October 12

First impressions of Nora

Ibsen manages to portray Nora as a carefree, conceited, childish wife in the beginning of the play. She is shown as incredibly materialistic and self obsessed. Her nature is portrayed in the way she allows her husband to address her in such a condescending tone. He uses strange pet names for her and and treats her like a little child. I feel like, because of this, she acts juvinial, and the attitude of her husband causes her to try and prove herself to him and show him how responsible she can be.

We can also see how cheeky and untrustworthy she really is. An example of this is how she tries to hide the fact that she was eating macaroons when she wasn’t allowed. This portrays how she tends to keep information from her husband.

Her conceited nature is seen when her friend arrives, whom she has not spoken to for 10 years. It is astounding how Nora cannot stop speaking of her own wonderful life and showing off to a woman who has suffered so much, whom she calls her friend.

Nora also appears to be obsessed with money, and keen on spending it. So much so that she even borrows money to satisfy her wants (without her husband’s permission). Also, all she wants is money from her husband, and doesn’t care much about his love and affection.

A-Dolls-House-011

October 6

What I think of Nora in A Doll’s House


ADollsHouse080813_imageRichardHubertSmith-93301

Nora is on the left of the image

 

-“Nora, what do you think I’ve got here?

– [Quickly turning round]. Money!” page 3

 

I just think that Nora is just… A tall kid. After all, she behaves like a child (for example like above, when she turns around as if money were little sweets… In fact, she DOES secretly eat sweets when she’s on her own, like a child would do “[She stuffs the bag of macaroons in her pocket and wipes her mouth]” page 2).

When Mrs. Linde arrives (knowing that they haven’t met in 10 years), Nora keeps talking ONLY about herself for I-don’t-know-how-much-time, without showing any interest in how Mrs. Linder is going, which is a very kid-like behaviour, I would say.

It seems that she doesn’t truly love Helmer… She seems to be interested only in the money he can give… Unfortunately, there is realism in this fact, which happened to be Ibsen’s belief… This does remind me of how Kierkegaard believed that true love never really existed, or that if it did, it would be lost after a bit of time…

I just hope for her that she will change (which, if I listened well, will be the case according to what has been said in class)…

…Because her behaviour is both funny and ridiculous at the same time! -_-

 

October 5

Podcast: Realism in Europe

 

imgres

 

http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/podcast-25-realism-in-europe/

Firstly, I apologise profusely for the monotonous robotic voice in this podcast (I still can’t work out if it is actually a human being speaking…) However, there are some key points made about the origins of realism in Europe in this podcast (ifyou skip to about the 7 minute mark…). As we discussed in our last lesson, Henrik Ibsen is often hailed as the “Father of Modern Drama” and his work is deeply rooted in realism so it is useful for you to understand the concept of realism at some level.

If this podcast is as tedious as I think you may find it, feel free to research the term realism yourself and post in the comments your understanding of the concept and let’s see if we are all on the same page. 🙂