Hendrick Ibsen: A Doll's House

A DOLL’S HOUSE
Hendrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879) shocked audiences of the 19th century by undermining and challenging the dominant bourgeois and patriarchal ideologies that were the social norms of the time. He used characteristics of the well-made play and realist theatre to produce a play that questioned the morals and social spheres of the time when it was written. Realist theatre became popular in the late 19th century and was a response to the growth of the bourgeoisie as the ideological centre. The realist theatre at the time represented everyday bourgeois life and exposed the contradictions, fault lines and fissures in this ideology. This style of theatre reflected the everyday life of the bourgeoisie but challenged and undermined their values and morals. Literary texts often reflect the cultural values and attitudes important at the time they were written but Ibsen’s A Doll’s House doesn’t. Instead it challenges the conventional morality of the bourgeois audience and is critical of the middle class values embodied in the ‘real’ world on stage. Hendrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House challenges the cultural values and attitudes of the time it was written rather than reflecting them. A Doll’s House exposes, criticizes and contradicts the cultural values and attitudes of 19th century Europe, such as the separation of spheres, the cult of female purity and the ideology of a patriarchal household by using characteristics of realist theatre, compared to a lot of literary texts which reflect the attitudes of the time without raising any contradictions.
Hendrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House undermines the bourgeois social spheres by conveying the female characters as realist heroines. In realist theatre heroes held a passionate desire for freedom and vitality on an individual level. They did not want to change the world but change the way they were in it. The female characters in Ibsen’s play are represented as realist heroes as they have no desire to change the world but they do have an avid desire for their own freedom and individuality instead of being oppressed in a patriarchal household. The character of Nora Helmer has a desire to be free from the constraints of her children, domestic duties and husband. At the start of the play, however, she sees her debt to Krogstad as what is holding her back from this freedom she strives for. For example, in Act One, Nora states, “Free. To be free, absolutely free. To spend time playing with the children. To have a clean, beautiful house, the way Torvald likes it.” In this quotation from her conversation with Mrs Linde, Nora’s character claims that she will be “free” after the New Year—after she has paid off her debt to Krogstad. While describing her anticipated freedom, Ibsen highlights the very factors that constrain Nora, claiming that freedom will give her time to be a mother and a traditional wife who maintains a beautiful home, as her husband likes it. But the message of the play is that Nora cannot find true freedom in this traditional domestic realm. As the play continues, Nora’s character becomes increasingly aware that she must change her life to find true freedom, and her understanding of the word “free” evolves accordingly. By the end of the play, Ibsen shows that the freedom Nora desires entails independence from societal constraints and the ability to explore her own personality, goals, and beliefs. This can be shown in her statement from the end of the play, just before Nora leaves Torvald, where she says, “I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you are – or at least I am going to try to be. I know most people agree with you, Torvald, and that’s also what it says in books. But I’m not content anymore with what most people say, or with what it says in books. I have to think it out for myself, and get things clear.” This statement and the message of the play, show that Ibsen is using qualities of realist theatre, specifically realist heroines, in this book as the character of Nora is portrayed to have a desire for her own freedom and individuality, not change for the entire world. This contradicts and criticises the ideology of bourgeois society and thus shows that A Doll’s House does not reflect the attitudes and value of the time it was written. Ibsen also uses realist drama to expose the contradictions surrounding female purity.
Hendrik Ibsen uses the critical representations in realist drama to expose the contradiction surrounding female purity in A Doll’s House. An important part of a realist play was to expose the contradictions in society at the time. At the time A Doll’s House was written, there were many contradictions within society and its ideologies. A major contradiction in A Doll’s House is that of the character Torvalds fetishisation of youth and virginity in contradiction with the importance of production of children as a main purpose of marriage. Ibsen portrays him to treat Nora like a child who is pure and innocent, but also to hold the expectation of her to bare his children. At the time the book was written if a woman did not have children she was criticized by society and if she was not considered pure she was also criticized by society. Torvalds character is in love with the image of Nora and not Nora herself. This is shown in Act Three when Nora and Torvald return from the party. Torvald states, “I pretend that you are my young bride, that we are just leaving our wedding, that I am taking you to our new home for the first time…to be alone with you for the first time…quite alone with your young and trembling loveliness!” Here you can see that Torvalds character is in love with this pure and innocent image of Nora and in order to keep that image or that ‘love’ alive he treats her like a child with nicknames like “my little skylark”. But Ibsen contradicts this expectation of Nora by showing that she is also expected to bare children and act grown up and look after them. This is shown when Torvald states, “You are betraying your most sacred duty.” Here he is talking about Nora’s duty to her children, to him and to her marriage. The main purpose of marriage was to produce children but once they are married she is still expected to remain and be considered pure. This major contradiction in the ideology of the time is exposed in A Doll’s House and this exposure is a major part of realist drama. This contradiction shows us that Ibsen is challenging the cultural values and attitudes of the time it was written using characteristics of realist theatre and thus not reflecting them like a lot of other literary texts do. This female independence completely challenges the patriarchal ideology that was present in everyday life in the late 19th century
A Doll’s House represents an everyday patriarchal household and takes this idea of patriarchy and exposes the fault lines and fissures in it by creating female characters that strive for freedom and individuality. Realist theatre is a representation of the everyday life of its target audience. In Ibsen’s play he has taken ‘a slice of life’ from a patriarchal household, which was the social norm of 19th century Europe. In the patriarchal social order, the father figure is privileged; in A Doll’s House, Helmer, the central father figure in the text, exists—so far as we know—in a completely alienated relationship to his children. The single instance in the play wherein he comes in contact with his children reveals an explicit desire to remain utterly removed from them. As the children come into the house, Helmer quickly leaves, declaring, “This place is unbearable now for anyone but mothers.” He does not know how to cope with children, how to look after them and has no particular interest in his children. This was socially acceptable at the time Ibsen wrote the play and mirrors the patriarchal ideologies of when it was written. However, at the end of the play when Nora’s character leaves in search of individuality, Torvald shows concern for his children when he states, “Isn’t it you duty to your husband and your children?” This shows that because Torvald does not know how to take care of the children or interact with them, because of the patriarchal ideology he follows, he doesn’t want Nora to leave and have freedom because he sees it as her duty in the patriarchal household to care for the children, not his. This exposes the fault lines and fissures in a patriarchal society and this exposure is what makes it a realist drama. A Doll’s House challenges the patriarchal ideologies of 19th century Europe, meaning that it doesn’t reflect the cultural values and attitudes of the time because it is challenging them.
Literary texts often reflect the cultural values and attitudes important at the time they were written but Ibsen’s A Doll’s House doesn’t. Instead it challenges the cultural values and attitudes of the time it was written rather than reflecting them. A Doll’s House exposes, criticizes and contradicts the cultural values and attitudes of 19th century Europe, such as the separation of spheres, the cult of female purity and the ideology of a patriarchal household by using characteristics of realist theatre, compared to a lot of literary texts which reflect the attitudes of the time without raising any contradictions. Realist theatre exposes the contradictions, fault lines and fissures within society at the time it was written. A Doll’s House as a realist drama exposes the contradictions surrounding female purity and also exposes the fault lines and fissures in a patriarchal household. The female characters are represented as realist heroines who strived for individuality and freedom from oppressing bourgeois and patriarchal ideologies. Ibsen’s play challenges the cultural values and attitudes of the time it was written, rather than reflecting them, through the use of realist theatre conventions.