Modernism

Modernism in Drama

Modernism is a movement of sensibility and said to be emerged during 1880 by the decline of romanticism. It is a reaction against the illusionist romantic age. Rise of modernism in threatre- epic threatre , theatre of absurd, theatre of cruelty and poor theatre etc. there were also rise of theories like Marxism and Psycho analysis which influenced the time frame.This movement transformed whole fabric of private and social life- departure from the self complacency compromise and stability of victorian period.

Traits of Modern Era

• Anxiety and Interrogation
• scientific revolution
• rational thinking
• unfettered freedom of thought and action
• rise in spirit of competition
• art for life's sake
• craze for materialism and machinery
• growing interest of writers in poor and working class
• disintegration of village community by industrialization
• impact of two world war
• influence of telecommunication like TV, radio etc

The pivotal and innovative contributions of the 19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen and the 20th-century German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht dominate modern drama; each inspired a tradition of imitators, which include many of the greatest playwrights of the modern era.The works of both playwrights are, in their different ways, both modernist and realist, incorporating formal experimentation, meta-theatricality, and social critique. In terms of the traditional theoretical discourse of genre, Ibsen's work has been described as the culmination of "liberal tragedy", while Brecht's has been aligned with an historicised comedy.

Other important playwrights of the modern era include Antonin Artaud, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard Shaw, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, and Caryl Churchill.

Today we are going to discuss on Ibsen "the writer's writer, dramatist's dramatist" hos famous work The Dolls House 

FULL TITLE  ·  A Doll’s House

AUTHOR  · Henrik Ibsen

TYPE OF WORK  · Play

GENRE  · Realistic, modern prose drama

LANGUAGE  · Norwegian

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN  ·  1879, Rome and Amalfi, Italy

DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION  ·  1879

TONE  · Serious, intense, somber

SETTING (TIME)  · Presumably around the late 1870s

SETTING (PLACE)  · Norway

PROTAGONIST  · Nora Helmer

MAJOR CONFLICT  · Nora’s struggle with Krogstad, who threatens to tell her husband about her past crime, incites Nora’s journey of self-discovery and provides much of the play’s dramatic suspense. Nora’s primary struggle, however, is against the selfish, stifling, and oppressive attitudes of her husband, Torvald, and of the society that he represents.

RISING ACTION  · Nora’s first conversation with Mrs. Linde; Krogstad’s visit and blackmailing of Nora; Krogstad’s delivery of the letter that later exposes Nora.

CLIMAX  · Torvald reads Krogstad’s letter and erupts angrily.

FALLING ACTION  · Nora’s realization that Torvald is devoted not to her but to the idea of her as someone who depends on him; her decision to abandon him to find independence.

THEMES  · The sacrificial role of women; parental and filial obligations; the unreliability of appearances

MOTIFS  · Nora’s definition of freedom; letters

SYMBOLS  · The Christmas tree; New Year’s Day,the stove, door, the shawls, macaroons

FORESHADOWING  · Nora’s eating of macaroons against Torvald’s wishes foreshadows her later rebellion against Torvald.

Context

Henrik Ibsen, considered by many to be the father of modern prose drama, was born in Skien, Norway, on March 20, 1828. He was the second of six children. Ibsen’s father was a prominent merchant, but he went bankrupt when Ibsen was eight years old, so Ibsen spent much of his early life living in poverty. From 1851 to 1864, he worked in theaters in Bergen and in what is now Oslo (then called Christiania). At age twenty-one, Ibsen wrote his first play, a five-act tragedy called Catiline. Like much of his early work, Catiline was written in verse.

In 1858, Ibsen married Suzannah Thoreson, and eventually had one son with her. Ibsen felt that, rather than merely live together, husband and wife should live as equals, free to become their own human beings. (This belief can be seen clearly in A Doll’s House.) Consequently, Ibsen’s critics attacked him for failing to respect the institution of marriage. Like his private life, Ibsen’s writing tended to stir up sensitive social issues, and some corners of Norwegian society frowned upon his work. Sensing criticism in Oslo about not only his work but also his private life, Ibsen moved to Italy in 1864 with the support of a traveling grant and a stipend from the Norwegian government. He spent the next twenty-seven years living abroad, mostly in Italy and Germany.

Ibsen’s early years as a playwright were not lucrative, but he did gain valuable experience during this time. In 1866, Ibsen published his first major theatrical success, a lyric drama called Brand. He followed it with another well-received verse play, Peer Gynt. These two works helped solidify Ibsen’s reputation as one of the premier Norwegian dramatists of his era. In 1879, while living in Italy, Ibsen published his masterpiece, A Doll’s House. Unlike Peer Gynt and Brand, A Doll’s House was written in prose. It is widely considered a landmark in the development of what soon became a highly prevalent genre of theater—realism, which strives to portray life accurately and shuns idealized visions of it. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen employs the themes and structures of classical tragedy while writing in prose about every day, unexceptional people. A Doll’s House also manifests Ibsen’s concern for women’s rights and for human rights in general.

Ibsen followed A Doll’s House with two additional plays written in an innovative, realistic mode: Ghosts, in 1881, and An Enemy of the People, in 1882. Both were successes. Ibsen began to gain international recognition, and his works were produced across Europe and translated into many different languages.

In his later work, Ibsen moved away from realistic drama to tackle questions of a psychological and subconscious nature. Accordingly, symbols began to gain prominence in his plays. Among the works he wrote in this symbolist period are The Wild Duck (1884) andHedda Gabler (1890). Hedda Gabler was the last play Ibsen wrote while living abroad. In 1891, he returned to Oslo. His later dramas include The Master Builder (1892) and Little Eyolf (1896). Eventually, a crippling sickness afflicted Ibsen and prevented him from writing. He died on May 23, 1906.

Features found in the play

• it has social message
• realism
• tight logical construction of characters who are delineated and interrelated
• events have symbolic and actual significance
• credibility of characters
• immediacy of his themes
• accuracy of dialogue
• maximum meaning in fewest words
• events occurred before the play begins
• play reap consequences of past

A Note on the Title

Though most English translations of the play are titled A Doll’s House, some scholars believe that “A Doll House” is a more accurate translation of the original Norwegian. They feel that it is more suggestive of the doll-like qualities of the entire cast of characters. 

 The play is a Problem/ thesis/ message/ feminist play    further notes on summary and its analysis will be discussed in next section.