About this title: The text of Ibsen's play, written in 1879 and translated into English by the playwright, Frank McGuinness. Nora confronts her husband, Torvald, with her own brutal realization that by marrying she has moved from her father's doll's house into yet another situation of economic dependency.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Date Published: 1997-02-27
ISBN-13:9780571191291ISBN:0571191290
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Faber & Faber, Gordonsville, Virginia, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780571191291ISBN:0571191290
Description: Very Good. As issued No Jacket. Corner crease and bump, and some overall light to moderate shopwear. A new translation of the Ibsen masterpiece. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780571191291ISBN:0571191290
Description: Very Good. Text pages clean & tight with no markings or highlighting. Stamp from former bookstore inside. Cover has scattered scratches. Classic Ibsen play. Very readable copy. read more
"Again Ibsen packs much controversy into the end of the play. Until the last few pages the story appears to be about a happy marriage and family with one dark secret looming over them. It appears that is true, however the secret is much bigger than we were led to believe. Nora is a mcuh stronger character than I expected.
Nora - What do you consider my most sacred duties? Helmer. Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children? Nora - I have other duties just as sacred. Helmer - That you have not. What duties could those be? Nora - Duties to myself. Helmer - Before all else, you are a wife and a mother. Nora - I don't believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are
Helmer - Can you not understand your place in your own home? Have you not a reliable guide in such matters as that?--have you no religion? Nora - I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is. Helmer - What are you saying? Nora - I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other. When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me.
Helmer - I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora--bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora - It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done."
"The first half of the play is sickly sweet and I couldn't manage to relate to either character, who lived so lightheartedly, romantically but without substance, singing the merits of the female character's helplessness, the merits of money to empower the couple to be carefree. The characters entrust their values to the protection of the status quo, only the female character comes to find that while she is required to play by these rules to make gains, the system returns punishment to her in the place of protection if fortune turns sour. The transition from one state of affairs to the other is sudden and heart-wrenching. Nora realizes that she never had merit as a person worthy of love but only as an object of her husband's affection and proud possession, and a tool for the children's utility and service. The laws prohibit a woman to provide for herself, to fend for herself or her family, but manage to give her the responsibility as the source of all her children's errors. One sympathizes with the emotion of attachment and loss experienced by the husband as Nora deserts him, yet he has no idea what is owed to her as an independent being."
"I had to read this for a literature class in college. I more than didn't like this. I absolutely HATED the ending! It is way too much 'Women's Lib' for me. I thought the main character was selfish and irresponsible. Her decisions were constantly and consistently wrong. The book should have been called, "A Selfish Idiot's House". I understand that her husband was repressive, but she had a commitment to her children, and her choosing to leave was punishing those tiny innocents far more than her husband (who thought she was silly, and he never beat her or anything, from what I remember).
This is why there is so much crime/drugs/hate in the world and why religion is leaving schools and teenage pregnancy and everything else that is wrong. It's because women are not at home teaching their children what is right and what is wrong. Mothers need to BE mothers. They need to teach, care for, and show love to their children. I'll step down from my soap box now."
"Not an extended metaphor like Shelley's Frankenstein or a brick to the head like Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Ibsen's A Doll's House is still very much a treatise on how women are wronged by society, their husbands, and everyone else. Though to me at first glance it reads like another well-meaning, pre-feminist text, Ibsen's work does have nuances to it that makes it a fitting companion piece to the likes of Shelley and Hardy.
I'm not sure I understand the adoration for the character of Nora. She's certainly not the female version of Hamlet--that's for sure. But what she does share with Hamlet (and many other stage characters) is the fits and starts world of revelation/epiphany that good drama always seems to evoke well. Otherwise, there'd be no way to see such a transformation of character occur in so short of a time and have it be anywhere near believable.
But more than Nora, I enjoyed her husband's character the most. I can just imagine some heckler in the audience of a production of A Doll's House yelling out "Way to be the stereotype, dude!" after each one of his lines. I almost wonder if Stanley Kowalski isn't simply a more modern version of Helmer.
You'll have to decide for yourself if a man can write convincingly about the woes of women. If you think the answer is "yes," you'll probably enjoy A Doll's House."
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