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Symbolism in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen Essay example

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Symbolism in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is perhaps one of the most hotly debated plays to come out of the 19th century. The 19th century continued the process of the demystification that began with the Enlightenment. Because of the discoveries of the Enlightenment, humans could no longer be sure about their place in the universe. This, of course, had an impact on the theater. The movement toward realism, which, like the 19th century in general, was an attempt to become more scientific. Ibsen is considered by many as the father of realism, and one of the plays that belong to Ibsen's realism period is A Doll's House. But the play would come to be noted for more reasons than its …show more content…

In order for Ibsen to create a modern hero out of a Victorian housewife he had to rely on all the tools of the trade. One of these tools that he employed in this and in other plays was symbolism.

Mining symbolism in Ibsen can be a difficult task indeed. Ibsen is first and foremost a poet; to the point where even his prose sounds like poetry. Every line and every phrase comes across as packed full of meaning and symbolism. It has been observed about A Doll's House, "that literally not a phrase is without its direct contribution to the structure" (Bradbrook 85), and that "One of the marvels of Ibsen's craft is that he hardly wastes a word" (Clurman 112). Symbolism in Ibsen is not limited to the set devices, such as the Christmas tree. But because we are dealing with realism, even phrases that come across just as ordinary every day speech are symbolic: "In Ibsen's theatre the symbolic is always the real seen from another perspective--often a perspective a play's characters try to evade...Such symbolism...permeates Ibsen's dramatic method because, to the 'awakened' imagination, it permeates reality" (Johnson xiii). This paper will discuss

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