Summary

Realism creates the appearance of life, as it is actually experienced. Characters in modern realistic plays speak dialogue the same way people speak in their daily lives. They don’t longer speak in highly poetic language, formal declarations, asides, or soliloquies. Additionally, realistic events can certainly be heroic, but it focus on ordinary people’s experiences such as work, love, marriage, children, an death. Therefore, conflicts in realistic plays are likely to reflect problems on our own lives. Playwrights found necessary to create works that reflect their audience’s lives. Moreover, in melodramas the conflicts occasionally arise out of plot rather than characterization; regularly a virtuous individual confronts and overcomes a wicked oppressor. Usually, a melodramatic story ends happily. Thus, melodramas entertain the audience with exciting action while still conforming to a traditional sense of justice. From the realists’ perspective, Meyer adds that melodramas were merely escape fantasies that distorted life by refusing to examine the real world closely and objectively. Also, problem play popularized by Henrik Ibsen is a type of drama that deals with contentious social issues in order to awaken the audience to it. Related to realism is another movement, called naturalism. Naturalism derives its name from the idea that human beings are part of nature and subject to its laws. Characters in naturalistic plays are generally portrayed as victims overwhelmed by internal and external forces. Thus, it is an extreme form of realism. The theatrical conventions of modern drama consist of picture-frame stages. Scenery and props are used to create an illusion of reality. In addition, technical effects can make us believe there is wo...

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...conflicts to propel his play’s action. Also, he used the theatrical conventions of modern drama such as the “small book case with richly bound books” described in the opening scene of the play. "A Doll’s House," dramatizes the tensions of a nineteenth-century middle class marriage in which a wife struggles with her identify imposed by her husband and society. The characters act pretty much the way we believe people behave. In addition, Nora wears dresses, which make her appear as a doll. In addition, Meyer says “it could take dramatic sense in an absurdist adaptation that sought to dramatize Nora’s loss of identity and dehumanization as a result of her marriage.” This play demonstrated realistic events that focus on ordinary people’s experiences such as work, love, marriage, and children. Conflicts in “A Doll’s House” are likely to reflect problems on our own lives.