Sociological context for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Sociological context for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg Introduction A Doll's House was written by the renounded playwright and dramatist, Henrik Ibsen who was born in Norway 1828.When Henrik Ibsen wrote this play, he had not meant to write it with the idea of it being a feminist play, but only as an exploration of the human mind. This man's plays have influenced theatregoers and theologians for decades, even sociologists take ideas from his plays. Ibsen was raised and spent his young life there but a lot of his life he spent abroad; this affected his ideas of what he was writing about and what his political views were. Ibsen was, like everyone of that time, greatly influenced by the industrial revolution. The ideas and expectations of the Victorian era were also a great influence upon his life. One of the critical factors in this part of the influence upon his life was the role of women and it was this that caused him to write the play 'A Doll's House'. In 'A Doll's House' it was the first time that, on stage, a woman had ever left a man and caused great outcry among the theatregoers and society. However, Ibsen was not harmed by this, as he only wanted to put out an idea of society and an alternative happening. Although this was one of the main issues in this play, it is not the only one. There are also many things that affected Ibsen to write this play in a certain way.

  • Word count: 1191
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Plot Overview of A Doll's House.

Plot Overview A Doll's House opens on Christmas Eve. Nora Torvald enters her well-furnished living room-the setting of the entire play-carrying several packages. Torvald Helmer, Nora's husband, comes out of his study when he hears her arrive. He greets her playfully and affectionately, but then chides her for spending so much money on Christmas gifts. Their conversation reveals that for many years the Torvalds have had to be careful with money, but that Torvald has recently obtained a new position at the bank where he works that will afford them a more comfortable lifestyle. Ellen, the maid, announces that the Torvalds' dear friend Dr. Rank has come to visit. At the same time, another visitor has arrived, this one unknown. To Nora's great surprise, Kristine Linda, a former school friend, comes into the room. The two have not seen each other for years, but Nora mentions having read that Mrs. Linde's husband passed away a few years earlier. Mrs. Linda tells Nora that when her husband died, she was left with no money and no children. Nora replies by telling Mrs. Linda about her first year of marriage to Torvald. She explains that they were very poor and that both had to work long hours. Torvald became sick, she adds, and the couple had to travel to Italy so that Torvald could recover. Nora inquires further about Mrs. Linda's life, and Mrs. Linda explains that for years she

  • Word count: 1367
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Question: Compare and contrast the characters of Nora and Ms Linde. What do we learn of the Norwegian society through their inter-actions?

A Doll's House Practice Exam Question Question: Compare and contrast the characters of Nora and Ms Linde. What do we learn of the Norwegian society through their inter-actions? Throughout the piece "A Doll's House", the writer Henrik Ibsen challenges the hypocrisy of the 19th century Norwegian society. At the time, Norway was a patriotically society meaning male are the dominate race. Women on the other hand were expected to play by the society's expectations and men had the right to treat them as "little song birds" or "little children". In this play, there is a strong contrast between the actions Mrs. Linde and Nora, at the end of the play, the two women basically swoop position or roles as Mrs. Linde goes back with Krogstad and enjoys a romantic relationship with him whilst Nora leaves Torvald for her own ambitions and goals. Both of their actions were for "freedom", and that is the thing that connected the two to "needing each other". From the two women's interactions we learn that women had to stand up to the system and make sacrifices if they wanted an improvement in life, throughout this essay, I will explain and explore how and why it is done in the case of the frictional characters in A Doll's House. In the beginning of the play Nora is presented as a beautiful young wife of a banker and a mother of the bourgeois family. She takes pride in dressing up elegantly and

  • Word count: 1408
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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What Is The Role Of Boredom In The Characterisation Of

