IBSEN CONTEXT Flashcards
Ibsen
Ibsen became sexually involved with a pharmacist, 28, at 18 and Else Jensdatter gave birth to his son
Ibsen was horrified by the possibility of scandal, attempted to disown the child, and only paid maintenance under legal duress
Else died in poverty, her son became an alcoholic and struggled in employment
Possible links to Torvald, feared that Nora’s fraud would damage his reputation at the bank, this lack of gratitude to Nora, prompts her to leave her family
At the Norske Theatre in Bergen, his plays were not well-received despite his attempts to write crowd-pleasing ballards
Ibsen met his wife Suzannah, strong-willed
Suzannah was very intelligent and well read
Through his wife, Suzannah, Ibsen became acquainted with Colett, the founder of the Norwegian feminist movement
Colett, close friend, thinking about women’s rights, Ibsen’s work
Suzannah was Ibsen’s toughest critic and doughtiest defender
Ibsen visited Denmark, he saw Europe’s leading theatres and saw avant-garde drama
Nearly all of Ibsen’s major works were written in exile, in Rome, Dresden and Munich
dolls house context
Set in Norway in the 19th century
Industrialisation, capitalist economy
Naturalism
The New Woman
Industrialisation int he 19th century had opened up many opportunities for women
By the time Ibsen had grown up, white-collar women such as Mrs Linde, were common
Norwegian women could have an education
Women workers earned less than men, had less prestige and had to give up their work if they were married
Across Europe, a middle-class man’s social status was enhanced by a wife who remained at home
The separate spheres, one for men and one for women, women, domesticated sphere, look after the children
Men- family provider
The separate gender spheres are not equal and are demeaning
Nora rejects these spheres at the end of the play
Political rights
Throughout Europe, women who shared Nora’s experiences were airing their grievances
Flor Tristan, who campaigned for the rights of the working class in France, divorced her abusive husband and lost custody of her children
Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Wollstonecraft suggested that women have been taught to be ‘pleasing at the expense of every solid virtue’ just as Nora has been taught to dance and not develop her own opinions etc
Nora as a model
‘The Woman Question’
Women’s suffrage movements motto ‘Let justice be served though the heavens fall’
Settings
A national theatre
Ibsen was an artistic director to the Norwegian Theatre and was under pressure to produce some distinctively national drama, Ibsen researched folk songs and later shifted to a naturalistic style
Real Norwegians
Bourgeois
The Helmer household belonged to Norway’s new middle class
Modest wealth, pictures and belongings like the Capri dress
Nora’s tendency to drift towards the stove for warmth, typically Norwegian furniture
The play is set in winter
first wave of feminism in Norway
1879
