Analysing the Plot and Subplot of 'A Doll's House' by Henrik Ibsen

Analysing the Plot and Sub Plot of A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen

As another year goes by I am now writing a piece of coursework for AS

drama, this particular piece will be about a not so well known play

called ‘A dolls house, written by Henrik Ibsen. In particular I will

by studying carefully and analysing the plot and subplot of the play.

The play was wrote in the 1800’s and was first performed in Copenhagen

during the winter of 1879. Most of Ibsens plays were based around the

issues during that era, as was a dolls house covering forgery,

feminism, freedom, independence, love?, stereotypes, and duty all in

the main plot. The subplot covered issues like; loneliness, widowed,

manipulation, deception/secrets and the new woman. To convey the

issues there where two characters in the main plot, these were Nora

and Torvald (the husband and wife living in the “dolls house”. As the

story unravels we discover many different things but we also find out

that Nora is in every scene to show how she has adapted to living her

lifestyle and how she is slowly moving out of it and into another.

Torvald is also in most scenes but always seems to be in his office

hard at work trying to earn money for Nora and the family, as most

families would be in this century. Then there are two other characters

running the subplot these are Mrs Linde and Krogstad both of these

convey how Nora’s life could be if she were to separate from he

husband, Torvald, showing how hard it is to be a part of society. Mrs

Linde feels that Nora leads the perfect lifestyle with a happy family

where as Nora feels that Mrs Linde has the better lifestyle, being

free.

The features of the subplot are shown via the main plot, this is to

show a variety o...

... middle of paper ...

...bsen had to re-write the

play with an alternate ending, as they did not want to show that women

can be more powerful than men. The ending was that Nora broke down in

tears and stayed after Torvald forcing her to see her children. The

normal ending was described as an act of barbarous violence.

Through researching and thoroughly studying the play act by act I have

learnt that not only was the subplot just as important as the main

plot but how they were run through each other and the impact it had. I

also gathered more information on what life was like during the 1800’s

and how controlling the male was over the female during them times.

The play also gave a great insight to how widowed and/or single adults

were treated back in them days. So if you ever read the play I hope

you enjoy it as much as I did and get a good understanding of all the

key issues.