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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
fast-paced
The dialogue is sometimes a bit stilted, but Lavery’s adaptation is wonderfully concise. However, this edition has maybe the most glaring typographical errors I’ve ever encountered to the point where they impeded my reading.
A fascinating look into a woman coming of age in an age where women were treated as frivolous creatures or as Isben cunningly suggests as dolls. The feminist in me says - Go, Nora! Slam that door on that ungrateful piece of carnage. But the mother in me says, Oh, no! Don't leave the children too! I realize that being a mother is another role that Nora was forced to play and that we shrink away from a subject as touchy as a woman not wanting her own children. But I wonder if Nora will be able to find herself. She shows a lot of introspection in the last act, and I hope that she will find what she is looking for, but I don't know that her society will allow her to examine her unexplored depths. I got married when I was just 20 years old. I didn't know myself. I am so grateful that my husband allowed me to discover who I was meant to be and encouraged me to do so. So much of Nora's society would have forced her into a mold of the ideal woman that she had no room left to breathe let alone discover herself. Women are still held to a standard. How many women are judged based on how clean her house is? What about the woman on the cover of a magazine? And let's not forget having perfectly behaved children. A Doll's House still resonates with readers because we still have the ideal woman locked into our brains. It will continue to speak to readers until we view women differently.
I certainly feel for Nora--she means well and yes, patriarchy sucks, but I found her such a challenging character to like. I didn't like her when she was a silly housewife, and I didn't like her when she gained independence. Actually, now that I think about it, the fact that I find her such a troubling character is pretty revealing. Obviously I can't stand her when she's a helpmeet, but I really didn't like her once she abandons her marriage (and as a result, her children). It seems I'm not as liberal as I like to think I am.
Helmer: They are duties to your husband and your childeren.
Nora: I have other duties equally sacred.
Helmer: You do not. What duties would they be?
Nora: My duties to myself.
Helmer: You are a wife and a mother before anything else.
Nora: I don't believe that anymore. I believe I am first of all a human being, just as much as you....
Nora: I have other duties equally sacred.
Helmer: You do not. What duties would they be?
Nora: My duties to myself.
Helmer: You are a wife and a mother before anything else.
Nora: I don't believe that anymore. I believe I am first of all a human being, just as much as you....
Ooo the kick off to my World Lit/Shakespeare class. Fabulous!! We're going to be reading Ghosts next week so I'll let you know how that goes.
143 Norwegians :)
143 Norwegians :)
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I had to read this for school and honestly if I were to rate it off of the first half of the play I would have given it 2 stars. I just found it to be incredibly slow and I had no motivation to finish it (It took me 4 days to read 67 pages). Luckily around the second act I started to become more invested, but the third act THAT WAS GREAT. The ending is the only reason I gave this book the high rating I gave it. At the beginning Nora really bothered me, but those last few pages really changed my mind about the whole thing and I am so glad that I read this!
Amongst the modern plays I have read, this first foray with Ibsen is probably my favorite. They say that he was ahead of his time as a playwright who questioned the true nature of the status quo of the society around him, but this play feels more relevant and deeply relatable today than most of the ones I have read that came from others in the decades that followed.
In A Doll's House, we meet Nora, a happily married mother of three whose husband has just received a promotion that will really put their family on easy street. This sweet little house wife who everyone thinks of as having little intellectual talent and few serious dilemmas has actually being paying off a long and secret debt she incurred long ago to help her husband without his knowing it. Throughout the play, the suspense is high as to whether she will keep her secret and pay off her debt or be exposed to shame and disgrace. Time and again, she uses the persona others project upon a housewife as a ruse to keep suspicions allayed.
In the end, the question of her success or exposure somehow manages to become secondary in an utterly gratifying and profoundly impactful grand finale. The questions of fitting into the mold, keeping secrets buried, marital bliss, and economic prosperity become greatly diminished in light of the bigger questions of what we lose of ourselves when we go along with a stereotypical role for the sake of assuming some mantel of peace and prosperity.
This play will forever be a raging success.
In A Doll's House, we meet Nora, a happily married mother of three whose husband has just received a promotion that will really put their family on easy street. This sweet little house wife who everyone thinks of as having little intellectual talent and few serious dilemmas has actually being paying off a long and secret debt she incurred long ago to help her husband without his knowing it. Throughout the play, the suspense is high as to whether she will keep her secret and pay off her debt or be exposed to shame and disgrace. Time and again, she uses the persona others project upon a housewife as a ruse to keep suspicions allayed.
In the end, the question of her success or exposure somehow manages to become secondary in an utterly gratifying and profoundly impactful grand finale. The questions of fitting into the mold, keeping secrets buried, marital bliss, and economic prosperity become greatly diminished in light of the bigger questions of what we lose of ourselves when we go along with a stereotypical role for the sake of assuming some mantel of peace and prosperity.
This play will forever be a raging success.