Ibsen's A Doll's House: Feminism and 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 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the European Modernist movement — propelled by the authorial brilliance of playwrights such as the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen — was shaped and inspired by the momentous political and social upheaval roiling the Old Continent following decades of societal transformation. The toppling of previously infallible monarchies and the sudden distribution of democratic ideals across boundaries of gender and class forced the literary-minded creative class to recalibrate their worldview instantly, and the result is a wealth of material — including novels, plays, and critical works of nonfiction — all of which focuses intently on the crumbling conventions of marriage and faith.

With the external foundations of the preexisting social order irrevocably shattered, playwrights like Ibsen focused their intellectual insights on the shifting structure of society itself, analyzing the evolution of concepts like fidelity and femininity in relation to the tragic consequences these revolutionary adjustments to the collective mindset imposed on individual lives. Ibsen's most renowned work of drama was undoubtedly A Doll's House, a three-act masterpiece written in simple prose that casts 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 grasp the ultimate significance of this playwright's most compelling work.

Biographical Information on Henrik Ibsen

Now recognized as the "Father of Realism" and one of the founders of the European Modernist movement, Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen began life as the child of a well-to-do merchant family in the portside town of Skien. Although Ibsen's first few years of life would be considered rather idyllic, his father's unexpected fall from financial grace into bankruptcy precipitated a tumultuous adolescence. In the words of one Ibsen biographer, "always an authoritarian, Knud Ibsen became a family tyrant, visiting his bitterness and resentment on his wife and children" (Templeton 4). This early introduction to the powerless state inflicted upon women — and the abuses they suffer in silence — served as a catalyst for the writer's subsequent literary portrayals of victimized female figures transforming into tragic heroines.

The conflicted Ibsen soon began exploring creative outlets for the internalized frustration he felt towards his father, writing deeply reflective prose along with tragic plays featuring characters who echoed his parents' own tortured marital dynamic. Although many of his initial forays into dramatic literature proved fruitless, Ibsen persevered throughout his adolescence and adulthood, penning several works that combined tragic elements with the realism of European Modernism. It was not until Ibsen reached his late thirties that his work as a playwright began to pay financial dividends, and only during his self-imposed exile to Italy and Germany did he begin to infuse his work with the scathing social commentary that propelled A Doll's House into the realm of literary discussion.