Hana Fahim World Literature Essay What Is The Role Of Boredom In The Characterisation Of Hedda Gabler And Therese Raquin? Henrik Ibsen wrote the play Hedda Gabler about a woman who marries out of convenience a man she does not love and literally bores herself to death, she takes her own life at the end of the play. Therese Raquin is a novel by Emile Zola about a woman who along with her lover kills her husband, in order for them to be together, but the guilt of the murder causes them to commit a joined suicide. Both works take place in the late 19th century. In this essay I will discuss these two characters, Hedda Gabler and Therese Raquin, and the effect boredom has on them and on the decisions they make. The first thing Ibsen and Zola do to build up Therese and Hedda's boredom was by the setting. Zola filled Therese's childhood with disease, over protectiveness and loneliness, she was "brought up in the clammy heat of a sick-room" 1. Even when they moved to Paris she was stuck in the tiny apartment above the haberdashery, "she's bored to death in that shop" 2. Zola describes it as "dark, low and cramped" 3. Therese had to endure the claustrophobic boredom of petty life in the backstreet Paris haberdashery. Furthermore, Zola introduced the Thursday gatherings. The "Thursday evenings were a torture to her" 4 and "Therese played with a lack of interest" 5. In its' guests

  • Word count: 1817
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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hedda gabler

Drama has no single definition and does not have a common meaning that can be applied to the wide range of texts, plays, acts, and various others that can be called drama. However, drama is "by far the most economical means of expression" (Esslin, 1976). The subjects expressed in drama are extensive and diverse and can be declared dramatically or subtly. A common and almost essential subject matter expressed in drama is the representation of social issues. Drama can be manipulated and used as a powerful political weapon; as propaganda. Indeed, during periods such as war, cinema and theatre were used commonly as a form of propaganda in order to gain the attention and support of the public. Perhaps then, drama's representation of social issues differs from that of propaganda only in the way drama is used. Propaganda's representation of social issues is often limited because of it being censored, controlled, in the hands of mainly the government. Its purpose is to persuade and convince a targeted audience of a central idea. Nonetheless, it can reflect social issues such as poverty, war, famine, or perhaps equality, democracy, peace. In Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, Ibsen is able to use this piece of drama as a tool to comment on social values and issues; these issues being about women and their place in a 'double-standard society'. His message is subtle but strong. While this piece

  • Word count: 1870
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Each of the characters in 'A Doll's House' is guilty of deception on one level or another. Discuss

Each of the characters in 'A Doll's House' is guilty of deception on one level or another. Discuss Henrik Ibsen wrote about realism in drama in the 19th century. He talked about issues relevant to the age and made predictions of where people were headed in his work. The structure of this play is three acts but it ends with a discussion. Ibsen moved away form tradition with his characterisation. There is a strong feminist message in this play, with the unlikely heroine of a housewife, Nora, who transforms herself through the duration of the play into an independent women. The themes that the play 'A Doll's House' comments on are gender, the roles that people play in life, for example the role of the dutiful wife or the husband, Torvald, to protect and control. The most common, but perhaps not the most obvious, theme in the play is the theme of deception. Every character is guilty of it in one way or another. Mrs. Linde looks like an innocent character when it comes to the theme of deception. She is an independent woman who had to look after her sick mother and younger brothers. She tells Nora of how she, 'had to fend for myself, opening a little shop, running a little school...', so she is obviously a very intelligent person. She is, 'proud and happy', when she thinks of how she made her mother's life easier towards the end. She is condescending towards Nora because Nora

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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To understand the meaning of A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen we read the whole script. To go deeper into the meaning we used our own drama abilities to explore.

Explorative Strategies- Task One To understand the meaning of A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen we read the whole script. To go deeper into the meaning we used our own drama abilities to explore. We used Hot-Seating, Collages, and Still Image. All of these three things helped me understand the meaning of the play and explore the characters further. The script does not tell me everything I need to know, a lot of things are hidden, and techniques are needed to protrude facts. When you begin to understand the play you begin to appreciate what a fantastic play writer Ibsen actually is. We used Hot Seating at first in the exam. The teacher would say a character and the stage the character is at in the play. The character I have chosen to analyse is Nora. Vicki played Nora in Hot-Seating. We all asked her questions to see how she answered her. This helped a lot as we were finding things out about Nora that are not bluntly stated in the script. For example we find out why she has macaroons and how it builds up tension. When Vicki was being Nora it made me realise what Ibsen was doing with the Macaroons. He was building up tension bit by bit. The macaroons were showing the reader of the play that Torvald had some kind of control over Nora and that she had a disobedient side to her. It showed us she would lie to Torvald. Throughout the play this enhances and evolves into something much

