A Doll's House context (A03)

When was ‘A Doll’s House’ published?

1879

What was expected of women within Victorian society? How did Ibsen critique this?

They were expected to hold their duty as wife and mother sacred, above all else, including any duty to the self.

Ibsen uses Nora to propose the concept that a women’s responsibility, like any other human being, was to live as a whole and free person. Nora’s narrative is a path to self-actualisation.

What were Victorian religious morals like? How does Ibsen critique this?

There was a widespread belief that immoral people were born sinful and could rarely escape their fundamentally corrupt nature.

Ibsen critiques this notion through his redemption of Krogstad.

What was ‘The Modern Breakthrough’ in Norway?

A movement of naturalism and debating literature which replaced romanticism.

What was naturalist drama?

Drama that evolved from a scientific approach that examines how the characters’ heredity and environment shapes and dooms them. Ibsen was interested in interiority rather than externalised obvious emotions.

What did Ibsen say in 1866?

‘(my) calling… to wake the people and make them think big’

What was life like for the 19th century middle class?

One long competition and people who didn’t rise in the world were assumed to be at fault

When did Charles Darwin publish the Origin of Species? How would this have influenced Ibsen?

1859

Ibsen was living in a post-Darwin society amongst Naturalist writers, who were interested in the way in which a person’s experiences and social influences contributed to their identity

What happened to Ibsen’s fathers business and when? How would this have influenced Ibsen’s writing?

In 1836 the business went bankrupt which meant the Ibsen family property was seized and they had to move to a small country house.

Ibsen would have sympathised with characters like Mrs Linde and Krogstad who were financially struggling.

How were Ibsen’s family’s financial difficulties publicised? How would this have influenced Ibsen?

They became public shame when his father’s possessions were publicly auctioned and reported in the Skien and District Weekly Journal.

Ibsen’s damnation of bourgeois respectability and his redemption of Krogstad.

When did Karl Marx publish Das Kapital? How would this have influenced Ibsen?

1867

The play can be viewed as a marxist critique of society. Helmer is a member of the bourgeoise and exerts power over the characters within the play.

When was the women’s property act in the UK? What was it?

1870

It allowed women to legally control their own wages and investments rather than surrendering them to their husband upon marriage.

When did the first wave of feminism begin in Norway?

1840s

What was the ‘law on the vast majority for single women’ in Norway?

1845→ New law or which women’s majority was set to age 25 at which point a woman would no longer need a legal guardian

What was Ibsen’s follow up play to A Doll’s House?

Ghosts (1881) which put a spin on the original play by examining what would have happened if the wife had stayed with her husband rather than leaving him

How did some audiences react when the play was first performed?

They were appalled at Nora’s behaviour and demanded that Ibsen write an alternative ending.

Define the ‘New Woman’

Typically middle-class, intellectual, politically active rebels

Who did Ibsen base the character of Nora on?

Laura Kieler, a close family friend. Her husband contracted tuberculosis so Kieler secretly took out a loan but was unable to meet the repayments. This led her to forging a promissory note and when her husband found out she was admitted to a mental hospital and forbidden from seeing her children.

Norwegian League for Women’s Rights

In 1898 Ibsen was invited to a banquet in his honour by the Norwegian League for Women’s Rights and at this banquet he disclaimed the title of feminist calling himself a humanist and viewed the issue as a problem of mankind in general