Critics for Ibsen - complete

Question 1

Belinda Jack - Questions

Answer 1

A Doll’s House ‘is full of ambiguities. It asks questions but doesn’t answer them.

Question 2

Belinda Jack - Alternative ending

Answer 2

‘Barbaric outrage’ - Ibsen

Question 3

Belinda Jack - Performance in marriage

Answer 3

Their marriage has been play-acting for the sake of appearances

Question 4

Belinda Jack - Audience engagement

Answer 4

The audience must retain a critical distance from the play to be encouraged to think, not simply passively to watch

Question 5

Sophie Duncan - Social laws

Answer 5

Ibsen believed there were ‘two types of moral laws, one for men and one, quite different, for women

Question 6

Sophie Duncan - Melodrama

Answer 6

Nora wants to behave like a melodramatic heroine as she puts love before all

Question 7

August Strindberg

Answer 7

People stopped regarding marriage as an automatic provider of absolute bliss

Question 8

Elizabeth Robin

Answer 8

No drama has ever meant more to women on the stage than Henrik Ibsen’s has

Question 9

Sophie Duncan - Alternative play

Answer 9

Ghosts offers an alternative ending, the truth if a woman stays

Question 10

Sophie Duncan - Contamination

Answer 10

Fears of contamination becoming a metaphor for morality and sin

Question 11

Kathryn Hughes - Jobs

Answer 11

Men became defined by their jobs

Question 12

Kathryn Hughes - Moral superiority

Answer 12

Women were viewed as morally superior to their husbands and were expected to counteract the taint of the public sphere

Question 13

Mary Wollstonecraft - Vindication for the rights of women

Answer 13

She was referred to as a ‘hyena in petticoats with a ferocious bite’ due to her discussion of the wrongs and suffering inflicted upon women

Question 14

Jan Marsh - Male consequences of the patriarchy

Answer 14

The patriarchy was much more destructive than initially believed

Question 15

Queen Victoria - Gender

Answer 15

God created men and women differently

Question 16

Greg Buzzwell - The New woman

Answer 16

the air of sexual freedom

Question 17

Greg Buzzwell - Threat of the New Woman

Answer 17

‘undermined the traditional view of masculinity’

Question 18

Ibsen - Modern society

Answer 18

A woman cannot be herself in modern society

Question 19

Ibsen - Dramatic exploration

Answer 19

Ibsen has stated that his play was intended to be a dramatic exploration of freedom and truth which both link to the feminist movement

Question 20

Liam McNamara - Performance

Answer 20

The way that the play never shows us the ultimate result of Nora’s decision further reinforces the idea that the performance of gender is much more contemporary

Question 21

Tony Coult - Feelings

Answer 21

Powerful feelings breaking through surface appearance

Question 22

Tony Coult - Normalcy

Answer 22

Naturalism also suggests that big emotions are held under the surface and held back under a facade of normalcy

Question 23

Tony Garland - Villain

Answer 23

We as the audience want to define characters as evident villains, yet since each character is morally conflicted we can’t strictly define who is a ‘villain’

Question 24

John Hathaway - Uncanny

Answer 24

Uncanny presentation of humans (as dolls)

Question 25

John Hathaway - Masks

Answer 25

Ironically, it is Torvald who uses metaphors of masking and acting

Question 26

Sara Jan - Other plays

Answer 26

Ibsen does not repeat himself but explores the problems within society in different ways.

Question 27

Sara Jan - Ghosts

Answer 27

Theme of ghosts from the past that metaphorically haunt the play

Question 28

Brittany Wright - Portrait

Answer 28

Horrifyingly familiar portrait of the life of a typical Victorian woman

Question 29

Brittany Wright - Restrictive social norms

Answer 29

Restrictive social norms are, for Ibsen, a worse disease (than physical contamination)n n.

Question 30

Joan Templeton - Everywoman

Answer 30

Ibsen stated that his play was ‘everywoman struggle against Everyman’

Question 31

Joan Templeton - Slamming the door

Answer 31

Nora’s symbolic slamming of the door is often read as ‘silly theatrics’

Question 32

Ibsen - Social purpose

Answer 32

I have never written any play to further a social purpose

Question 33

Joan Templeton - Epiphany

Answer 33

Ibsen offers us a theatre of monstrous epiphany

Question 34

Elettra Carbone - Mirror of A Doll's House

Answer 34

The Nathanson family painting, which similarly depicts the bourgeoisie family

Question 35

Elettra Carbone - Connection to the outside world

Answer 35

she is clearly positioned within the living room, unlike her husband, who has one foot inside the room and one foot on the outside, symbolising his role as the link between the outside world and the home.

Question 36

Elettra Carbone - alternative endings and staging

Answer 36

2006 Egyptian production - the door is left ajar, which does not exclude Nora's possible return 2002 German production - Nora shoots Torvald, removing any chance of reconciliation 2003 Mabou Mines Dollhouse - all the men were shorter than 4'6, with the miniature furniture catering to the men, rather than the women who were forced to conform to the 'male' setting 2009 - regendered performance with Torvald as the househusband, trying to reclaim his masculinity from the career-driven Nora