1879 1890 Essays - Films, Ibsen Family, A Dolls House,

1879 1890 HENRIK IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE CONTENTS CONTENTS SECTION............................ SEARCH ON THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES............................. IDOLAUTH A Doll's House THE PLAY The Plot.......................................... IDOLPLOT The Characters.................................... IDOLCHAR Other Elements Setting...................................... IDOLSETT Themes....................................... IDOLTHEM Style........................................ IDOLSTYL Form and Structure........................... IDOLFORM THE STORY......................................... IDOLSTOR A STEP BEYOND Test and Answers.................................. IDOLTEST Term Paper Ideas and other Topics for Writing..... IDOLTERM Hedda Gabler THE PLAY The Plot.......................................... IHEDPLOT The Characters.................................... IHEDCHAR Other Elements Setting...................................... IHEDSETT Themes....................................... IHEDTHEM Style........................................ IHEDSTYL Form and Structure........................... IHEDFORM THE STORY......................................... IHEDSTOR A STEP BEYOND Test and Answers.................................. IHEDTEST Term Paper Ideas and other Topics for Writing..... IHEDTERM A DOLL'S HOUSE AND HEDDA GABLER The Critics....................................... IDOLCRIT Advisory Board.................................... IDOLADVB Bibliography...................................... IDOLBIBL AUTHOR_AND_HIS_TIMES THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES (IDOLAUTH) - On a chilly April day in 1864, Henrik Ibsen arrived at the docks in the Norwegian capital of Oslo (then called Christiania). The young man was a failure. The theater he'd run had closed, and none of his own plays were successful. He had a wife and a young son to support, but all his possessions had been auctioned off two years before to pay his debts. He'd applied for a grant from his native country, Norway, but was turned down. Disillusioned by his country and society, Ibsen, together with his wife and son, boarded a ship and left Norway, figuratively slamming the door behind him. Fifteen years later, a similarly disillusioned Nora Helmer would slam the door on stage at the end of A Doll's House, helping to change the course of modern drama. Ibsen had become disillusioned very early. In 1836, when he was eight years old, his wealthy parents went bankrupt. They were forced to move from town to a small farm. All of their old friends deserted them, and they lived for years in social disgrace. Although young Henrik appeared quiet and withdrawn, his deep, bitter anger at society would occasionally escape in the scathing caricatures he would draw or in tirades against young playmates. His sole happiness seemed to come from reading books and putting on puppet plays. Ibsen didn't like his own family any more than he liked the "proper" society that shunned them. His domineering father was an alcoholic, while his quiet mother found comfort in religion. This blend of overbearing husband and submissive wife makes repeated appearances in his plays, most notably in Brand, in A Doll's House, and in Ghosts, After he left his parents' home at sixteen in 1844, he never went back, even years later when he got word that his mother was dying. Hoping eventually to study medicine, Ibsen became a druggist's apprentice in Grimstad, a small Norwegian village. But he still felt like an outsider, a feeling that would dog him all his life and find expression in many of his plays. (It didn't help his social standing when he fathered an illegitimate son by a servant girl ten years older than he. Some feel that it was this unwanted child that reappears in many of his plays as a lost or murdered child. In A Doll's House, the nursemaid gives away her illegitimate child.) But Ibsen found he wasn't alone in his contempt for those who controlled society. He became friends with a boisterous group of young artists who specialized in political satire. By 1848, a spirit of political unrest was sweeping Europe. Rebellions against monarchy flared in many countries. This spirit of revolution was intoxicating for Ibsen and his friends. Royalty and aristocracy seemed on their way out; the people were coming into their own. Two years later, Ibsen moved to Oslo to attend the university but failed to complete the entrance examinations. He was so caught up in politics and writing, however, that he really didn't care. After all, modern society seemed to be at a crossroads, and the world offered infinite possibilities. But things began to go wrong. The revolutions of 1848 faltered and finally were crushed. Artists and politicians alike lost their idealism. The world of infinite possibilities didn't really exist. Years later, Ibsen would use the experiences of this period in his plays. Certain of his characters (like Nora in A Doll's House and Lovborg and