A Doll's House A03 Flashcards
Why did attitudes to women change?
The rise of the Industrial Revolution
Darwin’s challenge to the traditional values imposed by Christian churches
More workers (regardless of gender) were needed in factories
Family dynamics in lower-income households began to shift
Women’s rights in the mid-1800s
By the mid-1800s, women began to gain some legal rights, such as the right to equal inheritance, the right to elementary education, and the right to work in trade and craft professions
Woemn’s rights in the late 1800s
By the late 1800s, women were legally admitted into universities in many countries in Europe,
Wives finally gained the right to keep their own income and open bank accounts in their own names.
Women did not gain full legal suffrage in Norway, the setting of A Doll’s House, until 1913
How does Nora conform to societies expectations?
- When we meet Nora, her girlish, silly behavior and position of proud housewife create the sense that she happily upholds societal expectations and gladly fulfills the role of a stereotypical middle-class woman in order to lead a comfortable life free from worry.
- In the opening scene, we see Nora unfazed by Torvald’s diminutive nicknames for her, responding to them and speaking as a child might: “You are going to have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money.” She is obsessed with money, looks, and clothing (“It is delightful to be really well dressed, isn’t it?”), and
-instead of listening to the troubles of her old friend Mrs. Linde, she selfishly talks about her own good fortune. Furthermore, Nora prioritizes Torvald’s manly pride and keeps secrets from him that might threaten his sense of importance
Nora generally conforms to societal expectations because she has been raised and shaped to do so. But in her moments of rebellion, she catches glimpses of another world, and in order to explore it, she ultimately leaves conventional society.
Why was the play controversial
- For the themes (gender inequality, free will)
- representation of the illusion of the perfect bougois life
- naturalistic stylistic genre (defied expectations, no melodrama,typical stock characters)
- Nora abandoning her husband and children
The Well Made Play
Plot based on secret known to audience and withheld kfrom certain characters, revelation, climax, happy resolution-normally female saved by heroic patriarchal figure (unlike in A Doll’s House because Nora leaves) stock characters
Eugenics
Belief that genetics influence mental and physical ability even morality (Krogstad challenges this through his desire and ability to change, Nora as well because she is not amoral like her father, Dr Rank and Torvald champion this idea)
Why was the play controversial
for the themes (gender inequality, free will)
representation of the illusion of the perfect bourgeois life
naturalistic stylistic genre (defied expectation; no melodrama, typical stock characters)
Nora abandoning her husband and children
The New Woman
The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence well into the 20th century. In 1894, Irish writer Sarah Grand used the term “new woman” in an influential article to refer to independent women seeking radical change.
The term was further popularized by writer Henry James, who used it to describe the growth in the number of feminist, educated, independent career women in Europe and the United States.
Independence was not simply a matter of the mind; it also involved physical changes in activity and dress, as activities such as bicycling expanded women’s ability to engage with a broader, more active world
What is A Doll’s House based on?
The life of Laura Kieler, a good friend of Ibsen, much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband Victor. In real life when Victor found out about Laura’s loan he divorced her and had her committed to an asylum. Two years later she returned to her husband and children at his urging and went in to become a successful Danish author
Ibsen quote on women being themselves in modern society
‘A woman cannot be herself in modern society’ he argues, since it is ‘an exclusively male society, with laws written by men and with laws made by men with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint
Hedwig Neimann-Rabb
Refused to perform the play as written, declaring. ‘‘I would never leave my children’’
Barbaric outrage
Ibsen decided to avoid the danger of being rewritten by a lesser dramatist by committing what he called a ‘‘barbaric outrage’’ on his play himself and giving it an alternative ending in which Nora did not leave
State of Norway and independence
When A Doll’s House was being written, Norway was united in a kingdom with Swedn, having being forced into the union in 1814 during Napoleonic wars as a punishment to Denmark, with whom Norway had previously been united since 1397
Norway and women in the workplace
- due to first being decimated by the plague and then being subservient to Denmark and Sweden women had been part of the workforce with much more regularity and less stigma than elsewhere in Europe and around the world.
- Single women (predominantly widows, spinsters and women age 18-25) were officially given the right to work in certain trades as early as the 1830s.
- This was followed by inheritance rights and full legal capacity in the 1850s and 1860s. Marriage and motherhood was still the preferred societal route for a woman, however, and so married women were not given these same rights.
