Life and Work of Ibsen - Research Paper Example

?Order 524347 A Doll's House: Ibsen's life, work and controversy A Doll's House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen is a unique play which realistically tacklesthe issue of the woman question, double standards in gender roles, and money and morality. Although composed more than one hundred years ago, this evergreen play still is relevant as it continues to speak to Barbie-embracing girls who project for themselves a perfect future, fulfilling the requirements of domesticity. Ibsen never contents himself with conforming to these guidelines. He goes against the social grain by advocating women's independence, expressly agreeing with making moral compromises to reach an end. In the character of Nils Krogstad, Ibsen exposes a dishonest secret, pushes the female protagonist, Nora to re-evaluate her marriage and her own acceptance of her image as the 'doll'; however, Krogstad's character has been molded due to financial pressures. He unwittingly propels Nora to autonomy through a loan and unforeseen reactions. Henry Ibsen's productions upset social mores and were always controversial. "Of the many Victorian controversies and questions over art, morals and religion, none was more bitter and more provoked than....by Ibsen" (Decker 632). Ibsen's life portrays a man who experiences bankruptcy and economic downfalls which cause him to question the moral fabric of society. He constructs his plays with an underlying, often iconoclastic message. Family values are undermined by gender. Many of his plays were unpublished and unknown, because of bouts of failure at the box office. Ibsen left his family and migrated to Italy for twenty seven years where he became the father of modern prose drama. His life demonstrates the conflict between money and family. It should come as no surprise that A Doll's House exhibits a web of relationships with financial ruin as the prevailing fear and society's scorn as the main element to be averted at all costs. Ibsen greatly disagreed with traditional male and female roles. Ibsen's plays were classified as "thinking dramas" because of the philosophy. Ibsen feels that marriage is a union to be enjoyed in a couple comprising of equals and conveys a strong human rights message. A Doll’s House, written in prose, is grounded in realism which defaces society's idealized gloss on marriage and the male/female relationship. Girls and women usually cherish dreams of living in a tastefully designed doll house with a perfect spouse. However, Ibsen smashes these illusions by authoring a work which counters the supposed myth of forever happiness. He speaks against the child-like and dolled-up woman as the preferred ideal. In Ibsen's day, the woman had no right to take a loan without the confirming signature of a man and a married woman's leaving a man was an event rarely heard of. Thus, his plays stand as a poignant critique against the unequal status of women. The title, A Doll's House, connotes the role of the woman as a beautiful puppet, characterized with qualities such as superficiality, playfulness, lack of intelligence, lack of humanity and frivolity. However, in this play, the doll depicted as the woman of the family transforms and transitions Pinocchio-like into a real woman. "A number of Ibsen's drama's portray first the weak or displaced husband or father who lives in a world threatened by change and second, a woman who challenges the patriarchy" (Ross 242). The lead-female, Nora Helmer, comes into realization of her one-sided marriage and leaves her husband, coming into an awareness of her husband's lack of appreciation for her, his selfishness, and dominance - she recognizes that she is not self-actualized. Henry Ibsen also lays bare the difficult decisions in questions of morality and money. He mirrors his own life in his classic, A Doll's House in which characters must choose between life and moral obligations. In this situation, he undermines religion and its claims on individuals. A Doll's House unmasks the marriage problems of a bourgeois family and another demanding creditor. Want forms the backbone of the conflict and produces consequent marriages of convenience and illegitimate loans, through a controversial money lender. In the play, one sees that financial straits beget desperation and undermine moral values as evidenced in Nils Krogstad's "highly diseased moral character." Because Nora could not save Krogstad from imminent dismissal, he blackmails Nora and precipitates the collapse of her marriage. Similar, to Shylock in Shakespeare's A Pound of Flesh, Krogstad is a corrupt money-lender who blackmails and tortures those who are indebted to him. A key personal belief of Krogstad is enshrined in his self-fulfilling statement: "Nothing but dry business matters...absolutely nothing else" (Ibsen). He unscrupulously and mercilessly harrasses Nora with guilt for forging a signature which seals a loan bond. His dealings with others are based on manipulation and exchange-in other words, a transaction. Expediency is the only recourse. Although Krogstad knows that a signature is falsified, he still ratifies the loan because of self-interest and degeneracy. By all means necessary are his watchwords. To inspire some sting of consciousness in Krogstad, a woman has to plead with him. However, his pestilent actions are calculated in such a way that they cannot be reversed. Even though Krogstad has a demonized character, he still manages to evince some humanity. One can put forward mitigating reasons for Krogstad's apparent turpitude, such as the desire to wreck a family for the sake of his own. Krogstad also reveals that he has a family that is in his care. Money is the weapon with which he fights to regain his loss of respect in society. In his eyes, money is the priority which will keep his respect intact before his family. He has to provide for them in any way that he can to save them from poverty; therefore, his immoral methods are then not selfishly inspired. It is his sacred trust and responsibility. Krogstad's relationships suffered as well when his fiancee rejected his marriage proposal for someone else who had more money. As a consequence, Krogstad sees that money answers all things. In sum, Ibsen and Krogstad can be likened to one another in their insolvency, doubts cast on their moral characters and the penchant for controversy. At the same time, through their actions they have empowered women, Ibsen through the representation and empowerment of Nora in A Doll's House and Krogstad, by endorsing a loan for which it is legal for only women to contract. Ibsen stands a figure who makes points that are salient and relevant, though unpopular concerning gender roles and social expectations. Works Cited: Decker, C.R. "Ibsen's Literary Reputation and Victorian Taste" Studies in Philology. Vol. 32, No. 4, 1935. . Dorothy S. Bucks and Arthur H. Nethercot. "Ibsen and Herne's Margaret Fleming: A Study of the Early Ibsen Movement in America," American Literature, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Jan., 1946), 311-333. Ibsen, H. A Doll's House. A Project Gutenberg Ebook. . Roe, Frederick W. "Ibsen as a Dramatist" The Sewanee Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul., 1905), 305-318 Johns Hopkins University Press, . Ross, Shideler, R. "Darwin, Weak Men, Strong Women and Ibsen's Pillars of Society." Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (1997), 242-259 . . Read More