https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1 Well made play A ‘well made play’ in an 18th century play in which Ibsen's aim, according to Raymond Williams, was to express tragedies in the human condition. Ibsen qualifies a human tragedy as the state "when a person stands in a tight place; he cannot go forwards or backwards". Ibsen uses specific characteristics that distinguishes his play from modern drama from the preceding well-made formula. The well-made formula, can be divided into three sections: Exposition, Situation, Unravelling. Naturalism Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create an illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies. In reality life is Predictable and in a dolls house Ibsen shows the mundane incidents much like everyday life can be. Nora's decision at the end reveals something that many women of the time would have wished for but been too afraid to even consider: not so much a metamorphosis as it is an awakening. The reason for combining all the elements into a small space of time is because life can be like that. Furthermore, if Ibsen was to extend his play, it would be in danger of becoming too boring. The language in A Doll's House is easy to follow and not requiring of any interpretation which technique cements the believable features of this play. Realism Realism in the theatre was a general movement that began in the 19th-century theatre. It developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances. It is the literary technique that is used to describe each story element, i.e, setting, character traits, etc. without the use of elaborated imagery, or using literary elements such as metaphor or figurative language. The author will explain things exactly as they are without "sugar coating" or decorating the language, nor the attributes being described. In A Doll's House, Ibsen uses mainly every secondary character to contrast dramatically with main character Nora. This is a clever and effective technique. While Nora spends her days glorifying her marriage, and lionizing her husband, there is a network of people who surround her that have to endure life for what it really is; Mrs Linde has lost a husband, is alone, has no money, needs a job, and has none of the wonderful opportunities that Nora claims to see waiting for her own self. Melodrama Melodrama is a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions. There are melodramatic devices like top-secret letters. The doorbell rings at convenient times, bringing trouble for Nora. People enter and exit just when Ibsen needs to move on to the next scene and bring on new ideas. This kind of staging wasn't a bad thing, in Ibsen's mind. His goal was to examine ideas and to challenge individuals to really think about their society... not to present photographic reality. Sentimental Sentimental comedy is an 18th-century dramatic genre which sprang up as a reaction to the immoral tone of English Restoration plays. In Sentimental comedies middle-class protagonists (leading character) triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials. These plays aimed to produce tears rather than laughter. The play lacks sentimentality and romance of any kind. Nothing is glorified. There is no "happy ending." The ending instead is rather shocking, given the society in which Nora lives, but it is consistent with the way in which her character has been developed throughout the drama. The playwright (the author of the play) Henrik Ibsen grew up in the small Norwegian coastal town of Skien as the oldest of five children born to Knud and Marichen Ibsen. His father was a successful merchant and his mother painted, played the piano and loved to go to the theater. Ibsen himself expressed an interest in becoming an artist as well, he took a liking to theatre, reading and painting. His mother seemed quiet and his dad was an alchoholic which may have influenced ibsen to write plays about suffering of women, social injustice and financial difficulty. At 15, Ibsen stopped school and went to work. He landed a position as an apprentice in an apothecary in Grimstad. Ibsen worked there for six years, using his limited free time to write poetry and paint. In 1849, he wrote his first play Catilina, a drama written in verse modeled after one of his great influences, William Shakespeare The following year, Ibsen had a fateful encounter with violinist and theater manager Ole Bull. Bull liked Ibsen and offered him a job as a writer and manager for the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. The position proved to be an intense tutorial in all things theatrical and even included traveling abroad to learn more about his craft. In 1857, Ibsen returned to Christiania to run another theater there. This proved to be a frustrating venture for him, with others claiming that he mismanaged the theatre and calling for his ouster. Despite his difficulties, Ibsen found time to write Love's Comedy, a satirical look at marriage, in 1862. Ibsen may be seen as one of the main creators of the modern movement in drama. Ibsen's first and most obvious impact was social and political. His efforts to make drama and the theatre a means to bring into the open the main social and political issues of the age shocked and scandalised a society Ibsen’s early major work includes, the tragedy Brand. In 1868, Ibsen moved to Germany, where he wrote one of his most famous works: the play A Doll's House. In 1890, he wrote Hedda Gabler, creating one of theatre’s most notorious characters. The end: a controversy! Parts of the play might actually receive the same emotional response from the audience as it did back when ibsen first released it. When the play was first released, it was considered scandalous; however, it was also a very popular play. The play was published before it was actually performed, and all 8,000 printed copies sold out two weeks before the performance. Since it was such a huge bestseller, we know that the audience was very excited and looking forward to seeing the play. However, the play's ending was not well received in Norway. The audience was not happy that Nora decided to leave her family at the end of the play. Audiences in Germany had an even stronger reaction. It was so strong; in fact, that Ibsen was forced to write an alternate ending, one in which Nora decides she cannot possibly leave her children. Nora argues that she does not see herself