A Doll's House critical quotes Flashcards
“We do not honestly believe that those theories as expressed in ‘The Doll’s House’ would ever find favour with the great body of english playgoers”
Clement Scott
“The baby wife, who has suddenly and miraculously developed into a thinking woman … and becomes absolutely inhuman”
Clement Scott
“The woman of the new Ibsenite neuropathic school is not only mad, but does her best to drive others mad too”
Hugh Stutfield
“Ibsen holds that the true function of the stage is not so much to amuse as to instruct”
The Times Review
“Every time I read the play I find myself judging Nora with less and less sympathy”
A.S. Byatt
“The theme is the need of every individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is, and strive to become that person”
Micheal Meyer
“There’s a part of me that thinks she’s going to go back the next day, hungover and apologetic”
Simon Stephens
“But the true extent of her deception is gradually revealed. Nora has been the ‘power behind the throne’”
Alison Ross
“This is not the language of a foolish, unthinking woman who is unable to survive without the constant guidance and support of her husband; indeed, it displays a very pragmatic understanding of her need to play various roles as demanded of her by society”
John Hathaway
“When compared to his wife, it is possible to argue that it is Torvald who is far more of a ‘doll’ than Nora”
John Hathaway
“Ibsen was very clear … that his work was not about advancing the cause of women”
John Hathaway
“Such a perspective ignores the fact that she is far more than simply some unthinking robot”
John Hathaway (Perspective being that she is trapped by her role of mother and wife)
“At times uses flirtation and flattery to achieve her objectives”
John Hathaway
“Deliberately plays the role of helpless female in order to achieve her ends”
John Hathaway
“A man who is blind to the limitations placed on him by society”
John Hathaway
“Values reputation and social standing above all else”
John Hathaway
“So consumed by the role thrust on him… , were he to discover his reliance on Nora, his identity as a male would be irretrievably shattered”
John Hathaway
“Ibsen uses the motif of disease to counterbalance the insidious, harmful nature of marriage itself, highlights the damming impact of the patriarchal institution in relief”
Brittany Wright
“The protagonist enters a brave new world of female liberation which is neither endorsed nor glorified but rather deemed necessary in the face of the oppression of the marital home”
Brittany Wright
“Patriarchy’s chief institution is the family. It is both a mirror of and a connection with the larger society; a patriarchal unit within a patriarchal whole”
Kate Millett
“Audiences were confronted with the characters they could eerily identify with and whose lives bore an uncanny resemblance to their own”
Brian Johnston
A Doll’s House “Provokes questions from a particular time which reflect back on the big issues we are still tackling”
Carrie Cracknell
The ending is an “unravelling of lives … specifically the unravelling of the children’s lives”
Carrie Cracknell
“There’s nothing about that decision that makes her a heroine. All the protagonists are asked to reconsider the way they live”
Carrie Cracknell
“Before she leaves, she is completely at a loss as to what is valuable and what matters in her life. Her only certainty is that she has to escape the thing she has trapped herself in, in order to try to begin to understand who it is she might be”
Carrie Cracknell
Children have a speaking role - don’t have any lines in the written play
Carrie Cracknell PRODUCTION
Simon Stephens made two changes so that the ending was more believable:
“Introduction of the possibility that Torvald’s illness, which is vague in the original, was probably a mental breakdown, so there’s a character with a backstory of erratic psychological behaviour”
“To amp up the amount of booze he’d had”
