Ibsen "A Doll's House", or "Nora"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when serious, fatal events took place in almost all countries, a genius writer named Ibsen was born. "A Doll's House" - the work of this author, also known as "The Burrow", reflected the spirit of that time: rebellious thoughts, doubts, moral dilemmas, attempts to preserve human appearance even in the most difficult and controversial situations.

Many writers of the early 20th century pondered similar issues, feeling the breath of change and impending fateful events. Ordinary people also experienced a difficult period of metamorphosis and collapsing foundations, and they looked for answers in dramas, one of which is the work "A Doll's House". Henrik Ibsen is an old school writer-dramatist, and his creations flow very organically and easily from paper to stage and into the mouths of actors, which is why he gained great popularity as the author of plays staged all over the world. In Russia at that time, his works were staged mainly at the Moscow Art Theatre.

So, what kind of problems does Ibsen cover, whose "Doll's House" is so psychological and tangible thatcan each reader find a particle of himself in the characters of the play? It is worth referring to the biography of the writer. The playwright was a real man in the most classic sense of the word: stern, restrained, honest, principled, capable of sacrificing himself if circumstances so required. He considered the family and the institution of marriage in general to be an extremely important element for society; it was the issue of marital happiness that occupied the writer. And the first who was not afraid to highlight quite personal and deep moments from the life of a husband and wife, which were previously considered private, was Henrik Ibsen.

"A Doll's House" is a chamber work with a small number of characters. The antagonist is a woman named Nora, a wife and mother of children, accustomed to seeing the meaning of existence in the family and maintaining a home. But such a life does not bother her, because she sincerely loves both children and her husband, and everything would be fine if it were not for a dark secret. When Thorwald, Nora's husband, fell ill, she had to borrow money from a not-too-clean man who suddenly appears and begins to blackmail the woman. The moneylender wants to take a place in the bank where Torvald works, and sends threatening letters, one of which is found by her husband, who did not know anything before. He is so shocked by the truth revealed to him that he accuses his wife of cheating as if she were a real criminal - he is afraid for his career, he is afraid of scandal and does not try to spare his wife's feelings. It comes to the point that Torvald threatens to deprive his wife of the right to raise children. When passions reach their climax,the pawnbroker abruptly renounces his claim, deciding that he is demanding too much from the frightened woman.

But if the play ended like this, it wouldn't be Ibsen. "Doll House" closes its shutters, behind which the real drama unfolds. Torvald is happy that the blackmailer no longer interferes with his usual existence, and lives as if nothing had happened. But Nora could not forget her husband's behavior and forgive him. She understands that she built a castle in the air on a lie, and now it is crumbling before her eyes, because it turned out that self-sacrifice means nothing compared to the duty to be the “right” wife. The woman decides to leave home and utters fatal and shocking words for that time that she is, first of all, a person, and not a mother or spouse. So Henrik Ibsen proclaims the thesis of the new time that traditions need to step aside, that people should live differently, and women should be equal members of society.