The Doll House- Henrik Ibsen
You have to love Ibsen’s picture on the essay we had to read that accompanied the play. The fellow was way ahead of his time. You can decide if it is for the better or worse. When this play was written it was probably crazy to hear of a wife and mother just abandoning her family to pursue her own happiness. Double standard for sure but I believe an accurate assessment.
The usual familial set up was what they had in this play. But it seems that Henrik was trying to make his statement about with as much emphasis as he could. He did.
The play started off with a happy and carefree tone, but quickly turned into a spiral of deceit and cover-up’s that got beyond the control of Nora. I was expecting a happy ending until about two thirds of the way through.
I’m sure there was some deeper point but I found it very ironic that Krogstad and Nora had done the very same offense that Helmer had despised. I also noted that Helmer was willing to forgive Nora in the end but she was past the point of no return. And in the end the social statement that Nora wanted to be an individual more than she wanted to be a wife and mother was driven home with force.
I was wondering why this play was called the Doll House all the way up until the very end. Nora shed her responsibilities and duties at the end to pursue finding herself. What ever that means.
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What a good assessment of the play. It did start cheerful and in the midst of the Christmas spirit. Torvald was willing to forgive his beloved Nora but not Krogstad. In the end Nora made a bold decision to find herself. Maybe she abandoned her children because her husband stated he would not allow her to be around them because of her actions.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, I also will be looking in the video for why the play got the title "doll house".Women,in rare and difficult situations often need to step aside and rediscover who they are.That will include taking any step. I think Nora did what she thought was best for her. I only hope the kids she left were in safe hands.
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