as being fit to raise the children because she sees how much of a child she still is herself, how little she knows about the world. She argues that she was raised by her father to uphold his opinions rather than being educated to learn her own mind. She states that both her father and her husband have treated her as a play thing. Naturalism The play is almost true to life, Ibsen highlights the mundane and boring situations of an everyday couple, the arguments, the lust and the financial difficulties. The fact that no obscure event or extremely exciting build up is portrayed the play feels more realistic and even relatable to some. The play is set in the modern day victorian era and the language used is not melodramatic or there is not any use of grand speeches, it is very much everyday dialogue, Nora even says ‘oh pooh’ which just highlights how informal the play and characters are. Costumes, sets and props are historically accurate and very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic reproduction of reality, the clothing worn in the play gives a realistic effect, also in the book the lay out of the room in the opening scene is described, which seems to be relatively modern, bland and ordinary for the era the play was set in. Often characters in naturalistic plays are considered victims of their own circumstance and this is why they behave in certain way, this may link in as to why Nora is unable to stand up against the weight of human circumstances ‘do you think they would forget their mother if she went away from them-forever?’ after Nora get caught writing her father’s signature she believes the only way out of killing herself would be to run away, she can simply not deal with the weight of her consequences. The play is set locally in England or maybe Norway, we don’t know exactly but we do know that the play is set in Europe, and not an exotic faraway land. The characters are middle class which seems realistic, Ibsen could of portrayed the characters as aristers or kings to give an almost unrealistic theme but he does not. Ibsen uses a Realistic acting style – not melodramatic or over the top, characters of the play reflect their ordinary roles in society of the Victorian era. Presents human behaviour not as timeless, but shaped by a particular time and place (links to socialist political view, meaning- someone who advocates the governmental system that supports community ownership and control of all lands and businesses rather than individual ownership ) Importance of context Cultural context Cultural context means all aspects of life, the ideas and beliefs shared by individuals within a group of people. Culture is learned, it includes language, values and norms. A Doll's House was published in Norway in 1879, maybe influenced by ibsens alchoholic father and quiet mother influenced him to write plays that had the theme of financial problems and suffering women. The first stage production was in Stockholm, in 1880. The play caused an immediate sensation, sparked debate and controversy, and brought Ibsen international fame. It was highly provoking: People tended to respond strongly to it, whether in praise or censure. All around the world, Nora's final door-slam made conservatives rage and liberals cheer, gave anti-feminists reason to fear and feminists reason to hope. The play has less shock-value today, but in the late-nineteenth century, performing it was often, as one critic puts it, "a revolutionary action, a daring defiance of the cultural norms of the time." The cultural normality in the era of torvald and Nora , before her great change defined what is commonly termed "bourgeois respectability": financial success, upward social mobility, freedom from financial debt and moral guilt and a stable, secure family organized along traditional patriarchal lines. The patriarchal ideal was supported and reinforced by a social structure wherein women had little overt political or economic power, wherein they were economically, socially, and psychologically dependent on men and especially on the institutions of marriage and motherhood. The ideal of bourgeois respectability prevailed in the nineteenth century, but it never went unchallenged, and by the time Ibsen wrote his own challenge to it, at the end of the century, a new era of crisis and uncertainty regarding all things conventional had already begun. The position of women was an especially volatile issue because the patriarchal ideology underlay the entire social, political, and economic structure. If women were to have autonomy (meaning to make independent decisions and have control over their life), then the whole structure of society would have to be reimagined. Historical context -Historical context, or in other words socio-historic context refers to The historical background of society at the time, for example; culture, home life, religion, the daily living conditions of ordinary people. The 1870s were dominated by strict Victorian social codes and laws that severely restricted the rights of all women, and married women in particular. Governments throughout Europe used the Napoleonic Code, which prevented women from engaging in financial transactions. Many women who conducted their own business or earned their own wages chose not to marry because the laws regarding what married women could do when it came to finances were so limiting. The role of women Women were not considered to be worth nearly as much as men in the victorian era -a woman's role in society was generally to be a "house wife" meaning she was expected by society to take care of her family and husband before herself. -women could not vote -women could not file for divorce or take out loans (without their husband or father's permission) women didnt really have much control over their own lives, as there lives seemed to be less important, women were expected to almost worship there husbands. en-us 2016-11-02 14:22:21 UTC 2019-11-25 17:55:50 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/353986185 2019-04-25 04:03:39 UTC https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/353986185 https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/379571454 2019-09-03 17:36:33 UTC https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/379571454 https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/416295825 2019-11-25 17:55:50 UTC https://padlet.com/ashleighhill840/d8stigxopau1/wish/416295825