A Dolls House Henrik Ibsens Revolutionary Play
A Doll's House was written by Henrik Ibsen. It was first performed in 1879 at the Danish Royal Theatre where many people were shocked and cried out in indignation. Indeed, this play does not look like the traditional and romantic drama the audience was used to. Actually, Ibsen added new elements which were so new that he gained the reputation of a ground-breaking dramatist but furthermore the reputation of a revolutionary author.
He was first called a modernist, because modernism denotes a self conscious break with traditional modes of knowing world and a new emphasis on the importance of the contemporary world. Joseph Wood Krucht stated: 'to be modern is to be, in many important ways, different from his predecessors.' The must important way we could discern is the aim: Ibsen had a different aim from his predecessors. Besides, he also was very different in the ways to reach this aim -- indeed, he used some new tools, like his characters' nature or the way they express, to go further in his goal.
First of all, one of the modern characteristics was the audience he chose. Indeed, he wrote for the middle class. Before him, drama was an entertainment for higher classes. So, Ibsen dedicated his play to the middle class -- a class which was created by the institutions of marriage, church, civil life and law. Besides, Ibsen wanted to shock, to scandalize this class, by attacking the institutions which were its bases. And his aim was reached, indeed, the criticism of his plays was furious in the middle class newspapers: 'It is an open drain ' a toilet' In A Doll's House, Ibsen attacks the institution of marriage by presenting a middle class couple where the husband ' Torvald ' treats his wife ' Nora ' like a doll. He exposes the idealization of marriage and tries to denounce this kind of continuous lies which middle class wanted to believe in. For Ibsen, 'Idealist puts a mask over the truth so that he can live with it.' Ibsen wanted to...
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