Ibsen

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Investigation of Power in Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ Nora Helmer is introduced in Act I as a character subjugated to the wills and desires of her husband; she is merely an object which Torvald, possesses. At the conclusion of Act III however, she has become sufficiently independent to arrive at her decision to leave the children, her husband and what life she had behind, as she slams the door on the family home. A significant transition of power has occurred and this is one of the major themes that Ibsen raises in his dramatic text ‘A Doll’s House.’ However, in examining the underlying issue of power presented by the text, one cannot simply look at the plight of Nora’s character, three major aspects of this theme need also to be

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michelle Creed, College of Letters and Sciences, National University San Bernardino Campus, 804 East Brier Drive, San Bernardino, CA 92408. Email: mcreed3701@gmail.com

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Euripides’s Medea alike, the playwrights’ respective female leads show distinct and reversed identity crises. Both plays portray the disenfranchisement of women in Nora and Medea; however, this either moulds or eradicates their identity. As such, this moulding is evident in Nora’s development from being a passive, malleable person enslaved to patriarchy with no identity into one whose epiphany prompts a self-initiated pursuit of the soul. Subjected to the same social conventions, Medea’s retaliation against her infidel husband causes a dissociation to her identity in her execution of detestable acts.

There is a huge difference in the judgments that are made in the moral system and the behaviors and the character trait the characters possess. This play is mainly written because Ibsen feels angry that people suffer from repression and are deprived of joy. He is surely optimistic to break free of society and to having the courage to be yourself and mainly to have ‘livesklegn’ and factors like class and gender should not determine. Soren Kierkegaard is one that understands Ibsen, ‘Boredom is root of all evil-the despairing refusal to be oneself’, just like all his other quotes it summarize the things that mattered to Ibsen. Society in Norway is one that militates against self-realization. You could have never been a complete individual in the 19ths century in

As a proponent of the woman as an individual, Ibsen used symbolism, amplification, and motifs to express his views. In addition he utilized metaphors as he compared Torvald’s view of Nora to a parent’s view of a child, or even to a “doll” (Ibsen 126). Ibsen also had Torvald refer to Nora as an

In 19th century Norway there is a clear understanding of which role the male and female should take and how it is difficult to get out of such a pattern; while Nora got out of this relationship with Torvald it struck the female audience and helped them realize how their lives are and how they have been treated as though they are the smaller person. In this play Ibsen makes it clear about the hardships women face with their daily lives and how complicated it is to be true to oneself; Ibsen might be challenging the idea to the females of the audience to break out of their society's norms and to be true to themselves. This drama is still true to today’s date seeing as how certain families are raised to believe that it is the man's job to lead a relationship and guide his children to grow up the same way often creating difficult times within a family and plenty of arguments. Ibsen might tell these families that it is okay to be yourself, and if other people in one’s family does not agree with being an individual, then one can break off from the toxicity, just like Nora

These plays, among Ibsen’s work greatly stirred the emotions of their audiences. Many found Ibsen’s plays disgusting, immoral and dreary. Not only did Ibsen’s plays clearly contradict Victorian values, but they forced people to question everyday norms. Audiences tended to think of theatre

In “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen was created during 1800s time period. This play helps shine a light on the gender roles of the 1800s while also creating a twist that was uncommon for this period. During this time period, women were left home to oversee the domestic duties, while men went to commuted to work (Hughes). Men were seen as physically superior but morally inferior to women; which is also portrayed within this book (Hughes). This play marks the beginning of Henrik Ibsen’s realist period, which he explored the ordinary lives of small-town people (Kirszner and Mandell 881). This “modern tragedy” helped make Ibsen famous internationally because of the real-life story it captured (Kirszner and Mandell 882). Henrik Ibsen uses an array of literary devices to help keep the reader captivated from beginning to end. Three of the most prominent literary devices used by Henrik Ibsen are symbolism, foreshadowing, and an array of themes. These literary devices help transform a basic play into a complex story of lies and deception.

This essay focuses on Ibsen’s way of representing women, it explains why does he represent them in that specific particular way and how the time, era and context he lived in affected this aim.