A Doll’s House a Realistic drama
Shamana Yasmin
“‘A room is to him a room’ wrote Virginia Woolf of Ibsen , ‘a writing table a writing table, and a waste paper basket a waste paper basket .At the same time the paraphernalia of reality have at certain times to become the veil through which we see infinity.” Ibsen transforms the stage from mirror into lamp; he reveals the invisible forces behind the phenomenal world. (1)
Without ‘truth’ there should be no change, no genuine freedom. This was the basis for that quartet of realistic social play which Ibsen published in the year between 1877 - 1882.Ibsen’s first realistic play coincides with the perspective of Brandes’s lecture series on “Main Current in Nineteenth Century Literature” .Brandes believes that Literature should not be an instrument of concrete debates of prevailing problems, it had to grip with those condition which invade and determine the concrete existence of individual.
Ibsen within the frame work of these dramas concentrate on some phase I the contemporary situation where a latent crisis suddenly becomes visible. (2)
A dolls house relentlessly reveals the great lie beneath conventional roles play by man and woman in their marriage; here love and marriage are dramatically scrutinized. Ibsen believes that a stage should be a place for confronting real social, economic, psychological problem through the medium of individual destiny. A Doll’s house is a story of an immature girl who suddenly wakes up and see the life lie on which she has based her life ,right up the final show down Nora has clung to the notion of ‘the miraculous’ that Helmer will take upon himself all the responsibility for her action ,the act of forgery that she has committed eight years ago to save Helmer’s life, she “did it for love”(act 1),her husband life was endangered to collapse unless he take a tour in the Southern Italy. Nora does not tell this secret as it will hurt his self respect. Reality is sourer than what Nora expected. When Krogstag black mails Nora, the secret reveals to Helmer. Instead of defying all the charge of society’s condemnation of her, he accused Nora as the destroyer of his social reputation “you have destroyed my whole happiness, you have ruined my future”. In mental make up Helmer is less liberated than Nora herself, he reveals himself as being a pitiable and egotistic slave of patriarchal society of which he is so conspicuously a defender.
According to Rene Wellek realism also denied romantic characterization and link to realism’s demand for objective reality and to its implicit didactic tendency. Another of realism’s main tenets in the matter of individual’s characterization: a particular is to throw light on general.(3)
Helmer and Nora conjugal life was a façade of happiness and love. Helmer calls Nora “little skylark”, “little squirrel”, “little song bird”. Nora also acts according to the desire of her husband; she pretends to become child wife. Helmer possesses Nora as his doll wife. Helmer’s final behavior counters his romantic outburst “Do you know, Nora, I often wish some danger might threaten you, that I might risk body and soul and everything, everything, for your sake.” Helmer’s selfishness is reflected in his failure to appreciate Nora’s sacrifice. He is thoroughly unsympathetic to Nora, he never understands what Nora has been going through all these years.
Helmer is the representative of rising middle class society of nineteenth century. Helmer has also inherited all the pretensions, fears, prejudices and petty –mindedness of the middle class. Besides, he is a stuffed up hypocrite. He admits to Nora that it is not impossible to ignore Krogstad’s moral failings. But what is unbearable to him is that being a subordinate, he takes the liberty to calling him by his Christian name because of a previous friendship. When Krogstag finally saved Helmer from the disgrace, he cries out sarcastically “I am saved, I am saved”; now Torvald pretends to be a benevolent master over his wife, “Oh my poor Nora I understand you cannot believe that I have forgiven you.”
