Issues of gender roles became apparent in the 20th Century and continue to escalate today. Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists give different suggestions to solve women’s plight. One of the most shocking works in the 19th Century was Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’. Ibsen surprised many by giving his honest opinion...regarding the issue. But today, the subject of gender stereotypes doesn’t seem to surprise people. The outline of A Doll’s House essay can touch on a wide spectrum of social issues besides the problems that women go through. To get more ideas, read as many samples of essays on A Doll’s House as possible. If you choose to talk about corruption, make sure that your ideas remain coherent throughout the paper, from the introduction to the conclusion.
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is perhaps one of the most hotly debated plays to come out of the 19th century. The 19th century continued the process of the demystification that began with the Enlightenment. Because of the discoveries of the Enlightenment, humans could...
In A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Henrik consider traditional aspect of men and women back on the early age. In the play “A Doll’s House,” Nora represent the conventional feminine basic of the age. She seems defenseless and purview herself through patriarchal assumption, which...
Henrik Ibsen’s well known play, A Doll’s House, has long been considered a predominantly feminist work. The play focuses on the seemingly happy Helmers, Nora and Torvald, who appear to have an ideal life. Nora is charming, sweet, and stunningly beautiful, and Torvald is a...
‘Ibsen’s knowledge of humanity is nowhere more obvious than in his portrayal of women’ (Joyce). Discuss and illustrate: In his often quoted ‘Notes for a Modern Society’ Ibsen stated that, ‘in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman...
When Nora Helmer slammed the door shut on her doll’s house in 1879, her message sent shockwaves around the world that persist to this day. “I must stand quite alone,” Nora declares, “if I am to understand myself and everything about me” (Ibsen 64). After...
A predicatable response to reading Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House might be a distaste for Nora’s feeble-minded obsession with money, possessions, and culture through the first two acts that is then, suddenly and unexpectedly, reversed as those harsh opinions fall upon her dumbfounded husband as...
“A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, in many ways, addresses the divide between the concept of work itself and the perceptions of one’s own work. In reality, a person’s idea of work can differ from the kind of work actually done. When people think of...
The play A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, offers a critique of the superficial marriage between Nora and Torvald Helmer. Written in 1879, the play describes the problems which ensue after Nora secretly and illegally takes out a loan from a local bank in order...
The term “social criticism” refers to a type of condemnation that reveals the reasons for malicious conditions in a society which is considered deeply flawed. Indeed, both Ibsen and Osborne, in their respective plays A Doll’s House and Look Back in Anger, use theater as...
In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, Christian Linden (or Linde) must give up her own life to provide for her mother and younger brothers, and finds herself a newfound freedom once widowed. However, Ms.Linden is unhappy having no family to work for and struggles...
In A Doll’s House by Ibsen, the author takes the preconditions and viewer expectations of the play format established by earlier writers and uses them to shock his audience rather than lull them into oblivion with simple entertainment. Ibsen inherits these preconditions and expectations from...
19th-century theatre, A Doll's House, Audience, Audience theory, Bourgeoisie, Character, Class struggle, Drama, French Revolution, Individual vs. Society
The role of women has changed significantly throughout history, driven in part by women who took risks in setting examples for others to follow. During the Victorian era, women were beginning to take a stand for their rights.¹ Even as they struggled with their expected...
Henrik Ibsen’s play ‘A Doll’s House’ has caused controversy since it’s first production in 1879 as it portrays 19th century society as an oppressive influence on the individual and their personal freedom. Victorian society emphasized Bourgeois respectability and moral code, which when defied caused the...
In his play ‘A Doll’s House’ Henrik Ibsen provides the audience with an insight into life in 19th Century Norway and the injustices that existed in society at the time. Throughout the narrative Ibsen uses the Nora and Torvald’s relationship as a vehicle through which...
As one of the leaders of the realist movement in drama, Henrik Ibsen earned his reputation for creating plays that accurately depict the details of ordinary peoples’ lives. The first two acts of A Doll’s House are safe territory, following the accepted conventions of dramatic...
The opening of the play ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen provides the audience with an introduction to the protagonist Nora and an insight into the nature of her marriage with Torvald. Even from this early point in the play Ibsen explores the constitution of...
The donning of her [dancing] dress has brought about the turning point of her life. -Barbara Fass Leavy Dress and outward appearance have historically played a significant role in the plot development of fairy tales. Perhaps the most famous dress in our collective memory is...
Truth or illusion? When the fantasy world people create in order to cope with the absurdity of life is brought too far into reality, it becomes hard to distinguish between authenticity and fiction. This ambiguity is apparent in both Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia...
