Romanticism In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House

Improved Essays
Romanticism was a prominent literary movement that arose in the eigh teenth century as an combatant against the Neoclassic period, Enlightenment period, and Industrial Revolution.. This new movement called Romanticism can roughly be defined as a movement in literature, art, and an outlook on life itself. Furthermore, the rejection to the Neoclassical and Enlightenment periods lead Romantics to concentrate on the individual, one 's feelings, and the degree of human points of confinement. The individual person as opposed to society as a whole was a focus. Imagination and emotion were upheld as opposed to reason and logic. The Romantics would express this through poetry, music, and art. But they drew away from the typical rules and confines …show more content…
It shows the Romantic element of escaping reality. The first four lines are him describing an emotion of yearning and want. Although this work still depicts emotions in some aspects, it also describes an unreal fantasy and in a sense making the reader feel as if the character being described also unreal.. This love poem which offers the beloved a world of beauty.
To further add on, you have the Realist who strayed away from emotion, but instead pursued showing reality and the cold harsh truth of human nature. This can be shown in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House Ibsen describes reality as it in Nora 's treachery:
For heaven’s sake, no! Are you serious? He’s so strict on that subject. Besides— Torvald, with all his masculine pride—how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would just ruin our relationship. Our beautiful, happy home would never be the same.(955)
Nora deceives Torvald about the loan and hides her own strength, even lying to him about trivial matters such as eating sweets, because she intuits that he cannot tolerate the truth about their marriage. From the short depiction, it shows how Realist will emphasize on showing reality and the truth at hand opposed to the Romantic’s escape from

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Throughout history, society has influenced the way humanity thinks about and understands the world around them. Few people search to find the truth for themselves and merely end up following the way of life seen all around them. A new movement sprung up in the late 1700s called Romanticism, celebrating creativity and imagination over logic, reason, and the limitations society placed on thought. Romanticism began around the end of the Enlightenment period, a time that focused heavily on science and logical reasoning. Through the poetry written during this period, one can see the message that was so desperate to be heard.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Following this, we as a class began conversing about Romanticism. Romanticism was a movement in art, literature, and music that Wanderer.jpg “I Wandered Lonely as a cloud” occurred during the nineteenth in Europe. It was a response to Industrial Revolution, expressing deep nostalgia for the way things used to be before. We were presented art pieces like the Wanderer Above the Sea Fog, literature works such as “I Wandered Lonely as a cloud,” and music from composers like Beethoven. Similarly, they all portray the love of purity before industrialization.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romanticism is one of those things that everyone should know about, but most people do not. “Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.” - Google. Knowing the true definition of Romanticism is crucial to reading. The Devil and Tom Walker (page 151),…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many scholars would agree that the Romanticism and Enlightenment ages encouraged many individuals to break free from the chains of traditional values. Despite both periods sharing revolutionary views, these two pivotal eras in history possess quite a few inequalities from each other. Enlightenment is described as “A term used to describe a scientific and rational ethos, including freedom from superstition and religious intolerance [...].” Philosophers, inventors, and many others all exhibited a newfound fascination in science and realism. Notice that the definition states the enlightened aren’t too fond of religion and imagination (hence, “realism”).…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the most obvious occurrences of this male dominated social order is Nora and Torvald’s relationship. The concept of male domination within this relationship is established in the very first scene. Nora has just returned from shopping, and Torvald is continuously speaking to her with nicknames such as, “my little lark, my squirrel, and my spendthrift” (1251). On the outside, these nicknames may come off as affectionate and cute, but we later realize that they are used in a degrading, almost mocking, manner. One usually uses nicknames when referring to a child, and Torvald’s use of these nicknames and the tone he uses to speak with Nora shows how he is belittling Nora, and placing himself in a superior position.…