Mr. Rank rightly considers Nora a “riddle”. Nora was mature and flirtatious to Dr. Rank, who was a foil to Helmer , he only values Nora’s intellectual self. Nora always pretends to be a childish wife for his husband secretly eating macaroons, she is a loving mother for her children, playing hide and seek with them, she loves to have a secret which foreshadows the presence of a secret in their happiness, Nora’s torn Neapolitan foretells upcoming revelation of her secret which will cause the final segregation between Helmer and Nora. Nora’s tarantella dance reflects her isolated anxiety, she was paying back her loan from her pocket money, buying cheapest dress, she never shares her problem to anybody, this was a pride to her. She express to Mrs. Linden “Damn it all”, she wants to ‘free from all anxiety’. There was always a free soul in Nora.She is not a hypocrite she loves Helmer ,did everything for Helmer but her euphoria crack down when she finds out the life-lie around her ,she is a lady of a doll’s house devoid of the reality, the “house has been nothing but a play room”, So Nora cries “during eight whole years and more –ever since the day we first met—we have never exchange one serious word.” Nora took off her masquerade dress. A cruel blow of reality matures Nora. She no longer pretends for anybody, “before all else ,”she “is a human being”, he has Duties towards herself.
Linden shows realistic attitude towards life, she has gone through a childless marriage and a widow, she never loves her husband, and her marriage was motivated by prudence rather than love. Being a penniless widow she has to work hard to support her old deprecate mother and two kid brother.
Krogstag tries to regain his social position which he has lost by a criminal act of forgery; his job in the bank is his only hope. He is a ship wreck man. When Christina’s love consoles his soul, he forgets all villainy, he returns the promissory note to Nora, and thus saved her. There is humanity in him which is totally absent in Helmer.
A Doll’s House has few characters, these characters prototype of the members of the contemporary society.
Ibsen uses Dano Norwegian Language; Dano Norwegian tends to be simpler, using fewer words and adjectives. It will use a few very brief strong images rather than effusive descriptions. Characters use every day vocabulary and colloquial expressions. They interrupts themselves and corrects each other, they speaks in incomplete sentence.
Ibsen organized this play on a variety of principles ranging from epic to the classical, in a Doll’s House he used unity of scene, all the events take place in Helmer’s apartment, he came close to unity of time, and the play covers about sixty hours. There are only five characters .Such concentration contributes to the realism, places emphasis on character psychology, and intensifies the force of drama. Retrospective technique has been used to bring out earlier actions.
Under the mask of liberty this society has all the features of tyranny. Ibsen criticizes this society in A Doll’s House, in the final scene his heroine the New woman defies the society in her final exit away .Nora utters “I must try to discover who is right society or I”. Nora’s situation illustrates the pattern central to Ibsen’s realistic problem dramas: the individual in opposition to a hostile society.
Reference:
(1) Cambridge Companion to Ibsen
(2) Cambridge Companion to Ibsen
(3) Cambridge Companion to Ibsen
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Othello
Othello
Important Topics
- Iago's malignity
- Othello
- Desdemona
- Conspiracy
- Racism
Iago's Malignity
Act 1 scene 1,scene ii:
Iago reassures Roderigo that he hates Othello. Chief among Iago’s reasons for this hatred is Othello’s recent promotion of Michael Cassio to the post of lieutenant. In spite of Iago’s service in battle and the recommendation of three “great ones” of the city, Othello chose to give the position to a man with no experience leading men in battle. As he waits for an opportunity to further his own self-interest, Iago only pretends to serve Othello.
Iago advises Roderigo to spoil some of Othello’s pleasure in his marriage by rousing Desdemona’s family against the general. The two men come to the street outside the house of Desdemona’s father, Brabanzio, and cry out that he has been robbed by “thieves.”
Iago plays on the senator’s fears, making him imagine a barbarous and threatening Moor, or native of Africa, whose bestial sexual appetite has turned him into a thief and a rapist.
Iago speaks in inflammatory terms, vulgarly telling the senator that his daughter and Othello are having sex by saying that they are “making the beast with two backs” (I.i.118). Brabanzio begins to take what he hears seriously and decides to search for his daughter. Seeing the success of his plan, Iago leaves Roderigo alone and goes to attend on Othello. Like Brabanzio, Othello has no idea of Iago’s role in Roderigo’s accusations. As Iago departs, Brabanzio comes out of his house, furious that his daughter has left him. Declaring that his daughter has been stolen from him by magic “charms,” Brabanzio and his men follow Roderigo to Othello.Iago arrives at Othello’s lodgings, where he warns the general that Brabanzio will not hesitate to attempt to force a divorce between Othello and Desdemona.
