Contemporary criticism considers "A Dolls House" a realistic social/domestic drama the main theme of which centers around the impossibility of distinguishing between appearance and reality. Discuss.
English Language & Literature: A Doll’s House
Name: George Stavrou
Instructor: Dr. Leda Andoniou
Date 12/10/2012
Write a concise essay on the following topic:
Contemporary criticism considers A Doll’s House a realistic social/domestic drama the main theme of which centers around the impossibility of distinguishing between appearance and reality. Discuss this statement on the basis of characterization and plot. Is it a recurring theme in the play? In what scenes does it become more obvious?
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House play is a realistic drama set in Norway during the 19th century. The play raises the question about some of the most fundamental affairs the humanity ever faced. Those contentions include sexism that is depicted between the superiority of the man and the position of the woman in the society, materialism and in general money issues, moral issues and morality’s actual definition, gender performativity and the reliability of appearances. One of the greatest matters of contention in Ibsen’s play and even in human’s history is the one of appearance versus reality. Trying to distinguish those two aspects of human’s character can sometimes be impossible. In A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen manages to present his character in a way that the reader in the end can find out the difference between the characters’ appearance and their actual personality. Ibsen seems to have understood the relationship between those two features especially in the Victorian society he lives in and in some way he tries to show the others that societal image is not the lone thing they should care about. The proof that he has comprehended their relationship is his own characters that serve the author’s want to have a contrast between their first appearance and their view at the end of the play. That is what Ibsen focuses on and what he actually accomplishes in the end. The impossibility of distinguishing between appearance and reality becomes obvious in the ways characters are portrayed ; this theme is also illustrated in the plot.