The extent to which Ibsen directly sympathized with feminists is still debated, but this is somewhat irrelevant when considering his portrayal of women. Ibsen had a deep understanding of the nature of women and a strong interest in the manner in which women were treated by society. This resulted in the creation of female protagonists such as Nora Helmer, in A Doll’s House, and Hedda Gabler, in a work of the same name. The character traits of each woman are remarkably developed and the portrayal of marital relationships is equally convincing. Ibsen’s emphasis on the Victorian husband’s attitude towards his wife provides tremendous insight.
The manner in which the behavior of married couples was dictated by society is explored by Ibsen in A Doll’s House, partly through Torvald’s blind determination to adhere to the right set of rules. David Thomas goes so far as to say that ‘Torvald unthinkingly lives out his role as the authoritarian husband’ as ‘men were far more likely to be dominated by the social prejudices of their day’ (Thomas 73). Ibsen highlights this notion by giving Torvald a dominant role over Nora which is sometimes almost comical in its intensity. He takes delight in perceiving his wife as a silly childlike figure, affectionately taunting her by referring to ‘you and your frivolous ideas’, and moaning in what is clearly an approving manner that she is ‘just like a woman’ (Ibsen 2). When she takes an interest in Dr. Rank’s health matters, Torvald exclaims gleefully, ‘Look at our little Nora talking about laboratory tests!’ (Ibsen 71). He is not unlike a proud father, amused that his daughter has expressed naÔve curiosity regarding a matter o…
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…understand the potential of women, Ibsen makes his own perceptions particularly convincing.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Clurman, Harold. Ibsen. New York: Macmillan. 1977
Heiberg, Hans. Ibsen. A Portrait of the Artist. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami. 1967
Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998
McFarlane Henrik Ibsen, preliminary notes for A Doll’s House, dated 19 October 1878, in “A Doll’s House: Commentary,”
Appendix II to The Oxford Ibsen, vol. V, trans. James Walter McFarlane (London, 1961
Northam, John. “Ibsen’s Search for the Hero.” Ibsen. A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. 1965
Shaw, Bernard. “A Doll’s House Again.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1979.
Thomas, David. Henrik Ibsen. New York: Grove, 1984
Comparing Courage and Cowardice in A Doll’s House, Ghosts and Hedda Gabler
Courage and Cowardice in A Doll’s House, Ghosts and Hedda Gabler
All successful drama consists of conflict, whether between or within characters. Henrik Ibsen’s work, A Doll’s House is no exception. Ibsen’s play studies Nora’s early courage and her confirmation of that courage at the end of the play. Nora’s strength of character in forging her father’s signature on a loan, and the repercussions of that act, provide much of the driving force for the drama. But Nora’s great choice remains until the last act. She speaks of “the most wonderful thing,” she has countless opportunities to escape from her dilemma through the assistance of Krogstad or Rank, but it is not until the final pages of Act IV that her final decision, and that resounding door slam, emphasize Nora’s final courageous choice to leave her husband and unhealthy marriage.
If A Doll’s House takes an early act of courage as its driving force, its successor, Ghosts, uses one of cowardice. Mrs. Alving’s early failure to reveal her husband’s true character and actions to his children provides the “tragic flaw” for t…