Roderigo adores Desdemona, but she has married Othello and seems unawaro e of Roderigo’s existence. He doesn’t even have the ability to woo Desdemona on his own.
The fact that Iago immediately paints himself as the villain also prepares us to be sympathetic to Othello. Iago explains to Roderigo that he has no respect for Othello beyond what he has to show to further his own revenge: “I follow him to serve my turn upon him” (I.i.42). Iago explicitly delights in his villainy, always tipping the audience off about his plotting.
In many ways, Iago is the driving force behind the plot, a playwright of sorts whose machinations inspire the action of the play. His self-conscious falseness is highly theatrical, calculated to shock the audience. Iago is a classic two-faced villain, a type of character known in Shakespeare’s time as a “Machiavel”—a villain who, adhering all too literally to the teachings of the political philosopher Machiavelli, lets nothing stand in his way in his quest for power. He is also reminiscent of the stock character of Vice from medieval morality plays, who also announces to the audience his diabolical schemes.
The moment when Brabanzio and his men arrive with swords and torches, tipped off to Othello’s whereabouts by Othello’s disloyal friend, vividly echoes John 18:1–11. In that Gospel, Christ and his followers are met by officers carrying swords and torches. The officers were informed of Christ’s whereabouts by Judas, who pretends to side with Christ in the ensuing confrontation. When Othello averts the violence that seems imminent with a single sentence, “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust ’em” (I.ii.60), he echoes Christ’s command to Peter, “Put up thy sword into the sheath” (John 18:11). However, whereas Christ’s calm restraint is due to his resigned acceptance of his fate, Othello’s is due to his sense of his own authority.
Act One:scene iii
No explicit action of Iago is present in this scene,but his planning is progressing as it aims to.
The war between the Turks and Venetians will not prove to be a major part of the play. However, the Turks’ “feint”—in which they pretend to sail toward Rhodes to mislead the Venetians into thinking that they will not attack Cyprus—has a symbolic significance. Throughout the play, deception is one of Iago’s major weapons, and his attacks on other characters are particularly devastating because his enemies don’t know that he is attacking them.
Act Two:scene ii
On the shores of Cyprus, While the company waits for the ship, Cassio and Desdemona tease Emilia about being a chatterbox, but Iago quickly takes the opportunity to criticize women in general as deceptive and hypocritical, saying they are lazy in all matters except sex: “You rise to play and go to bed to work” (II.i.118). Desdemona plays along, laughing as Iago belittles women, whether beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, as equally despicable. Cassio takes Desdemona away to speak with her privately about Othello’s arrival. Iago notices that Cassio takes Desdemona’s hand as he talks to her, and, in an aside, Iago plots to use Cassio’s hand-holding to frame him so that he loses his newly gained promotion to lieutenant. “With as little a web as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio,” he asserts (II.i.169).
Iago tells the despondent Roderigo that Desdemona will soon grow tired of being with Othello and will long for a more well-mannered and handsome man. But, Iago continues, the obvious first choice for Desdemona will be Cassio, whom Iago characterizes over and over again as a “knave” (II.i.231–239). Roderigo tries to argue that Cassio was merely being polite by taking Desdemona’s hand, but Iago convinces him of Cassio’s ill intentions and convinces Roderigo to start a quarrel with Cassio that evening. He posits that the uproar the quarrel will cause in the still tense city will make Cassio fall out of favor with Othello. Left alone onstage again, Iago explains his actions to the audience in a soliloquy:
(Length: 500 words Questions or Concerns)
How can I make the thesis more concise?
