Ibsen/Rossetti Critic Quotes

I'm a visual learner - I added some pictures to help with memorising...hope it's helpful!

(R) Rossetti - “I feel…”

“I feel at home among anxieties and depression.”

(R) Burlison - "[shows a] profound…

“a profound resistance to patriarchal views and sexual double standards”

(R) Gill - “a dark…”

“a dark assessment of the female lot”

(R) Rosenblum - “A woman…”

“A woman inevitably experiences herself as object and other”

(R) Morden - “A consummate…”

“A consummate technician.” (extremely skilled)

(R) West - “There is much more…”

“There is much more to Rossetti’s poetry than the artless outpourings of a lovelorn heart or the distress cries of a lonely woman.” … “She uses deflection, denial and constraint as the very things which give her power to speak.”

(R) Woolf - “starved…”

“Starved herself of love, which meant also life.”

(R) Woolf - “A God…”

“A God who decreed that all pleasures of the world were hateful to him […] Everything in Christina’s life radiated from that knot of agony and intensity at the center.”

(R) West - "women poets had to tread…”

"women poets had to tread a careful path in order to depict female sexuality and desire”

(R) Morden - “Goblin Market…”

“Goblin Market is a literary banquet.”

(R) Morden - “Rossetti…”

“Rossetti cannot be characterised as languid and depressed.”

(R) Wilson - “Writing…”

“Writing as a creature of her time.”

(R) Wallner - “express the…”

“express the pain of love and nothing else”

(R) Bocher - “An emotional…”

“An emotional love not a sexualised love”

(R) Wilson - “Are…”

“Are speaking between thresholds.”

(R) Wilson - “The poet…”

“The poet of the failure of language.”

(R) Flowers - “Explores…”

“Explores the Victorian Cult of Love.”

(I) Ibsen - “My task…”

“My task has been to portray human beings.”

(I) Ibsen - “A…”

“A tragedy of modern times.”

(I) Ibsen - “It is…”

“It is an exclusively male society, with laws made by men […] who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint.”

(I) Ledger - “Linde…”

“Linde acts as a catalyst for Nora’s rebellion.”

(I) Ledger - “A critical…”

“A critical scrutiny of the lives and values of the bourgeois class.”

(I) Ledger - “The…”

“The role-playing stops here.” [Nora removes her costume]

(I) Worral - “Torvald’s…”

“Torvald’s subservience to petty social values which are more important to him than his feelings towards his wife.”

(I) Worral - “[The stove]…”

“[The stove represents] the security she so urgently craves.”

(I) Lee - “Nora…”

“Nora herself performs the miracle that sets her free.”

(I) Lee - “Dr Rank…”

“Dr Rank’s syphilis acts as a brutal and physical reminder of the consequences of sin.”

(I) McNamara - “[ADH] demonstrates…”

“[ADH] demonstrates the perils resulting from such self-deception.”

(I) Unwin - “Krogstad…”

“Krogstad is a mere pawn of the plot.”

(I) Long - “Nora is…”

“Nora is a monster and an unnatural woman.”

(I) Meyers - “Explores…”

“Explores romantic love as an illusion.”

(I) Shaw - “Nora is…”

“Nora is shut out of the serious business of the world.”

(I) Shaw - “The ideal…”

“The ideal wife is one who does everything her ideal husband likes and nothing else.”

(I) Wright - “Marriage…”

“Marriage is the facade of domestic bliss.”

(I) Johnston - “Torvald’s…”

“Torvald’s moral code is entirely derived from society’s expectations.”

(I) Thomas - “Torvald is…”

“Torvald is as much a victim as Nora is.”

(I) Teale - “All the men…”

“All the men in the play have a strong association with death, beneath a male facade of power lies a fragility, concern for collapse.”

(I) Woods - “Ibsen…”

“Ibsen criticises society rather than individuals.”

(I) Templeton - “The every…”

“The everywoman’s struggle with the everyman.”

(I) Templeton - “[Nora is]”

“The demon in the house.” [Angel in the house - Patmore 1854]

(I) Duncan - “A…”

“A social problem play.”

(I) Duncan - “Nora puts…”

“Nora puts love over legality.”

(I) Meyers - “shows…”

“shows romantic love to be an illusion”