Analysis Of A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

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Henrik Ibsen is known for his tendentious style of writing, which he was criticized for during the 19th century. His play, A Doll’s House, was criticized for being anti-marriage, which Ibsen thought was absurd. “If they want an anti-marriage play, I’ll give them one,” he said. Since he was upset by that comment it caused him to write Ghosts, which he intended to be an anti-marriage play.
An anti-marriage is seen in this context as a fall from the structure that a common marriage has. An average marriage is seen as: being loyal, faithful, having commitments, and not leaving when things get rough, having some kind of unity. While an anti-marriage is seen as breaking all of those vows and values marriage typically has. In A Doll’s House, Trovald and Nora’s marriage is seen as being an anti-marriage because Nora ends up leaving Trovald in the end. People saw this as ludicrous because during that time period it was uncommon for a wife to leave her family, let alone her husband. Ibsen did not intend for A Doll’s House to be an anti-marriage play. I agree with him
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Throughout the play, Ibsen shows the down fall of marriage and how it is complicated. He shows through the various unions in his play. Through Captain Alving and Mrs. Alving’s marriage, Ibsen displays the messy and unfaithful side of marriage; this shows how one incident can effect the whole relationship. Engstrand demonstrates how one sees marriage as less valuable and not for love, but for an image or standard in society. Oswald’s views on marriage demonstrate how others view marriage. This shows that he sees love as universal and not how everyone thinks it has to be. While Reverend Manders is old fashion and sees marriage as it is suppose to be and views everyone else marriages as being an anti-marriage. Ibsen accomplished his goals in making this play an anti-marriage play, through the uses of different views and relationships he

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