Ibsen context Flashcards
Finney - socialism
- ‘In the nineteenth century, socialism and feminism were familiar bedfellows’
Ibsen sees that true sexual equality necessitates fundamental changes in the structure of society
but not only concerned with socialism
- proposals made to scandinavian club in rome - women should be allowed to vote in club meetings (is there anyone who dares assert that women are inferior?)
- Ending of play - “miracle of miracles” must occur to allow for marriage to be equal (society must change drastically)
Finney - ibsen and feminism
Not a women’s problem or issue - Ibsen states that inequality seems to be ‘a problem of humanity in general’
His concern with the state of the human soul cuts across class and gender lines
ROBERT BRUSTEIN - he was completely indifferent to the woman question except for as a metaphor for individual freedom
- Nora says “I am first and foremost a human being”
Perhaps in the play Ibsen positions independence, autonomy, and self-discovery as being of most importance, rather than a crude separation between genders
Nora states “I’m no longer prepared to accept what people say and what’s written in books” - more of a rejection of societal conventions that inhibit agency, than a rejection of men
BUT NORA’S CONFLICT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HER IDENTITY AS A 19TH CENTURY MARRIED WOMAN
(ibsen said it was for the sake of the last scene that the whole play was written)
Ibsen also states that ‘a woman cannot be herself in contemporary society, it is an exclusively male society with laws drafted by men’
Finney argues that Ibsen suggests that even for potentially emancipated women, the male-dominated society affects their thinking from birth and stands in the way of total autonomy
‘a wife cannot borrow without her husband’s consent’ - Linde
‘Hasn’t a wife the right to save her husband’s life?
‘the law doesn’t concern itself with motives’ ‘then the law must be very stupid’ - krogstad and nora’
- conflict between love and law, heart and head
Finney - motherhood
- In Ibsen’s plays, maternity is viewed positively by those who are not mothers, whereas actual or prospective mothers abandon or neglect their children
A key idea in his works is how mothers are victimised by a ‘social norm equating anatomy and destiny’ - Foucalt’s term ‘hysterization’ is the process of defining women by binding them to their reproductive function - Nora achieves self-realisation by turning her back on her husband and children
For her, marriage and motherhood have become a ‘doll’s house’ existence - in order to achieve genuine maturity she must leave the house behind
Helmer states ‘first and foremost you are a wife and a mother’ - reflecting views of society
The Subjection of Women - Mill
“The wife is the actual bond-servant of her husband:no less so, as far as legal obligation goes”
“Women had no right to care about anything but how they may be the most useful and devoted servants to some man”
Nora is valued primarily by her ability to cater to her families needs and fufill domestic roles.Nora is confined to the narrow expectations pf her role as wife and mother. Torvalds control is evident in his patrionizing language and domineering behaviour - “skylark” and “squirrel”, infantilizing her and reinforcing his authority over her
Mrs linde - ‘unspeakably empty. No on to live for any more’
mrs alving
described her as a continuation of nora who satys in an unhappy marriage and faces disastrous consequences - noras departure as an escape
rising trope of the new woman that was commonly associated with ibsenism
- famous 19th century heroines such as Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina and Dorothea Brooke
danish peoples paper
objected that ‘there is not a single point that justifies her action’
- egregious mistake
- no mother among thousands of mothers who would acts as she acts
but social demokraten - ‘here there are plenty of dolls’ homes’
‘We have not, in dramatic or poetic form, seen a better, more powerful contribution to the question of female emancipation!’
HAVELOCKE ELLIS - SHE HELD OUT THE PROMISE OF A NEW SOCIAL ORDER
- women should have the right to education, freedom to work, and political enfrachisement
clement scott
the audience inevitably expects that Nora will return to the dolls house
+ doubts that nora will find sympathy among theatre goers
- she is exchanging a practical doll’s role for an impractical one
eleanor marx
ending is triumphant escape - nora functions as an everyman who is representative of the working class rebelling against a capitalist system
R.M. Adams - nora has no sex. meant her to be the everyman.
marriage - mona caird
Traditional idea of marriage is bad because it excludes the “Obvious right of the women to possess herself body and soul, to give or withhold herself body and soul exactly as she wills”
“She ought not to be tempted to marry for the sake of bread and butter” however the current capitalist system prevents this
‘common respectable marriage’ was the ‘most hypocritical form of woman-purchase’
A DOLLS HOUSE - ‘I PERFORMED TRICKS FOR YOU, AND YOU GAVE ME FOOD AND DRINK’
‘Dance and dress up and play the fool for him
The ideal system is where “man’s interest will depend on his neighbours happiness and welfare” rather than their misfortune
“proposed freedom of marriage would have to go hand-in-hand with the co-education of the sexes”
Max nordau
decision to leave the dolls house is not cautious but idiotic
- abandoning way of life that she has always known and subjecting herself to great risk
- female hysteria - decision is rash and insane - helmers accusation that she appears ‘ill, feverish, almost out of your mind’
- 19th century conservative pathologising women as unwell hysterics
Mary McCarthy - nora is a carefully studied example of the hysterical personality - unstable, impulsive, immune from feelings of guilt
‘no man can be expected to sacrifice his honour, even for the person he loves’
‘millions of women have done it’
confronts sexual double standard -permissive attitude to male extra-marital sex vs stigmatization of fallen women
wollstonecraft/margaret fuller
wollstonecraft - all women are brought up to the pleasing at the expense of every solid virtue
fuller - man wants no woman, only a firl to play with
19th century feminism universally agreed upon base for womans emancipation
‘i have to try to educate myself’
