A Comparitive Study of Potrayal of Women in Henrik Ibsen’s a Doll’s House and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie
A COMPARITIVE STUDY OF POTRAYAL OF WOMEN
IN HENRIK IBSEN’S A DOLL’S HOUSE
AND AUGUST STRINDBERG’S MISS JULIE
The aim of our present study is to make a comparative study of women characters in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie from a naturalistic point of view. Henrik Ibsen is known to be one of the most eminent playwrights of his time. He is often called the ‘father of the modern drama’ because he had helped to popularize realism. Practically his whole life is devoted to the theatre. His spare hours were spent in the preparation for entrance to the Christiania University, where about at the age of twenty, he formed a friendship with Bjornson. During the winter of 1848 he wrote his first play Cateline. In about 1851 he was given the position of the ‘theatre poet’. In 1857 he had become the director of the Norwegian theatre in Christiania. While there he published another work The Vikings at Hedgeland and married Suzannah in 1858. In 1860, he was under the attack of the press for the lack of productivity although he had published a few poems. The Christinia University went bankrupt in1862. During this period he completed The Pretenders (1863) and a dramatic epic poem Brand (1866) which soon achieved critical voice and this was followed by Peer Gynt (1867). The first of Ibsen’s prose drams were The League of the Youth, published in 1869, followed by Emperor and the Galilean (1873), his first work to be translated into English, and then The Pillars of the Society (1877), A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and An Enemy of the People (1882) are among the plays that contribute to realism. His next phase of works included a shift from social concerns to the isolation of the individual. The MasterBuilder (1892), Little Eyolf (1894), John Gabriel Borkman (1896), and When We Dead Awaken (1899), all treat the conflicts that arise between art and life, between creativity and expectations, and between personal contentment and self
IN HENRIK IBSEN’S A DOLL’S HOUSE
AND AUGUST STRINDBERG’S MISS JULIE
The aim of our present study is to make a comparative study of women characters in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie from a naturalistic point of view. Henrik Ibsen is known to be one of the most eminent playwrights of his time. He is often called the ‘father of the modern drama’ because he had helped to popularize realism. Practically his whole life is devoted to the theatre. His spare hours were spent in the preparation for entrance to the Christiania University, where about at the age of twenty, he formed a friendship with Bjornson. During the winter of 1848 he wrote his first play Cateline. In about 1851 he was given the position of the ‘theatre poet’. In 1857 he had become the director of the Norwegian theatre in Christiania. While there he published another work The Vikings at Hedgeland and married Suzannah in 1858. In 1860, he was under the attack of the press for the lack of productivity although he had published a few poems. The Christinia University went bankrupt in1862. During this period he completed The Pretenders (1863) and a dramatic epic poem Brand (1866) which soon achieved critical voice and this was followed by Peer Gynt (1867). The first of Ibsen’s prose drams were The League of the Youth, published in 1869, followed by Emperor and the Galilean (1873), his first work to be translated into English, and then The Pillars of the Society (1877), A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and An Enemy of the People (1882) are among the plays that contribute to realism. His next phase of works included a shift from social concerns to the isolation of the individual. The MasterBuilder (1892), Little Eyolf (1894), John Gabriel Borkman (1896), and When We Dead Awaken (1899), all treat the conflicts that arise between art and life, between creativity and expectations, and between personal contentment and self
Cited: Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature: Drama from 1700. Press, 2009. Metzger, Sheri. Drama for Students, Gale, 1997. Print. Goldman, Emma. The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. The Gorham Press, Boston, 1914 Johnston, Ian. On Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Oxford: OUP, 1981. Print. Meyer, Michael. Ibsen. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. Print. Strindberg, August and Helen Cooper (trans.).Miss Julie. Metheun Drama: London, 1992. Templeton, Joan. Ibsen’s Women. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.