A Doll's House Context
- Created by: Becca Newman
- Created on: 03-02-20 11:33
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- A Doll's House Context
- Biographical
- Laura Kieler
- An acquaintance of Ibsen and his wife Suzannah
- ADH is based loosely on her
- Laura's husband got ill + she secretly borrowed money to go on a trip so he would be saved by warmer temperatures
- She couldn't repay the loans + forged a cheque which the bank realised
- Her husband filed for a divorce + when she had a breakdown he sent her to a mental asylum
- He removed the right for her to see her kids
- Her husband filed for a divorce + when she had a breakdown he sent her to a mental asylum
- She couldn't repay the loans + forged a cheque which the bank realised
- Like Ibsen, Rossetti also used experiences from her own life or historialal events
- An acquaintance of Ibsen and his wife Suzannah
- Notes for the tragedy of modern times
- This was a document Ibsen wrote in preparation for writing the final play
- It showed.....
- Subservient position of women who are judged by men
- Female confusion over 'right' and 'wrong' + patriarchal standards of authority
- Society robbing women of identity + emphasis of male power
- Female confusion over 'right' and 'wrong' + patriarchal standards of authority
- Subservient position of women who are judged by men
- If we see the play as a tragedy, we can discuss.....
- Hamartia - tragic flaw/error in judgement by Nora
- Peripeteia - reversal of fortune/turning point
- Hubris - display of excessive pride/self-confidence
- Anagnorisis - key moment of realisation
- Pathos - audience feeling of pity/sympathy/fear
- Anagnorisis - key moment of realisation
- Hubris - display of excessive pride/self-confidence
- Peripeteia - reversal of fortune/turning point
- Hamartia - tragic flaw/error in judgement by Nora
- Ibsen's link to noted feminists
- Ibsen was acquainted with several women who were discussing the position of women in Norway
- His wife Suzannah
- Her stepmother Magdalene Thoresen who was a leader of the feminist movement in Norway
- His wife Suzannah
- Ibsen was acquainted with several women who were discussing the position of women in Norway
- Laura Kieler
- Socio-historical and Cultural Contexts
- Social context - Bourgeois culture in late 19th century Norway
- 2nd half of 19th century Norway experienced rapid economic development
- To maintain bourgeois lifestyle + respectability you needed a good house + servants + expensive clothes
- Cost a substantial amount of money
- Why middle class men like Torval expressed money insecurity + hope for promotion
- Cost a substantial amount of money
- 'Yes it's a wonderful thing to know that one's position is assured and that one has an ample income.' - Nora
- 'Sqaunderbird'
- 'Always on the look out for some way to get money, but as soon as you have any it just runs through your fingers'
- Economic policies in society can exert pressure on people
- The suffering + inequality makes the play a 'social tragedy'
- AO5
- Marxist reading
- 'a common theme found.......is the exploitation of the weak and the poor by strong and the rich, and an obsession with material possession'
- 'The characters in 'A Doll's House' are all affected by the lack or acquisition of money, and their entire lives and way of thinking are based upon it.'
- 'a common theme found.......is the exploitation of the weak and the poor by strong and the rich, and an obsession with material possession'
- Eleanor Marx
- 'women are the creatures of an organized tyranny of men, as the workers are the creatures of an organized tyranny of idlers'
- Marxist reading
- The position of the wife and the mother in the bourgeois family
- Situation in Norway was different to in Victorian England
- Women were deemed incapable
- Couldn't enter financial agreements without male permission
- Couldn't take out a loan without husband's consent
- Mrs linde - 'A wife can't borrow money without her husband's consent'
- Couldn't take out a loan without husband's consent
- Couldn't enter financial agreements without male permission
- Women were deemed incapable
- Situation in Norway was different to in Victorian England
- The New Woman
- Women shoulnd't be relegated to traditional wife/mother roles
- If women had employment opportunities they would have to be given up for marriage
- A middle class man's status was improved by having a wife at home
- Men and women were spiritually different
- Nora - 'I was your little songbird just as before.....as I am now, I am no wife for you'
- Men and women were spiritually different
- Women shoulnd't be relegated to traditional wife/mother roles
- Darwin
- Origin of the Species (1859) made people + Ibsen question their faith
- ADH explores questions of disease, heredity + struggle of the individual towards meaning of life without religion
- Naturalism was being explored at the time
- Nora thinking for herself rather than what the Church has taught her
- Nora - 'Oh Torvald, I don't really know what religion means'
- Nora thinking for herself rather than what the Church has taught her
- Origin of the Species (1859) made people + Ibsen question their faith
- Naturalism + Realism
- Much Norwegian literature of 1950 onwards had a social/moral purpose
- Society was being seen as the principle cause of human suffering
- In realist drama........
- Characters were ordinary with believable dialogue
- Protagonist will be ordinary but might be capable fo heroism
- Emphasis is placed on the psychology of characters not the plot
- Common theme is protagonist facing personal/social injustice
- Stage time is handled like real time
- Sets/costumes conform to realistic society
- Characters tend to be representatives of lower/working class rather than the middle class
- Characters were ordinary with believable dialogue
- Much Norwegian literature of 1950 onwards had a social/moral purpose
- Social context - Bourgeois culture in late 19th century Norway
- Biographical
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