A Doll's House, Anton Chekhov, Appearance vs. Reality, Choate Rosemary Hall, Edward Albee, George Bernard Shaw, Grammy Award winners, Henrik Ibsen, Illusion, James Joyce
Considered the precursor of Western dramatic criticism, Aristotle’s notes on The Poetics arms modern readers with the language by which tragedy is evaluated and judged. In this essay I will examine how Aristotle’s classical vision of tragedy flourishes in modern plays such as Henrik Ibsen’s...
According to Soren Kierkegaard, there are three categorizations of people based on their motive and actions: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. In The Seducer’s Diary, Kierkegaard presents the character of Johannes as a typical aesthete who centers his life on the single-minded pursuit...
The importance of A Doll’s House being set during the Christmas season is because the Christmas season is easily relatable and this can help the reader to make inferences about what is going on through familiarization. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen uses...
A Doll's House, A New Beginning, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas lights, Christmas tree, Christmas village, Henrik Ibsen, James Joyce, Love and Marriage
The theme of betrayal can be found at the heart of both Milton’s Paradise Lost and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House yet interestingly, the answer to whether these betrayals deserve to be forgiven has changed through time. Where Milton and Ibsen’s contemporary audiences have been shown...
The short story titled Sonny’s Blues written by James Baldwin, and the play A Doll’s House written by Henrik Ibsen, have many similarities and differences when it comes to settings, symbols, and characters. Although they may seem like two completely different works, they have a...
Materialist Feminism in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House The nature of man is inherently oppressive. In every documented civilization, there exists or has existed a class system which identifies certain individuals as “lesser” than their superiors. In ancient Rome, the patricians ruled over the plebeians, and...
Gender Roles in A Doll House Most works of literature are heavily influenced by the time in which they were written. They often become subject to multiple interpretations based on historical significance. In A Doll House, written in 1879 by Henrik Ibsen, much of the...
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House follows Nora’s struggles to escape the firm grasp of her domineering husband. Throughout the novel, Nora is depicted as obedient to her husband, Torvald, and never dares to stand up to him. Torvald’s condescension and thinly veiled misogyny continuously confines...
The patriarchal society and gender inequality have played a big part in the world’s culture since dating back to the 1800s. Men and women both played different roles. The roles of men most likely included earning for the household and to live a controlling lifestyle...
At first glance, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House seems to allude to feminism, speaking of the differences in the roles of men and women. The surges in feminism and the subjective perception of readers resulted in many people drawing feminist motifs from the text as they...
Plays are some of the most critical pieces of literature that date back to the earlier society. Through a well-defined characterization, play writers have proved to have an extended capacity to communicate ideas and deconstruct themes. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Moliere’s Tartuffe are...
Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House” is basically concerning however folks are usually too connected about reputation in society. Such concern will result in a person’s destruction. Ibsen uses the characters in his play to push the shortage of concern with reputation. Living the life as...
Naturalistic / Realistic Problem Play, Modern Tragedy
Original Language
Norwegian, Danish
Characters
Nora, Torvald Helmer, Krogstad, Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, Children, Anne-Marie, Helene
Setting
The home of the Helmer family in an unspecified Norwegian town or city, circa 1879
Subject
The awakening of a middle-class wife and mother.
Date and Author
21 December 1879, by Henrik Ibsen
Genre
Tragedy
Plot
The play centres on an ordinary family — Torvald Helmer, a bank lawyer, and his wife, Nora, and their three little children. Into this arrangement intrude several hard-minded outsiders, one of whom threatens to expose a fraud that Nora had once committed without her husband’s knowledge in order to obtain a loan needed to save his life. When Nora’s act is revealed, Torvald reacts with outrage and repudiates her out of concern for his own social reputation. Utterly disillusioned about her husband, whom she now sees as a hollow fraud, Nora declares her independence of him and their children and leaves them.
Theme
The main themes of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House revolve around the values and the issues of late 19th-century bourgeoisie, namely what looks appropriate, the value of money, and the way women navigate a landscape that leaves them little room to assert themselves as actual human beings.
Characters
Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, Dr. Rank, Kristine Linde, Nils Krogstad, The Children (Ivar, Bobby and Emmy), Anne Marie, Helene, The Porter
Based on
A Doll's House was based on the life of Laura Kieler (maiden name Laura Smith Petersen), a good friend of Ibsen. Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor. Similar to the events in the play, Laura signed an illegal loan to save her husband's life – in this case, to find a cure for his tuberculosis.[
Popularity
The play was a great sensation at the time, and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society. In 2006, the centennial of Ibsen's death, A Doll's House held the distinction of being the world's most performed play that year. UNESCO has inscribed Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of A Doll's House on the Memory of the World Register in 2001, in recognition of their historical value.
Quotes
“You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.” “You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.” “I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.” “But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves. It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
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