A Doll's House as a modern tragedy

Introduction

The most powerful and lasting contributions to the literature of a given era are

invariably penned by bold thinkers struggling to comprehend the ever changing world

in which they live. Spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, the European Modernist

movement, which was propelled by the authorial brilliance of authors and playwrights

such as like the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, was shaped and inspired by the momentous

political and social upheaval roiling all the Old Continent following decades of

societal transformation . Ibsen’s most renowned work of drama was undoubtedly A

Doll’s House, a three-act masterpiece written in simple prose that manages to cast a

scathing lens on the conventional roles assigned to women in a patriarchal system

stacked decidedly against the fairer sex. By applying the traditional feminist reading

to A Doll’s House before expanding the discussion to include the concept of modern

tragedy as essential to Ibsen’s composition process, the informed reader can begin to

surmise the ultimate import of this previously unheralded playwright’s most

compelling work.
Biographical Information on Henrik Ibsen

Now recognized as the “Father of Realism” and one of the founders of theEuropean
Modernist movement, Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen began life as the
.child of a wealthy merchant family in the portside town of Skein

Overview of A Doll’s House

The plot of A Doll’s House centers, like much of Ibsen’s work, on the power
dynamics which exist between married couples, and indeed, between men and women
.in general

The following passage is considered to rank among the most controversial discourses

in European literature, as Ibsen’s modern restructuring of the traditional power

structure between the genders foretells the societal unshackling of women occurring

throughout the society in that time

The Traditional Feminist Reading of A Doll’s House

Ibsen immediately establishes the thematic direction of A Doll’s House by

featuring Nora, a seemingly domesticated housewife living a life of marital bliss with
.her husband Torvald, as the ostensible protagonist of his play
The audience’s introductory vision of Nora is of her absently eating macaroons while
humming and sorting newly purchased parcels, while Torvald’s first scene involves
him holding a pen and emerging with consternation from his elegantly appointed
study. From the perspective of feminist literary criticism, these visual clues reflect
.the audience’s preconceived notions of classic gender roles

The Characteristics of Modern Tragedy

Authors and playwrights today still strive to emulate the form and function of Greek
tragedy in their own work, and a close reading and textual analysis of A Doll’s House
clearly demonstrates that Ibsen also derived much of his inspiration from the classics
. to come before him

A critical examination of A Doll’s House shows this concern to be unfounded,

however, as Ibsen produced what many literary critics consider to be one of the most
.significant works of modern tragedy ever penned and published

Studying A Doll's House as Modern Tragedy

As Ibsen himself wrote in Notes for the Modern Tragedy, “there are two kinds of
moral law, two kinds of conscience, one in man and a completely different one in
woman … (and) the wife in the play ends up quite bewildered and not knowing right
from wrong; her natural instincts on the one side and her faith in authority on the
other leave her completely confused” (1). The internal conflict experienced by Nora
filters the classical conception of tragic sacrifice through the decidedly modern lens of
.a woman abandoning her family to preserve her own identity

Conclusion

A seemingly simple work of art, A Doll’s House stands today as a lasting

testament to ability of literature to capture the essence of a particular historical era

through the distinctly powerful form of modern dramatic tragedy. The miserable

decline of Torvald Helmer, who begins the play in full control of his home and his

wife, the picture of traditional authority as it existed in the minds of so many

empowered men, before ultimately succumbing to powers outside of his control

which render him ineffectual and abandoned – is intentionally designed by Ibsen to

evoke the deterioration of the patriarchal social construct. Conversely, Nora’s

newfound pursuit of liberation after a life spent dutifully playing a role similar to that

of a children’s doll, is presented as a further extension of the thematic crux of modern

tragedy to A Doll’s House, because although she eventually discovers the futility of

her prior existence, she is forced to accept that her life has largely been devoid of
actual meaning. As scholars continue to study the import of Ibsen’s contribution to

modern literature even to this day, the prevailing opinion holds that “A Doll’s House

is the first full-blown example of Ibsen’s modernism … (as) it contains a devastating

critique of idealism entwined with a preoccupation with the conditions of love in

modernity” (Moi 225). Fredrik Petersen, a professor of theology and a contemporary

opponent of Ibsen based on the scandalous nature of Nora’s defiance in the

dénouement of A Doll’s House, expressed a similar sentiment in 1880 after watching

the play for himself. Stating his belief that Ibsen’s play failed in its attempt to

emulate traditional forms of tragic literature, Petersen observed that “one does not

leave this play in the uplifted mood which already in the time of the Greeks was

regarded as an absolute requirement for poetic or artistic work … Having seen

something profoundly ugly, we are left only with a distressing feeling, which is the

inevitable consequence when there is no reconciliation to demonstrate the ultimate

victory of the ideal” (1), and in doing so, he unwittingly revealed the work he

despised so much to be a nothing short of a flawless example of modern tragedy.