Friday, May 11, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Laura Kieler
Nora's crime resembles closely the forgery efforts of a Norwegian woman named Laura Kieler. Already a married man, Ibsen met Kieler in 1871 and called her his "skylark," a pet name that Torvald uses to refer to his wife in the play. Ibsen and Kieler were acquainted for years before she became involved in events that resembled those depicted in A Doll's House.
Laura Kieler had been advised that time spent in a warmer climate would save her husband's life. They could not afford a trip south, but Kieler hesitated to broach the subject, since her husband became hysterical at the mention of money. Secretly, with the help of a friend, she secured a loan to finance a trip to Italy. When the loan fell due two years later, however, neither she nor the friend could pay it.
Ibsen, unaware at the time of the full circumstances, declined to help her publish an inferior manuscript, which she had hoped would raise money to pay the loan. The day she received his refusal, Kieler forged a check. The crime was soon discovered. She told her husband everything, but he spurned her as a criminal and an unfit mother. Their marriage (and her health) subsequently foundered. He did what he could to take the children away from her, and she suffered a nervous breakdown. Her husband had Kieler committed to a public asylum, but she was released a month later. She pleaded with him to take her back for the sake of the children, and he accepted her proposal unwillingly
http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-the-play-in-focus
Laura Kieler had been advised that time spent in a warmer climate would save her husband's life. They could not afford a trip south, but Kieler hesitated to broach the subject, since her husband became hysterical at the mention of money. Secretly, with the help of a friend, she secured a loan to finance a trip to Italy. When the loan fell due two years later, however, neither she nor the friend could pay it.
Ibsen, unaware at the time of the full circumstances, declined to help her publish an inferior manuscript, which she had hoped would raise money to pay the loan. The day she received his refusal, Kieler forged a check. The crime was soon discovered. She told her husband everything, but he spurned her as a criminal and an unfit mother. Their marriage (and her health) subsequently foundered. He did what he could to take the children away from her, and she suffered a nervous breakdown. Her husband had Kieler committed to a public asylum, but she was released a month later. She pleaded with him to take her back for the sake of the children, and he accepted her proposal unwillingly
http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-the-play-in-focus
Norway - Divorce
The Reformation, or separation of the Protestant and Catholic churches begun by Martin Luther in 1517, spread to Norway later in the century. As Protestantism grew in popularity, it spurred the legalization of divorce, which had been more tightly controlled under the Catholic Church. Bigamy, adultery, desertion, and impotence became accepted as valid reasons for a couple to separate. This state of affairs changed in 1909, when the country adopted a new divorce law. More relaxed than the earlier law, it permitted divorce in the case of mutual consent and after a period of separation of at least one year. But while divorce became easier to obtain, it was still frowned upon. The proceedings cost little enough; a poor Norwegian could obtain a divorce almost free of charge. But they were publicized as little as possible; newspapers were forbidden to report divorce cases.
In Ibsen's play the Helmers, who are the drama's central characters, live under the older divorce law. Even if the action had been set after 1909, however, no mutual consent to the dissolution of the marriage existed, since Nora moves out of the house against her husband's wishes.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
In Ibsen's play the Helmers, who are the drama's central characters, live under the older divorce law. Even if the action had been set after 1909, however, no mutual consent to the dissolution of the marriage existed, since Nora moves out of the house against her husband's wishes.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
Norway The women's movement
Ibsen consistently asserted that A Doll's House examined issues facing humanity rather than women in particular. Even so, the women's movement embraced him as one of the leading champions of its causes after the publication of the play. Many critics have observed that, regardless of Ibsen's claims, no playwright could have created such an assertive, likable heroine without feeling some sympathy for the challenges facing women at the time.
Camilla Collett became Norway's most celebrated feminist. Her groundbreaking novel, The District Governor's Daughters (1854-55), protested the notion that marriage was the all-encompassing goal of a woman's existence. Collett referred to the novel as "the long-suppressed cry from my heart," and it echoed the sentiments of many other women throughout Norway as well (Collett, p. 13). In Collett's view, women had to be educated in order to regard themselves in a new way. She felt sure that once they had more education and greater economic freedom, political privileges would soon follow. At the time, a woman's economic status was tied to her husband, who, for example, had to formally approve any loans for the household. If a woman tried to earn her own money, as Nora and Kristine do in Ibsen's play, her employment opportunities were usually limited to low-paying jobs such as needlepoint, teaching, and menial clerical positions.
The second half of the nineteenth century did witness many changes for women in Norway. In 1854 women received the same inheritance rights as men, and in 1863 the government declared that unmarried women over age twenty-five were legally competent. Educational opportunities expanded in 1882 when women gained the right to take the exams necessary for admittance to the university, although they had to wait until 1884 for the right to earn a university degree. The Women's Rights League was founded in the same year, following the controversy that would result from the performance of A Doll's House in 1879. A decade after the play, in 1889, Norway modified the marriage vows, in which a wife professed subservience to her husband, that had been in place since 1688. Finally, more than twenty years after Ibsen's play appeared, women won limited rights to vote in municipal elections (1901); it would take another dozen years for them to win universal suffrage.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
Camilla Collett became Norway's most celebrated feminist. Her groundbreaking novel, The District Governor's Daughters (1854-55), protested the notion that marriage was the all-encompassing goal of a woman's existence. Collett referred to the novel as "the long-suppressed cry from my heart," and it echoed the sentiments of many other women throughout Norway as well (Collett, p. 13). In Collett's view, women had to be educated in order to regard themselves in a new way. She felt sure that once they had more education and greater economic freedom, political privileges would soon follow. At the time, a woman's economic status was tied to her husband, who, for example, had to formally approve any loans for the household. If a woman tried to earn her own money, as Nora and Kristine do in Ibsen's play, her employment opportunities were usually limited to low-paying jobs such as needlepoint, teaching, and menial clerical positions.
