Ibsen

A Doll's House was written while Ibsen was in Rome and Amalfi. The play had a different feel to it than other plays that had been written earlier on because Europe was in the midst of a revolution. The revolution of 1848 brought many new ideas to Europeans and one of them was a new modern perspective that challeneged the romantic tradition. Besides this, A Doll's House was widely important because it was written soon after Norway was freed from centuries of Danish rule. The language used by Ibsen was Nowegian with still heavy remnants of the Dutch language. The breaking away from the Dutch was hugely important for Norway and to begin to write works of literature under this new rule allowed the Norwegians to have a sense of pride that this work was purely Norwegian and not Dutch. One of the many things actresses have said about portraying Nora is that it is very difficult to portray a woman who is immature in the beginning of the play and then to learn to portray Nora as serious in the second half of the play. Acotrs also have said that they find it difficult to portray Torvald because he has so many different characteristics. When this play was perfromed it also sent a message to women of the world because it rejected the traditional roles of women and how they must be married and have children. This of course shocked many people. It schocked some German audiences so much that a different ending was made to perform so the audience would not walk out on the performance or not enjoy it.

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