Notes on Greek Drama and its influence in Theatre in the Victorian Era in A Dolls House

• Victorian → Private

• Reputation was important
• High Social Class demonstrated dignity.
• The most important criteria for respectability in Victorian England was one’s bloodlines, especially if they were aristocratic.
• By Victorian standards, an unmarried mother is a most scandalous and dishonorable individual. It means that she lost her virginity before marriage. In a time when female chastity was highly valued – and indeed, used as a bargaining chip in arranging marriages – an unmarried pregnancy was not only a disgrace, but a ticket straight out of the upper social circles
• However, women were forced to hide this because of the moral double standard. Women had to tell their husbands everything.
• Men were allowed to sleep around and women were not.
• Therefore, women were stuck in a bad position: keep a secret or break a moral code and ruin the reputation of themselves and their families.
• It is dishonorable or “ungentlemanly” for a man to pry into another’s private life. He must distinguish between the public sphere and the private.
• If rules were broken, honor and reputation at risk
• Victorian society was very restrictive on public emotions, so ‘improper’ emotions were shown in secret. EMOTION pg 220

• Influences characters in Victorian Drama
• Contrasts from Greek Drama where public emotions were necessary to tell a story

• Greek → public

• Carefree, less restricted
• Everyone bound together by public occasions
• Greek Drama seemed natural in open-auditorium since they were so open with their community
• Can be bad if too much information was known (ex. Oedipus’ incest)

Roles of women

• Women were not allowed to participate in Greek drama
• In Victorian Era, women were demeaned

Greek Tragedy Terminology

• Tragic hero – great character destined to downfall
• Harmartia – tragic flaw
• Hubris- excessive pride
• Catharsis – cleansing/purging of emotions
• Anagnorisis – epiphany, discovery of true identity
• Dramatic Irony – the audience knows something that the characters do not

Greek Tragedy and Connection to A Doll’s House

• Greek tragedies were based on human suffering
• Ibsen’s plays were based on characters trying to live in a difficult or unfair society. These are often confronted with a deep crisis in their lives.
• The term “catastrophe” originates in Greek tragedy, but when pertained to Ibsen’s plays, it redefines itself and redefines tragedy. In A Doll’s House or even in Ibsen’s other dramas, the main characters are found in a catastrophic situation in which the togetherness of a cohesive family structure and the relationships between the characters are at stake.
• A catastrophic setting is anticipated in the title-symbolism of A Doll’s House. The domestic space is as fragile as a doll’s house. Relations and values are as precarious as that. Nora’s smashing the door on her husband Torvald is a catastrophe to him as well as the familial cohesion but we must not forget the oppositional, radical and libertine spirit of this gesture.

Roles of Characters

• Nora protagonist

• most development
• tragic hero

• Linde

• similar to Greek Drama, a tragic hero has a supernatural aid
• although Mrs. Linde does not have supernatural abilities, she always supports Nora through her problems

• Krogstad antagonist

• At beginning of play, he threatens to reveal Nora’s forgery of her father’s signature

• Torvald deuteragonist

• least development
• slows development of Nora and play
• Represents Victorian construction
• Roles of Torvald and Krogstad switch at end of play

• Krogstad and Nora

• Both forged signature
• in order to save someone in their life
• both contemplate suicide
• victims of Victorian society

• In a play, every action has a meaning to it
• Nora’s character

• Nora exposes more emotions than Torvald (pg. 220)
• Nora is more open than Torvald (Torvald never exposes his emotions)
• Reveals Nora’s character

Themes

• Is it right to treat women as inferiors?

• Topic of this play

• The relationship between Nora and Helmer

• Ibsen demonstrates unequal power
• Provokes the audience to question the customs or ideas of the Victorian Period

• Helmer nicknames his wife using animal terms

• Implies she is a pet or possession
• Similar to treating women as inferior

• Naturalism

• Reflected society

• Roles of family, women, etc.
• Crisis or struggle in economy
• Ibsen acknowledges that in the 19th century, women were to stay at home, raise her children, and serve her husband
• Ibsen bases his plays around individuals that are struggling in society

•  Nora’s inheritance of her father’s bad temper

• Ideals to naturalism (natural to inherit certain characteristics)

• Romanticism

• Focused on royal or noble characters in heroic tragedies
• Elaborated plots, unlikely happy endings
• No serious purpose conveyed by these plays (served for entertainment)

Influence of Greek Drama in Modern World