Thursday, September 22, 2011

What is the genre of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen?

Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House is classified as both a naturalistic problem play and a modern tragedy.


In the realm of theatre, naturalism is a movement which chooses to reject the outdated and over-romanticized precepts of the dramatic genre in favor of creating a realistic study of human behaviors in meaningful conflicts. In A Doll's House, this approach is taken in order to critique the expectations of marriage in the 1800's and to examine the role of self-discovery in the course of human life. It does so by dramatically depicting the home life of a family in the throes of personal and financial crisis. 


The play is, of course, referred to as a tragedy because of the classic "unhappy" ending; in this case, the dissolution of Nora and Torvald's marriage after Torvald refuses to accept Nora's desire to escape the social and gender confinements that have left her feeling like a plaything in the hands of her father and husband. 

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