Dolls house critics with complete solution
die gegenwart
ending was "illogical and immoral"
ronald gray
ibsen makes helmer grotesque and reduces the tragic quality of the ending
sally ledger (christine)
christine linde acts as a catalyst for nora's rebellion
sally ledger (rank)
rank symbolises the degeneration of the family
david thomas
torvald is as much a victim as nora
koht(relations)
its demand for truth in every human relationship
ian johnston (ending)
the ending resists simple moral formulation... nora is both triumphantly right and horribly
wrong
ian jonhston (torvald)
torvald's moral code is entirely derived from society's expectations
stinberg
marriage was revealed as being far from divine institutions
gazette 19th cent
not suitable for dramatic representation
crawford
nora is unprincipled, she is false. she lies without compunction. she is greedy
micheal myers (torvald)
his security depends upon feeling superior
Koht (bomb)
"exploded like a bomb into contemporary life"
Ibsen
"the tragedy of modern times"
Bogh
"so simple in its action and so everday in its dress"
Hostess in Sweden on her lunch invitations
"you are politely requested not to discuss Ibsen's new play"
Actress and playwright Elizabeth Robins (1862-1952)
His plays were "unstagey" and "like a personal meeting"
Ingmar Bergman
Ibsen's play, he added, "is really the tragedy of Helmer."
M. W. Brun
"any real wife in Nora's situation would "throw herself into her husband's arms"" (1879)
Fredrik Peterson, 1880
The absence of either a reconciliation scene or the 'uplifted mood' the Greeks imparted
to a tragedy was a serious flaw: without either the play was "ugly" and "distressing"
The journal Deutsche Rundschau
Accused Ibsen of "loving the repulsive"
, A punch cartoon called 'Ibsen in Brixton (1891)
Showed an enormous grim-faced woman poised at her open front door while two
servants stagger out with her luggage. Confronting her cowering shrimp of a husband
she proclaims "yes, William, I've thought a deal about it and I find I'm nothing but your
doll and dickey-bird, and so I'm going"
Elizabeth Hardwick
"Ibsen has put the leaving of [Nora's] children on the same moral and emotional level as
the leaving of her husband and we cannot, in our hearts, assent to
...
At the beginning of the play Nora is "all heart like a cabbage" and at the end "a mass of
aggregate conceit and self-sufficiency"
Social Demokraten 1879
This play touches the lives of thousands of families; oh yes there are thousands of such
doll-homes, where the husbands treats his wife as a child he amuses himself with, and
so that is what the wives become...
Erik Vullum - norweigian journalist in 1879
There is something indescribably unnatural in this, and therefore, in the final instance,
artificial.
Amalie Skram, Norwegian journalist in 1880s
When the woman first has risen, she will never let herself be stopped again.
William Archer
If she were really and essentially the empty-headed doll we hear so much about, the
whole point of the play would be gone...
Ronald Gray (nora's leaving)
Nora's final leaving... looks too theatrical
Ronald Gray (nora)
Nora shows no sign of having seen the kind of man Helmer is
Sally ledger (bourgeois)
The play shows a critical scrutiny of the lives and values of the bourgeois classes
Sally ledger (modern life)
Isben is critically dissecting modern life and all its problems
Sally ledger (nora)
Part of Nora desires to comply patriarchal social arrangements
Shannon cron
Nora's actions are " a way of reinforcing an individual's right - regardless of gender - to
protect themselves"
Sophie Duncan
Nora puts "love before legality"
Alexander Best
The principle of Ibsen's teaching, his moral ethic, was that honesty in facing facts is the
first requisite of a decent life
Balaky and Sulaiman (female characters)
Ibsen's female characters do not fit into any of the main stereotypical images of
women... as the angel in the house or the mad woman in the attic
Balaky and Sulaiman (nora)
Nora transforms from a doll, a possession... into an individual human being
die gegenwart
ending was "illogical and immoral"
ronald gray
ibsen makes helmer grotesque and reduces the tragic quality of the ending
sally ledger (christine)
christine linde acts as a catalyst for nora's rebellion
sally ledger (rank)
rank symbolises the degeneration of the family
david thomas
torvald is as much a victim as nora
koht(relations)
its demand for truth in every human relationship
ian johnston (ending)
the ending resists simple moral formulation... nora is both triumphantly right and horribly
wrong
ian jonhston (torvald)
torvald's moral code is entirely derived from society's expectations
stinberg
marriage was revealed as being far from divine institutions
gazette 19th cent
not suitable for dramatic representation
crawford
nora is unprincipled, she is false. she lies without compunction. she is greedy
micheal myers (torvald)
his security depends upon feeling superior
Koht (bomb)
"exploded like a bomb into contemporary life"
Ibsen
"the tragedy of modern times"
Bogh
"so simple in its action and so everday in its dress"
Hostess in Sweden on her lunch invitations
"you are politely requested not to discuss Ibsen's new play"
Actress and playwright Elizabeth Robins (1862-1952)
His plays were "unstagey" and "like a personal meeting"
Ingmar Bergman
Ibsen's play, he added, "is really the tragedy of Helmer."
M. W. Brun
"any real wife in Nora's situation would "throw herself into her husband's arms"" (1879)
Fredrik Peterson, 1880
The absence of either a reconciliation scene or the 'uplifted mood' the Greeks imparted
to a tragedy was a serious flaw: without either the play was "ugly" and "distressing"
The journal Deutsche Rundschau
Accused Ibsen of "loving the repulsive"
, A punch cartoon called 'Ibsen in Brixton (1891)
Showed an enormous grim-faced woman poised at her open front door while two
servants stagger out with her luggage. Confronting her cowering shrimp of a husband
she proclaims "yes, William, I've thought a deal about it and I find I'm nothing but your
doll and dickey-bird, and so I'm going"
Elizabeth Hardwick
"Ibsen has put the leaving of [Nora's] children on the same moral and emotional level as
the leaving of her husband and we cannot, in our hearts, assent to
...
At the beginning of the play Nora is "all heart like a cabbage" and at the end "a mass of
aggregate conceit and self-sufficiency"
Social Demokraten 1879
This play touches the lives of thousands of families; oh yes there are thousands of such
doll-homes, where the husbands treats his wife as a child he amuses himself with, and
so that is what the wives become...
Erik Vullum - norweigian journalist in 1879
There is something indescribably unnatural in this, and therefore, in the final instance,
artificial.
Amalie Skram, Norwegian journalist in 1880s
When the woman first has risen, she will never let herself be stopped again.
William Archer
If she were really and essentially the empty-headed doll we hear so much about, the
whole point of the play would be gone...
Ronald Gray (nora's leaving)
Nora's final leaving... looks too theatrical
Ronald Gray (nora)
Nora shows no sign of having seen the kind of man Helmer is
Sally ledger (bourgeois)
The play shows a critical scrutiny of the lives and values of the bourgeois classes
Sally ledger (modern life)
Isben is critically dissecting modern life and all its problems
Sally ledger (nora)
Part of Nora desires to comply patriarchal social arrangements
Shannon cron
Nora's actions are " a way of reinforcing an individual's right - regardless of gender - to
protect themselves"
Sophie Duncan
Nora puts "love before legality"
Alexander Best
The principle of Ibsen's teaching, his moral ethic, was that honesty in facing facts is the
first requisite of a decent life
Balaky and Sulaiman (female characters)
Ibsen's female characters do not fit into any of the main stereotypical images of
women... as the angel in the house or the mad woman in the attic
Balaky and Sulaiman (nora)
Nora transforms from a doll, a possession... into an individual human being