The second half of the nineteenth century did witness many changes for women in Norway. In 1854 women received the same inheritance rights as men, and in 1863 the government declared that unmarried women over age twenty-five were legally competent. Educational opportunities expanded in 1882 when women gained the right to take the exams necessary for admittance to the university, although they had to wait until 1884 for the right to earn a university degree. The Women's Rights League was founded in the same year, following the controversy that would result from the performance of A Doll's House in 1879. A decade after the play, in 1889, Norway modified the marriage vows, in which a wife professed subservience to her husband, that had been in place since 1688. Finally, more than twenty years after Ibsen's play appeared, women won limited rights to vote in municipal elections (1901); it would take another dozen years for them to win universal suffrage.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
A Doll's House - The tarantella
The scene in A Doll's House where Nora dances the Italian tarantella is one of the most famous in the play. Her husband observes, "But Nora darling, you dance as if your life were at stake" (Ibsen, A Doll's House, p. 92). He tells her to slow down, but she cannot-she is caught up in the sensual, ecstatic dance. Full of movement, the tarentella involves raising one's arms, running, hopping, whirling, and swinging from side to side.
Though we only see Nora dance alone, the tarantella is a social dance meant for two couples, or even for a long row of men and women. Traditionally the male partner uses two pairs of castanets, while the woman holds a tambourine in her right hand and beats on it with the lower part of her left palm. These instruments are used to keep time and to add to the excitement as the pace of the dance quickens, especially at its conclusion.
The dance itself has a curious history. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, the bite of the Apulian spider, also known as the Lycosa tarentula or common tarantula, was popularly but mistakenly thought to cause a nervous disease. This sickness, called tarantism, was allegedly marked by hysteria and a mania for dancing. The wild motions of the tarantella dance, which was named after the disease, were thought to be caused by the spider bite.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
Though we only see Nora dance alone, the tarantella is a social dance meant for two couples, or even for a long row of men and women. Traditionally the male partner uses two pairs of castanets, while the woman holds a tambourine in her right hand and beats on it with the lower part of her left palm. These instruments are used to keep time and to add to the excitement as the pace of the dance quickens, especially at its conclusion.
The dance itself has a curious history. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, the bite of the Apulian spider, also known as the Lycosa tarentula or common tarantula, was popularly but mistakenly thought to cause a nervous disease. This sickness, called tarantism, was allegedly marked by hysteria and a mania for dancing. The wild motions of the tarantella dance, which was named after the disease, were thought to be caused by the spider bite.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
Norway 1879
Borrowing money without her husband's consent
In 1879, a wife was not legally permitted to borrow money without her husband's consent, so Nora must resort to deception to borrow the money she so desperately needs. Ibsen always denied that he believed in women's rights, stating instead that he believed in human rights.
Events in History at the Time of the Play
Norway in the nineteenth century. Norway was troubled by its share of foreign policy crises and domestic concerns throughout the 1800s. The century had started well enough. Norway was one of the few European states in which the French Revolution of 1789 did not inspire the masses to demand new liberties. While other countries experienced tumultuous times, Norway busily reaped the benefits of supplying exports and shipping services to any country involved in the wars taking place elsewhere. In the summer of 1807, after the British towed home nearly every ship in the Norwegian fleet (which was supplying Britain's enemies), Norway was forced to rethink its foreign policy. The country reluctantly allied itself with Britain's enemy, the French leader Napoleon.
The Norwegian economy, which relied so heavily on the seaports, suffered terribly when the British put a naval blockade in place. A combination of factors eventually dissolved the fifty-three-year union between Norway and Denmark; in 1814 Denmark ceded Norway to the Swedish king. Norway was thus united with Sweden in 1880, approximately the time in which the play is set; the union would continue until 1905.
The period of union witnessed the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Norwegians, especially to the United States. As a result of its rugged geography and the trend toward emigration, Norway remained sparsely settled and predominantly rural. In 1850 only 163,000 of Norway's 1,400,000 people lived in urban areas. The population distribution created a small-town mentality that Ibsen loathed and examined repeatedly in his writings.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
In 1879, a wife was not legally permitted to borrow money without her husband's consent, so Nora must resort to deception to borrow the money she so desperately needs. Ibsen always denied that he believed in women's rights, stating instead that he believed in human rights.
Events in History at the Time of the Play
Norway in the nineteenth century. Norway was troubled by its share of foreign policy crises and domestic concerns throughout the 1800s. The century had started well enough. Norway was one of the few European states in which the French Revolution of 1789 did not inspire the masses to demand new liberties. While other countries experienced tumultuous times, Norway busily reaped the benefits of supplying exports and shipping services to any country involved in the wars taking place elsewhere. In the summer of 1807, after the British towed home nearly every ship in the Norwegian fleet (which was supplying Britain's enemies), Norway was forced to rethink its foreign policy. The country reluctantly allied itself with Britain's enemy, the French leader Napoleon.
The Norwegian economy, which relied so heavily on the seaports, suffered terribly when the British put a naval blockade in place. A combination of factors eventually dissolved the fifty-three-year union between Norway and Denmark; in 1814 Denmark ceded Norway to the Swedish king. Norway was thus united with Sweden in 1880, approximately the time in which the play is set; the union would continue until 1905.
The period of union witnessed the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Norwegians, especially to the United States. As a result of its rugged geography and the trend toward emigration, Norway remained sparsely settled and predominantly rural. In 1850 only 163,000 of Norway's 1,400,000 people lived in urban areas. The population distribution created a small-town mentality that Ibsen loathed and examined repeatedly in his writings.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
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