Dolls House Analysis Essays - Ibsen Family, The Four Greats

Doll's House Analysis To view a work of art separately from it's environment, ignoring the context, will often undermine important aspects of the work. However, embracing the context will allow one to appreciate the full scope and depth of the piece. In order to fully absorb and understand it, one must consider factors in the artist's life and surroundings, i.e. the context. Henrik Ibsen created A Doll's House between 1878 and 1880. Like any significant work of art the context not only influenced the play, but were essential parts of it. Norway, in the early 19th century, was united with Sweden, who maintained seniority in the relationship. Norway's crown was based in Sweden, and most Norwegians felt thier freedom was restricted. The linguistic difference that existed prohibited any cultural merging. A good example being the relationship between Denmark and Norway, the latter being a colony of Denmark's until 1814. During the Danish rule of Norway, there was a cultural synthesis involving literature. This influence was still prominant during Ibsen's time and throughout his work. During the early part of the 19th century a patriotic movement materialized, mainly sparked by a student named Henrik Wergeland. He studied and popularized neglected folklore and other forgotten art and renewed confidence and pride in the otherwise disappearing Norwegian artists. Wergeland and other patriots, including Ibsen had their opposition. The Party of Intelligence felt that Norway could only be redeemed by staying involved in the Euro- stream, while the patriots preached isolationism and felt that Norway could only find new strength from within itself. The Party considered the patriots crude and violent, while the patriots saw in the Party the future of the establishment they were currently trying to derail. Nasjonalromantikken, or national romaticism, became a widely popular idea, in part because of Wergeland's writings. This movement centered around a restored appreciation for Norway's non- material resources, including the painters, musicians and folklorists. Asbjornsen and Moe researched, rewrote, and published collections of Norwegian folktales and restoration was begun on the Trondheim Cathedral, a very important piece of national pride. There was much debate regarding language when new Norwegian dialects were created while the most commonly spoken language, Landsmaal, was not yet accepted as a written language. This caused many problems for the writers, as they spoke one language, but were forced to write in another. Aasmund Vinje, a schoolmaster and writer, created a written lanuage based on Landsmaal and helped advance towards a solution. Ibsen, like most writers, though, continued to work using the Dano - Norsk dialect, (Danish influenced Norwegian) called riksmaal, and spoke out against Landsmaal. A Euro- romantic movement around the middle of the century produced many Norwegian artists including Andreas Munch, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, and Vinje. Wergeland's sister, Fru Collett, published The Sheriff's Daughters in 1855 and it was considered the first Norwegian novel of any stature. Danish writers continued to exert their influence when Hans Christain Anderson and Ingemann became popular and many Norsk writers looked to them for ideas and techniques. During the 1870s, a Realist movement hit Norway and changed the writing of Ibsen, Bjornson, and the ?Father of the Norwegian Novel,' Kielland. During this time, prose drama and fiction dominated this Norsk, artistic rennaisance, while poetry had little or no place in it. Some saw poetry becoming popular around 1890, but this was more of a prose poetry, or prose that invoved the evocation of moods. Henrik Ibsen was born on March 28, 1828 in the small, southern town of Skien. When he was young, Henrik's father went bankrupt, which was considered very disgraceful at the time. This affected young Ibsen greatly and he used it to allegorize in The Wild Duck. Henrik attained an apprenticeship for a pharmacist, but despised the job and moved to Christiana, where he intended to attend school. Instead, he became the house poet and eventually stage manager at the Norske Theatre in Bergen. He then went back to Christiana where he directed at the Mollergate Theatre until 1862. During this time he married Susannah Thoreson and wrote The Vikings in Helgeland, which popularized him as a writer in Norway. In 1864 he applied for a poet's pension from the government but was refused. He became enraged at his homeland and left it, headed for Italy and Germany, though he still made known his love for his homeland. He continued to write and produced a number of plays and traveled to Egypt, among other countries. Ibsen was not pleased with the nationalism of the foreigners he traveled with. He offended many when he commented on this in