A Doll's House

Rating:
Summary: Splendid!
Review: "A Doll's House" is a book that should be read by all women, but should also be read by men. The story is so powerful, intriguing, heart wrenching, nail biting, ulcer giving, and just fantastic! For Henrik Ibsen to write this during his time must have sent wives into fantasies and men into worries. While I'm unsure about Nora's final decision, I was positively sure that Torvald was a pathetic husband and didn't deserve a wife. I recommend!

Rating:
Summary: Splendid!
Review: "A Doll's House" is a book that should be read by all women, but should also be read by men. The story is so powerful, intriguing, heart wrenching, nail biting, ulcer giving, and just fantastic! For Henrik Ibsen to write this during his time must have sent wives into fantasies and men into worries. While I'm unsure about Nora's final decision, I was positively sure that Torvald was a pathetic husband and didn't deserve a wife. I recommend!

Rating:
Summary: Not needed, but still helpful.
Review: "Spark Notes A Doll's House" was helpful in clearing up small, subtly plot facts, but the play is so straightforward, that "Spark Notes" is essentially unnecessary. I "sorta" recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Not needed, but still helpful.
Review: "Spark Notes A Doll's House" was helpful in clearing up small, subtly plot facts, but the play is so straightforward, that "Spark Notes" is essentially unnecessary. I "sorta" recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking out of the doll house
Review: A Doll's House proves to be a short, yet highly provocative play, nonetheless. Nora, feeling constrained by the Norwegian male-dominated society of the 19th Century, literally - and metaphorically- breaks out of its walls, so to speak. Torvald Helmer, valuing his honor over his love for his wife Nora, galvanizes her to figuratively abandon her doll house - replete with her husband, 2 children, & 2 servants. She, in striking out on her own, concurrently abandons the rigid social class system of the time, as well as the unwritten rules and mores of society.

Notwithstanding the final act being a bit less than I had hoped for, and perhaps being less relevant and poignant now than in the 19th Century, A Doll's House was nonetheless an enjoyable and compelling play worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking out of the doll house
Review: A Doll's House proves to be a short, yet highly provocative play, nonetheless. Nora, feeling constrained by the Norwegian male-dominated society of the 19th Century, literally - and metaphorically- breaks out of its walls, so to speak. Torvald Helmer, valuing his honor over his love for his wife Nora, galvanizes her to figuratively abandon her doll house - replete with her husband, 2 children, & 2 servants. She, in striking out on her own, concurrently abandons the rigid social class system of the time, as well as the unwritten rules and mores of society.

Notwithstanding the final act being a bit less than I had hoped for, and perhaps being less relevant and poignant now than in the 19th Century, A Doll's House was nonetheless an enjoyable and compelling play worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: one of Ibsen's finest works
Review: Although the subject matter isn't controversial anymore, A Doll's House is still a solid, powerful work. Nora, the "doll" of the title, dominates the novel and is fiercely independent and strong- unheard of personality traits for women of Ibsen's time.

Rating:
Summary: You Go Girl?
Review: Henrik Ibsen has written a penetrating play about marriage and gender roles in 19th century Europe. In what was surely shocking to European society at the time, Ibsen attacked the system that reduced women to mere possessions. In a society where women didn't even have the vote, this must have been a shocking statement.

The play is very short at 72 pages. I'm not going to divulge the plot but I will say that I found the play to be average. I will also say I'm not a big fan of reading plays, since they are usually written in a form to be performed, not read as literature. I also fault Ibsen with writing a play that fails to show the consequences of his characters actions. When Nora changes and leaves at the end, we get no information on what happens to her children, who have now been officially abandoned by their mother. In this way, Ibsen's play can be seen as a precursor to today's problems, where both men and women duck out of the family life. While this may be "liberating" to the woman (or the man, for that matter), it doesn't bode well for the kids. Maybe Ibsen could have written a sequel showing the kids growing up without a mother and getting hooked on liquor, or getting pregnant at age thirteen.

This play is most likely a big hit in the feminist cliques and the "find yourself" crowd. For me, I'd have rather read something else. It still had some good points, though. The dialogue at times was pretty snappy, and I kept picturing actresses that might play Nora as I read through the play. Ibsen is also certainly adept at characterization and pacing. Overall, average.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant play on Marrige, Supression and Feminisme.
Review: Henrik Ibsen in one of the most famous Norwegian writers thoughout the world. And he is known for his plays where he gives a critical view upon the society.
In this play, everything happens around the main character Nora. She is innocent, naiv and has no education at all, just like most women of her social rank had at that time. Her husband, Torvald, is well known in the city, and his wife is just a "doll". She isn't supposed to have opinions on anything, just smile and look pretty in this male dominated world.
When Torvald Helmer finds out that his wife has "stole" money from her father to be able to pay for a health insitution for him, he's shocked. Nora, not understand what she might have done wrong, was only trying to help her husband, and yet protect her dying father. She wakes up, starting feel independant, wanting to discover herself...
Ibsen was a master of showing different sides of the social levels, and giving a critic view on what he didn't like. He has done it yet again, focusing on the marriage of these two people. Supression and a male dominated world is central aspects, and also the growing feminisme.
The book is worth reading for anyone how loves to read. It is truly one of Ibsen's best plays!

Rating:
Summary: Still thinking about it...
Review: I finished Ibsen's "A Doll's House" a few days ago, and it's still haunting me. Well-crafted with interesting (albeit, at times, superficial) characters, it raises questions that still matter today. Nora craves a chance to find herself, yet at the same time, has enjoyed her sheltered life. This contradiction is still central to modern women - how much freedom do we really want? Nora demonstrates this clearly by craving freedom her own life, while also being surprised that her husband didn't stand up for her and defend her honor by tarnishing his own.

Ibsen was one of the first to ask these questions so blatantly and in the theater, but they continue to resonate today. Overall, a great, thought-provoking, quick read that will stick with you.