  • Word count: 1786
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Doll's House - character, plot and symbols analysis

A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Main Characters Torvald Helmer - He is a lawyer who has been promoted to manager in the bank. Nora - She is Torvald’s wife who is treated like a child by Torvald’s but leaves in the end because of it. Krogstad - He is the man Nora borrowed money from to pay for the trip to Italy. Dr. Rank - He is an admirer of Nora who has spinal TB and announces his death at the end of the play. Minor Characters Christine Linde - She is an old friend of Nora who comes to Nora and asks her to ask her husband for a job. The children - Nora plays with her children and treats them like dolls. Setting Helmer’s Apartment - The entire play takes place at the apartment Torvald’s study - a door leads from the stage into an imaginary room which is Torvald’s study where some off-stage action takes place. Ballroom - This is where Nora danced the Tarantella. Plot The story starts on Christmas eve. Nora makes preparation for Christmas. While she eats macaroons, Dr. Rank and Mrs. Linde enters. Rank goes to speak with Torvald while Linde speaks with Nora. Linde explains that her husband has died and that she needs to find a job. Nora agrees to ask her husband to give Linde a job at the bank. Nora tells her about borrowing money to pay for the trip to Italy for her and her husband. She explains that Torvald doesn’t know

  • Word count: 1362
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Importance of Scenography in Miss Julie and A Doll's House

The Importance of Scenography in Miss Julie and A Doll's House The work of a playwright is customarily evaluated in terms of the interaction between the elements of literature such as setting, character, theme, plot, and style. Scenography, which deals with the physical materiality of a production, is probably the farthest away from the literal and abstract contents of a drama - elements which have traditionally gained the most attention and appreciation from audiences and critics alike. It is an aspect often undermined upon reading a play, despite its importance in enhancing dramatic effect and capacity to generate and convey ideological ideas to the audience. Both Strindberg and Ibsen wrote carefully visualized, highly charged mise-en-scene into their plays that serves a double role - on one hand, it is a functional construction assisting the actor's work, while on the other hand, it is aimed at concretizing the psychological states and spiritual conditions of the characters. The arrangement of space and visual environment around the characters, as well as the use of props in both A Doll's House and Miss Julie can be seen as metaphoric parallels into Nora's, Miss Julie's and Jean's emotional struggles. Miss Julie takes place over a very short time interval in the kitchen of the Count's country house. Although the kitchen is the only room visible on stage, there are

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Hedda Garbler - What is the significance of the physical objects that Ibsen has used in Act-1?

English Hedda Garbler What is the significance of the physical objects that Ibsen has used in Act-1? "Amidst a beautiful rose garden, where the sunrays came beaming down, she was sitting as though she had been totally oblivious to the happening of the world." This is the way a novelist would elucidate such a situation, with the use of apt words and adjectives, using his language skill to express the emotions of the characters but drama involves a completely different approach, an entirely special technique of writing. A dramatist would probably have to delineate the same situation by the physical presence of the beautiful roses, the display of the beaming sunrays and with the actress having to emote the feeling of loneliness. And it is only then, that the audience would understand that " in the beautiful rose garden, there is a girl feeling very lonely." In what you would call " A Good Drama", the audience is challenged to look not only at the dialogue and actors, but is challenged to examine staging, lighting and even the furniture. Stage directions become cryptic messages of characterization. The dramatist's portrayal is well supported by the physical presence of certain objects and the audience's dramatic interpretation goes beyond the traditional analysis of dialogue and relationships. This "environmental thinking" creates a new dimension of meaning in drama It is

  • Word count: 1136
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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