Ibsen Context

Ibsen Ghosts

Ghosts goes even further in its attack on moral hypocrisy by showing a family also destroyed by duty and respectability.

Negative review - DT

restless, illogical, fractious and babyish little wife. - Daily Telegraph 1889

Ibsen Ghosts

Ghosts goes even further in its attack on moral hypocrisy by showing a family also destroyed by duty and respectability.

Negative review - DT

restless, illogical, fractious and babyish little wife. - Daily Telegraph 1889

Germany ending

Hedwig Niemann-Raaba refused to perform

Banned in England

Breaking a butterfly - Jones and Herman 1884 - copied plot with a heroic Torvald who forgives Nora

Andrew Tate men

Alpha male rhetoric

Taylor Swift inequality

A man does something: it’s strategic. A woman does the same thing: it’s calculated. - 2018

1890 Norway

legal authority of husband over wife was abolished

1854 poem

angel in the house - coventry patmore

archetype of late 19th c

new woman championed female freedom - ‘typically middle class, intellectual, rebellious, politically active and independent.’ - sophie duncan

1804

napoleonic code - women were financially dependent on their husbands

positive reception

Ibsen's exploration of women's rights and the search for personal identity is both daring and revolutionary. This play has the ability to provoke introspection and inspire change in society. - The Guardian 1893

Punch cartoon

large woman confronting her cowering husband shouting, ‘yes William, I’ve thought a deal about it and I find I’m nothing but your doll and dickey-bird, so I’m going.’ - Ibsen in Brixton 1891

refusal to see

The earl of Jersey, governor of Australia and his wife - 1880