A Doll’s House Context Flashcards
“[My] calling … the calling which I believe to be the most important for a Norwegian, namely, to wake up the people and make them think big.”
Ibsen, 1866
“I am not even quite clear what the cause of women really is … My task has been to portray human beings”
Ibsen
Ghosts 1881
Mrs Alving represents what would happen is Nora had gone back
An Enemy Of The People 1882
A play about moral corruption and disease
Rank - “tyranny of the majority”
Notes For A Modern Tragedy 1878
There were “two kinds of moral laws”, “one for men and one, quite different, for women”
“Women is judged by masculine law”
Laura Pieterson
Ibsen’s friend whose husband suffered a health scare and was told would only survived if the moved to a warmer climate
Struggling to get a loan she forged a signature
Provided a basis for Nora
Hedwig Niemann-Raabe
German actress who refused to act the final scene, arguing that no mother would leave her child
Ibsen rewrote it, calling it a “barbaric outrage”
Naturalism
Influenced by Darwinism
-Published ‘Origin of species’ in 1859
-Undermined the literal interpretation of the Bible
-Meaning of life without religion, challenges chain of being
-Society had to devise moral codes for itself (nihilism)
Ibsen’s definition of a naturalist play
“The play’s effect is dependent, to a large degree, on the audience members thinking that they sit and listen and watch something which is happening out there in real life - the spirit and tone of the play will be understood, respected and reproduced without any concession to the demand for full ruthless truth to life”
Naturalist writers are interested in scrutinizing how genetics, psychology and environment all determine character
Nihilism
The rejection of all religious and moral principles
Life is meaningless
Nora’s realization that her entire life within her marriage, seemingly happy and fulfilling, is ultimately meaningless due to the oppressive societal constraints placed upon her as a woman, leading her to question the very foundation of her existence and the values of her society, ultimately deciding to leave and seek a life with true autonomy, even if it means abandoning the traditional notions of family and happiness
Angel In The House 1854
Coventry Patmore - Women viewed as the ‘second sex’
Book Of Household Management Mrs Beeton 1861
Opens stating that the mistress of the house should consider herself the “commander of an army”
An attempt to make women feel the domestic sphere is just as important as the public sphere
Das Kapital 1867 Karl Marx
Human thought is the product of the individuals social and economic condition
A Doll’s House explores the exploitation of the weak and the poor by the strong and the rich; Nora has an obsession with material possession
The British Beehive George Cruikshank 1867
Links to Chain of Being
Queen at the top
Progresses down different professions
“Who you were going to be friends with, and who you were going to be in awe of” - Kathryn Hughes
Rapid upward mobility
Lot’s of campaigning for electoral reform and free trade to ensure the aristocracy no longer had an unfair advantage
Resulted in a swelling middle class, and people believing that any man should be able to succeed no matter their background
Those who didn’t rise were assumed to be at fault
Help only offered to those held back by age or disability
More important for women to follow social rules than men
Women’s Property Act 1870
Married women could own and inherit property
‘Marriage’ Mona Caird 1888
“The economical independence of women is the first condition of a free marriage”
Norwegian Laws 1890
Two significant laws passed
Married women gained majority status - > legally considered an adult when they marry, else they continue to be considered a minor, step towards women’s emancipation
Husband no longer has authority over the wife - > man retained control of the home of the couple, but the woman could now freely dispose of the fruit of his work
The Modern Breakthrough 1870-1890
Literary movement
Challenged beliefs and caused change
