
...

 After mixed critical reception, the
play went on to be a massive
commercial success and Osborne
became a very wealthy young man
...

 Continued to write plays, screenplays
and 2 autobiographies- his last play
was a 'déjà vu' sequel to LBIA
...


Historical Contexts
Ibsen

Osborne

REVOLUTION: fever of revolution felt
throughout Europe and challenged accepted
traditions
...

MODERN INDUSTRIALISED SOCIETY:
Norway was capitalist and industrialised
...

BIRTH OF BOURGEOSIE: power still lay in
the hands of the judiciary, academics and
armed forces, but new social groups were
forming: an industrial working class, largely
powerless; an expanding middle class, and a
more socially mobile bourgeoisie of lawyers
and officials
...
The 'Angel in the House' motif was
seen as ideal
...
The
rights of women, however, were beginning to
rear their head
...
The government was not
responsible for you or your family
...
Britain was a
'world player'
...
International
scene= fraught with danger- Berlin, Ireland,
Palestine and of course, the threat of the A
bomb was never far away
...

ORGANISED RELIGION: seen in a more
sceptical light as out of touch with the youth
and as another 'ruling' institution
...


WOMEN: Post-war women were still tied to
the home and domestic chores
...
However,
divorce is still frowned upon and the family
is seen as the ideal state
...

However, the idea that a 'meritocracy would
supersede the reign of old school ties' did not
quite work out
...

END OF BRITISH EMPIRE: 1950s- empire
was crumbling and most countries had now
obtained independence- desperate concern
about the decline in Britain's position on the
world stage, its economic depression and its
loss of imperial presence
...


Social Contexts
Ibsen
VICTORIAN ATTITUDES: very traditional
and fixed- centred around morality and
focussed on appearances
...
Patmore's poem became a
symbol for the ideal wife
...

Young people felt betrayed and lack a sense
of identity
...

WOMEN: now benefited from equal
education, the right to vote and own property

maintained that women's rights were not at
the forefront of the play- he believed that
self-liberation was more important than
specifically female liberation
...
Due to increased trade
through the industrial revolution, the new
bourgeoisie was emerging and it is this new
'middle class' that realist theatre was
examining
...
The
newly established middle class was very
frightened of debt as their position in society
was tenuous
...
Roles
within marriage were clearly defined
...
Instead, class positions became
more clearly defined as working class,
middle, upper-middle, upper class and the
aristocracy
...
Children
stayed at school until 15 years of age
...

Education for girls was seen as less
important
...


Literary Contexts
Ibsen
REACTION TO ROMANTICISM AND
VICTORIAN MELODRAMA: Towards the
end of the 19th century, there was
widespread dissatisfaction with prevalent
theatrical style with its focus on emotional
intensity and melodrama, rather than
realistic situations
...
'Modernism' began to emerge
...
Dramatists like Terrence
Rattigan has been writing plays since 1936
and they had not changed much in tone or
subject since its origins
...
Any theatre that was going to
succeed would at least have to offer them an
insight into their lives the way TV did
...

BIRTH OF REALISM IN DRAMA: Move to
USE OF REALISM AND NATURALISM:
create more realistic stage sets, lighting and
Unlike Rattigan and his contemporaries who
costume as well as creating more realistic
attempted to use poetry in theatre, Osborne
dialogue
...

power to shock
...

BIRTH OF NATURALISM: coined by Émile
KITCHEN SINK DRAMA: term coined to
Zola as a way of speak the truth in plain
explore the type of social drama that was
language based in everyday situations
...
LBIA
was the first play of this genre
...

described by a critic as an "angry young
man"- term coined to describe a group of
writers including Kingsley Amis, who were
writing at this time and shared common
themes such as pessimism, anti-

SOCIAL REALISM: combination of realistic
form with social subject matter
...


establishment feeling and lack of identity
...

Heavily pessimistic- we are more interested
in what is causing Jimmy's anger than any
real plot
...

 Considered so shocking, most
audiences initially encountered it in a
modified form
...

Nora's rejection of marriage and
motherhood scandalised Europe
...

 Term "Ibsenite" was coined by critic
Clement Scott and he thought it
denoted "an unlovely, selfish creed"
or "a gross and almost putrid
indecorum"
 But some critics like GB Shaw
thought that Ibsen was the "greatest
living poet and moral teacher"
 Recent productions have focussed on
the several relationships within the
play and have used 'real' doll houses
in their performances
...
But
it's young, young, young"
 Milton Schulman said it was a "selfpitying snivel"
 Kenneth Tynan: "I agree that LBIA is
likely to remain a minority taste
...
I estimate it at roughly
6,733,000 which is the number of
people in this country aged between
20 and 30
...
"
 Not financially successful during its
first run, despite tremendous
excitement and controversy around
it
...
It has been produced
around the world and is still being
performed today
...


Ibsen
TITLE: ADH or "Et Dukkehjen" is a
metaphor for the fact that Torvald and Nora
are only 'playing' at being married
...
This metaphor is extended
throughout and frequently appears as a
motif
...
It was unusual to have a female
protagonist at the time
...
Most of the characters 'look
back' to their past but Jimmy is 'angry'
because the present does not fulfil him, nor
does it gives him any sense of purpose or
identity
...

SOCIAL ISSUES AT ITS CORE: marriage,
education, social class

Comparing Plot
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Both protagonists feel that they have lost individual identity and are playing a 'role'
...

The two plays are centred on a dysfunctional, disintegrating marriage
...

In both plays, an outsider arrives to complicate the plot (Helena in LBIA and
Krogstad in ADH)
Both plays look back to the past with a sense of anger; Nora is angry with her father
and Torvald for treating her like a doll, while Jimmy looks back to the past with
regret, as do Alison and Colonel Redfern
...

Nora willingly plays her 'role' at least for a while
...

Both protagonists feel alienated from the society in which they live
...

At the end, both women 'lose' their children
...

Jimmy verbalises his anger from the opening lines of the play and is then 'beaten
down' at the end
...

Both plays present someone who has suffered because they adhere to society's
expectations:
o Mrs Linde married to be able to support her family, and then has no one to
work or live for
...

o Colonel Redfern is part of the 'old' British Empire- he represents old values
...

Both plays give examples of characters who suffer because they do not adhere to
society's rules:
o Dr Rank's father led an unhealthy and 'immoral' life- he suffers terminally
because of this
...

Anne-Marie had to give up her own child, and her role as a mother, to care for
Nora
...




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