How can I improve the flow of my paragerphs?
Do I support my points with enough textual evidence?
In Iago's soliloquy, it is obvious that he cares little about anyone or anything except destroying Othello. Iago also reveals the reason that he ahs anything to do with Rodrigo and his future plan to destroy both Cassio and Othello.
In Iago's conversation with Rodrigo, his repetition clearly shows that he thinks Rodrigo is simpleminded. In his speech in lines 1.3.330-357, where he assure Rodrigo that the relationship between Othello and Desdemona will probably fail, Iago constantly repeats "Put money in thy purse". This could suggest that Iago thinks Rodrigo is stupid because he repeats the words almost constantly, as if talking to a child. Also, the fact that Iago talks in prose indicates that he is talking down to him, someone who is uneducated and intellectually inferior. After convincing Rodrigo to make money instead of killing himself, Iago reveals that he would not be around Rodrigo unless he was getting some profit. The reader can now see that Iago is very manipulative and not to be trusted.
Next, Iago reveals that he wants to hurt Cassio and Othello. He plots the trick Othello by telling him that Cassio spends too much time around his wife, Desdemona. Iago also knows that he will be able to trick Othello easily because Othello "holds me well;/ the better shall my purpose work on him." 1.3.381-381. On top of this, Iago knows Othello's personality well, and knows that " the Moor is of a free and open nature/ that thinks men honest but seem to be so" 1.3.390-391. In other words, Othello is quick to judge people based on appearances. Coupled with his trust in Iago, this will prove to be his downfall. Iago will easily be able to "lead him by th' nose, as asses are".
Iago's soliloquy is very revealing, and effectively shows that he isn't honest at all, but a manipulative and vengeful person.
Although Iago verbally abuses women in this scene—presumably because it is safe for him to do so—his real resentment seems to be against those characters who have a higher social class than he does, including Cassio and Desdemona. Iago resents Cassio for being promoted ahead of him, and Cassio’s promotion is likely due to his higher class status. At the beginning of the play, Iago argued that he ought to have been promoted based upon his worth as a soldier, and he expressed bitterness that “[p]referment goes by letter and affection, / And not by old gradation” (I.i.35–36). In Act II, scene i, Cassio contributes to Iago’s anger by taunting the ensign about his inferior status: “Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, / That I extend my manners. ’Tis my breeding / That gives me this bold show of courtesy” (II.i.100–102). Not long afterward, Iago makes fun of Roderigo for being “base” (meaning lower class), even though the play does not indicate that Roderigo is, in fact, of lower status than Iago (II.i.212).
In the soliloquy that concludes Act II, scene i, Iago once again explains quite clearly what he intends to do, despite his comment that his plan is “yet confused” (II.i.298). At the same time, his statements about what motivates him are hazy and confusing. Is he motivated by lust for Desdemona, envy of Cassio, or jealousy over his wife’s supposed affair with Othello? He even throws in a bizarre parenthetical suspicion that Cassio might also have slept with his wife (II.i.294). It is as though Iago mocks the audience for attempting to determine his motives; he treats the audience as he does Othello and Roderigo, leading his listeners “by th’ nose / As asses are [led]” (I.iii.383–384). For each of Iago’s actions, he creates a momentary and unimportant justification.
Act 2 scene3
The emphasis on the limitations of physical sight in a tempest foreshadows what will, after Act III, become Othello’s metaphorical blindness, caused by his passion and rage. Similarly, once the physical threat that the Turks pose has been eliminated, the more psychological, less tangible threat posed by inner demons assumes dramatic precedence.
like a long and gradual close-up that restricts the visible space around the tragic hero, emphasizing his metaphorical blindness and symbolizing his imprisonment in his own jealous fantasies. This ever-tightening focus has led many readers to characterize the play as “claustrophobic.”
l
Iago jokes about the irony of the fact that his so-called villainy involves counseling Cassio to a course of action that would actually help him. He repeats what he told Cassio about Desdemona’s generosity and Othello’s devotion to her. However, as Iago reminds the audience, he does the most evil when he seems to do good. Now that Cassio will be spending time with Desdemona, Iago will find it all the easier to convince Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, thus turning Desdemona’s virtue to “pitch” (II.iii.234).
Roderigo enters, upset that he has been beaten and angry because Iago has taken all his money and left Roderigo nothing to show for it. Iago counsels him to be patient and not to return to
Iago’s speeches clearly show him to be obsessed with sex. For instance, when Othello bursts onto the scene and demands to know what is going on, Iago answers by comparing the party to a bride and groom undressing for bed (II.iii.163–165). He seems to take great pleasure in preventing Othello from enjoying marital happiness. Some readers have suggested that Iago’s true, underlying motive for persecuting Othello is his homosexual love for the general. In addition to disrupting Othello’s marriage, he expresses his love for Othello frequently and effusively, and he seems to hate women in general.
As Othello breaks up the brawl, he demands, “Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that / Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?” (II.iii.153–54). Othello, himself an “other” on the inside of Venetian society, and one who will ultimately upset the order of that society, calls attention to the potential for all external threats to become internal. It is that potential which Iago will -continually exploit.
Alone with Othello, Iago begins his insinuations of an affair between Cassio and Desdemona by reminding Othello that Cassio served as Othello and Desdemona’s go-between during their courtship. Othello asks Iago whether he believes Cassio to be honest, and Iago feigns reluctance to answer. Iago plants in Othello’s mind thoughts of adultery, cuckoldry, and hypocrisy, until Othello screams at the ensign to speak his mind. Iago suggests that Othello observe his wife closely when she is with Cassio.
. Emilia, staying behind, picks up the handkerchief, remarking that her husband has asked her to steal it at least a hundred times. Iago enters, and Emilia teases him with the promise of a surprise. He is ecstatic when she gives it to him, and sends her away.
As Iago gleefully plots to plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s room, Othello enters and flies into a rage at him. Othello declares that his soul is in torment, and that it would be better to be deceived completely than to suspect without proof. He demands that Iago bring him visual evidence that Desdemona is a whore. Iago protests that it would be impossible to actually witness Desdemona and Cassio having sex, even if the two were as lustful as animals. He promises that he can provide circumstantial evidence, however. First, he tells Othello that while Cassio and Iago were sharing a bed, Cassio called out Desdemona’s name in his sleep, wrung Iago’s hand, kissed him hard on the lips, and threw his leg over Iago’s thigh. This story enrages Othello, and Iago reminds him that it was only Cassio’s dream. Iago then claims to have witnessed Cassio wiping his beard with the handkerchief Othello gave Desdemona as her first gift. Furious, Othello cries out for blood. He kneels and vows to heaven that he will take his revenge on Desdemona and Cassio, and Iago kneels with him, vowing to help execute his master’s vengeance. Othello promotes Iago to lieutenant.
all he can think about is garnering proof of her infidelity. The paradox in Othello’s situation is that there are few things—the nature of friends, enemies, and wives included—that a human being can know with certainty. Most relationships must be accepted based on faith or trust, a quality that Othello is unwilling to extend to his own wife.Ironically, Iago doesn’t have to prove his own fidelity to Othello for Othello to take everything Iago suggests on faith.. His claim, “My lord, you know I love you” (III.iii.121) even echoes Peter’s insistent words to Christ, “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:15–17).
, Othello replaces the security of his marriage with the hateful paranoia of an alliance with Iago. Iago’s final words in this scene chillingly mock the language of love and marriage: “I am your own forever” (III.iii.482).
Act3 scene 4
In this scene, the time scheme of the play begins to unravel. When Bianca talks to Cassio, she says, “What, keep a week away,” suggesting that Cassio has been on the island for at least a week (III.iv.168). But the play has only represented three days thus far: the first day in
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