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century: What Happened to the Gender Roles? Sherly Familia EUH 2001 Professor Miller November 6, 2017 The Romantic Movement arose in the late eighteenth century. Many intellectuals pinpoint the start of the French Revolution chaos, Romanticism became the most important movement that shortly stood as a reviving force, a revolution for ideas, emotion, and reason.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Romantic Era was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe. In order for these artist’s feelings to be freely expressed, the content of their art needed to come from their imagination with little interferences from ‘artificial rules” dictating what should be in a work. Romantics tended to believe that a close connection with nature was both morally and mentally healthy, while they were distrustful of the human world. the focal points of romanticism are emotion, imagination, and freedom. Romantics also have a belief in children 's innocence and wisdom while they viewed adulthood as corruption and betrayal.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, Nora is still caged within her house and craves a sense of responsibility like a proper adult. Through deceit, Nora is able to achieve this by borrowing money to save Torvald’s life while still keeping her perfect dependent doll like image. If Torvald knew the truth, this breaking of the traditional roles would ruin “[their] beautiful happy…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House”, Ibsen portrays the roles of society and gender inequalities between men and women of the time. While reading the play, the reader has an eye opening view on the inequalities of men and women, and the idea of feminism. The play reveals the relationships, and ideals between both women, and men. The main character Nora Helmer struggles to keep up with the societal gender roles, and be the best wife she can be, to her conservative husband. The play revolutionized the way women were portrayed, as mentioned by Michael Levenson; “A Doll 's House created a sensation, as its performances spread through Europe in the 1880s.…

    • 1786 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarly, Locke and Holmes wrote their ideas of humanity’s corrupt nature and how the laws of the government should protect the “life, liberty, and property.” (567) Romanticism emerged to challenge the Enlightenments’ idea with reason in discovering truth. “The Romantics tried to balance the use of reason by stressing the importance of intuition, feeling, emotion, and imagination as sources of knowing” (649) Individuals of the Romanticism period were ruled by emotion. Romantics can be seen through many aspects of art, whether it is music, paintings, of poems. Well-known painters like Delacroix showed large amounts of emotion in his paintings with exotic and passionate color.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Henrik Isben’s controversial play, ‘A doll House’, is centered on a concept that has, for so long, plagued the female community, overt oppression. The main character Nora Helman, lives with her husband and children in a typical household of the era. Ibsen reveals with frankness the lack of independence and freedom accessible to most women during that time. In the play, Ibsen uses discourse and dramatic situations to demonstrate the insufficient social selections available to Nora, as well as how social roles serve to limit the personal and emotional advancement of women. A Doll’s House is a commentary on the patriarchal society in which it was written.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Torvald 's patronizing mindset was not really unusual for men during the Victorian era. He asserts his dominance over Nora verbally in a nonchalant manner by giving her nicknames. He is a man who is more worried about his reputation rather than his wife 's overall wellbeing. Furthermore, Nora 's and Torvald 's marriage on the outside may appear to be the perfect relationship, but as the play progresses forward, she begins to realize that her marriage is not as authentic as it appears to be. Torvald sees Nora 's role as being the subservient and perfect wife, he presented her to…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Doll's House Morals

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “...With me you could have been another person.” (3.53) In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Christine remarks on the fact that if she had not left Krogstad, his life would be completely different. The quote reflects the recurring theme of the play, which is that a plentitude characters’ lives are affected by single actions. The protagonist of the story, Nora Helmer, makes multiple decisions throughout the play that completely alter the course of her life, but one choice in particular affects her life the most. Nora Helmer’s life is irreversibly changed after she illegally borrows money, as she saves her family from harm, gets in financial and legal trouble, and goes through self discovery.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the early 1800s, Romantic thinking was upon every great scholar 's mind. Romanticism was an era where people began to think more spiritually rather than everything being explained by science. These writers and poets valued feeling over reason and touched upon universal human experiences such as death, love, and life. This is a time where nature and individualism were celebrated. There were different kinds of romantic thinking, there was Gothic and Transcendentalism.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that stands up as a great example of realism. There are many aspects in the play that represent realism, such as; the way it portrays the lives, concerns, and problems of people of middle and low class. Also, the what idealizes realism as one of the best type of plays is how the dialogue is like everyday speech and conversations. My drawing is consisted of Nora’s head, and in her head, there’s a house, her house. I chose this to draw because you can tell a lot from what you see.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays