A Comparison of Realism in Uncle Vanya and A Doll's House

1624 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Soren kierkegaard vs friedrich nietzsche essays

Realism in Uncle Vanya and A Doll's House

A play serves as the author's tool for critiquing society. One rarely encounters the ability to transcend accepted social beliefs. These plays reflect controversial issues that the audience can relate to because they interact in the same situations every day. As late nineteenth century playwrights point out the flaws of mankind they also provide an answer to the controversy. Unknowingly the hero or heroine solves the problem at the end of the play and indirectly sends a message to the audience on how to solve their own problem.

Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekov both provide unique analysis on issues their culture never thought as wrong. In the play A Doll's House Ibsen tackles women's rights as a matter of importance being neglected. In his play he acknowledges the fact that in nineteenth century European life the role of the women was to stay home, raise the children, and attend to her husband. Chekov illustrates the role of a dysfunctional family and how its members are effected. Both of the aforementioned problems are solved through the playwrights' recommendations and the actions of the characters. In the plays A Doll's House and Uncle Vanya the authors use realism to present a problem and solution to controversial societal issues.

While both plays mainly concentrate on the negative aspects of culture, there are positive facets explored by the playwrights. In A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen focuses on the lack of power and authority given to women, but through Nora we also see the strength and willpower masked by her husband Torvald. To save her husband's life Nora secretly forges her father's signature and receives a loan to finance a trip to the sea. Nora's ...

... middle of paper ...

.... Chekhov short plays London:Oxford UP,1969

Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991.

Chamberlain, John S. Ibsen: The Open Vision. 1982.

Hahn, Beverly. Chekhov : a study of the major stories and plays. Cambridge : Cambridge University, 1977.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House (1879). Trans. Rolf Fjelde. Rpt. in Michael Meyer, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th edition. Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999. 1564-1612.

Jackson, Robert Louis. Chekhov : a collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice, 1976

Peace, Richard Arthur. Chekhov : a study of the four major plays. New Haven : Yale University Press, 1983

Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen." PMLA (January 1989): 28-40.

Show More
Related

  • Characterization of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Art of the Chekhovian Language escapes from the personal intentions. Reality is neither embellished nor blackened, altered or "signified" through a restrictive conceptual vision.

    Read More

  • Carol Ann Duffy's Mean Time

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    your life too, and in the end it will only be the mourning that you

    Read More

  • Essay On Feminism In A Doll's House

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Doll House, a play written by Henrik Ibsen, published in the year 1879, stirred up much controversy within its time period because it questioned the views of society's social rules and norms. "Throughout most of history... Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions... The resulting stereotype that 'a woman's place is in the home' has largely determined the ways in which women have expressed themselves" ("Women's History in America"). Ibsen places many hints throughout his play about the roles of women and how they were treated in his time. Nora is perceived as a typical housewife; maintaining the house and raising her children. However, Nora had actually hired a maid to do all of those typical housewife duties for her. Nora was naive, and ambitious. She hid many secrets from her husband. The way women were viewed in this time period formed a kind of barrier that Nora could not overcome. Women should not be discriminated against just because of their gender and within reason they should be able to do what their heart entails.

    Read More

  • playing house

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ibsen reveals many things about the bourgeoisie roles of men and women of society through the play A Doll’s House. These ideals are crucial to ones overall social status. The reader can see the characters and their roles in a figurative and literal dollhouse from the title to the end of the story. The main character Nora is the focus of performing these gender roles as she takes on the role of a doll and eventually seeks self-realization and a striving purpose. She leaves behind her family to fulfill an independent journey. Ibsen helps to point out the flaws of society’s stereotypical gender roles and gives new possibilities to men and women.

    Read More

  • Henrik Isben's A Doll's House

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    “A Doll’s House.” Drama for Students. 1985. Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House. The Bedford Introduction to Literature.

    Read More

  • Evolution Within a People in A Doll's House and An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Doll?s House presents a revolutionary change for Norway in the 1880?s. During this time period women were seen as second or even third class citizens, and though numerically this is not true, a minority . Ibsen presents his character Nora as a plaything, sorely manipulated by the men in her life. As the play pro...

    Read More

  • Robinson and Eliot

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the imagery in each poem is distinct, the similarity of message in both poems is evident. The poems are similar in that the narrator’s lives are empty and contain no passion for pursuing anything. The ideas reflected in these poems are seen even today, in such things as listless living and job-related apathy. Both poems suggest that a life where dreams of meaningless things are pursued will end without purpose or significance.

    Read More

  • Symbolic Meaning in John Cheever’s, The Swimmer

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cheever, John, ”The Swimmer”, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. San Francisco: Longman, 2013.250-257

    Read More

  • Unbalanced Relationships In A Doll House Essay

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    Unbalanced relationships in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House are shown through the symbolism of a doll. Characters in A Doll’s House live according to the assurance and pressure of society in the Victorian era. These unbalanced relationships shown through the symbolism of A Doll’s House is commonly displayed among the main characters, and minor characters, and can also be shown through social class. A Doll’s House is an empowering book that inspires women and educates men. The multiple “dolls” in A Doll’s House can connect to the audience on a personal level because there is a type of doll for

    Read More

  • A Doll’s House and The Cherry Orchard

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    In both Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House the subversion of perception and the insubordination of supposedly inferior characters has massive implications on the overall message of the play. These mechanisms bring to light a multitude of questions about the correctness of social norms and the future of both Russian and Norwegian society. They are powerful reminders of ever-changing society and the nature of human relationships, and they leave the reader at once confused and motivated for change.

    Read More

  • Anton Chekhov Death And Disease Analysis

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the first major incidents in young Chekhov’s life was in 1875, when his father’s business failed and his father was threatened to be jailed because of his unsettled debt. So his father and his two older brothers went to Moscow to find work while he stayed with his younger siblings and his mother at their home. It so happens that a local family friend, a beaurocrat, turned out to not be such a friend, and took their house from the Chekhovs. To Anton Chekhov, that was a theme that c...

    Read More

  • A Doll's House Sacrifice Analysis

    2126 Words  | 5 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.

    Read More

  • A Doll House: Rebellion against the Traditional Roles of Women

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen published A Doll House in 1879, which was a time period of intense debate over women’s rights. Ibsen believed in the equality of people; consequently, the play displays the unjust inequality between men and women during the 19th century. Women were expected to fulfill the roles of a daughter, wife, and mother. However, to conform to the standards of the time women would repeatedly sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of men (Shahbaz). Nora attempted to fulfill the roles society expected of her, but she could not. Henrik Ibsen demonstrated how a woman has a duty to herself first by showing the negative effects of restricting women to the subservient roles of a daughter, wife, and mother in A Doll House.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House Idealism Essay

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a three-act play significant for its attitude toward marriage norms. In the drama, Ibsen explores idealism between the wife Nora and her husband Helmer. Nora’s and Helmer’s idealism forces the pair to see themselves and each other starring in various idealist scenarios of female sacrifice and heroic male rescue. As a play, the scenes are act out on stage. The staging of a house reveals the dramaturgical aspects and dynamics of the play. The presence of the house is significant to the depiction of women on stage. The action of the play traces Nora’s relationship to the house. Ibsen’s play focuses on the aspect of the expected idealism of the wife and husband, and how the domestic abode can hinder freedom.

    Read More

  • Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House: A Realistic Drama

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ibsen desires to challenge assumptions as well as rules of Norwegian life, and most importantly wants to depict society accurately, as he meticulously incorporates everyday life. Therefore, A Doll House represents a realistic drama due to the issues involving women, illnesses, and laws within the play, while conveying Ibsen’s desire for controversy and change in Norway’s society. A common woman in Norway, such as Nora, experiences a daily life of oppression, fear, and unjust authority, which exposes societal mistreatment. Society and Torvald Helmer force Nora to look pretty and happy, although “she laughs softly at herself while taking off her street things. Drawing a bag of macaroons from her pocket, she eats a couple, then steals over and listens at her husband’s door” (Ibsen I. 43), which portrays oppression.

    Read More

More about A Comparison of Realism in Uncle Vanya and A Doll's House

Open Document