Untraditional Families in Ibsen’s "Ghosts" and Strindberg’s "The Father"

Five Plays by Langston Hughes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968. Thomson, Peter. Plays by Dion Boucicault. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Ibsen belittles the role of the housewife through means of stage direction, diminutive pet names and through Nora’s interaction with her morally ultimate husband, Torvald. Nora parades the façade of being naïve and frivolous, deteriorating her character from being a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the security of home and ironically her own sanity. A Doll’s House ‘s depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th century housewife and the societal pressures placed upon her displays a woman’s gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald’s progressive infantilization of Nora and the pressure on Nora to adhere to societal norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century societal standards and their oppressive nature result in the gradual degradation of her character that destroys all semblances of family and identity.Nora’s role in her family is initially portrayed as being background, often “laughing quietly and happily to herself” (Ibsen 148) because of her isolation in not only space, but also person.

- - -. Sailor off the Bremen. Irwin Shaw Short Stories: Five Decades. New York: Delacorte Press, 1978. 33-41.

A Doll House is widely considered to be one of the first and most poignant examples of realism in drama. Ibsen developed a definitive plot in A Doll House, but the play is primarily a social critique that examines the role of women in society. Nora frets endlessly about the effects of her betrayal but by the end of the play she becomes reflective and even a bit scornful of her husband and the role he has helped force her in to. Right before Nora is going to abandon her family, Torvald comments that, “no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves”. Nora’s caustic reply is that, “it is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done” (3.

New York: Penguin Classics, 1984. 131-53. Sophocles. Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans.

In the play, Hamlet shows great hostility toward his uncle Claudius because his mother's remarriage to him. Hamlet sees his mother's remarriage as disgusting and sees murdering Claudius as a way of freeing his mother of an incestuous marriage as well as avenging his father. Hamlet and his mother's relationship is also shown as more sexual than the traditional mother son relationship because of Hamlet's language and private interaction with his mother, as well as his rivalry toward Claudius for his mother's attentions. This suggests that Shakespeare saw the behavioral characteristics of the oedipal complex in humanity that Freud did and chose to display them through the relationship of Hamlet and his mother. Hamlet's inner monologues reveal much about what he is feeling and also aid in understanding the nature of the oedipal complex within the character.

Poag, James F. Wolfram von Eschenbach. New York: Twayne, 1972. Sacker, Hugh. An Introduction to Wolfram’s ‘Parzival.’ Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1963 Weigand, Hermann. Wolfram’s Parzival: Five Essays with an Introduction.

Poag, James F. Wolfram von Eschenbach. New York: Twayne, 1972. Sacker, Hugh. An Introduction to Wolfram’s ‘Parzival.’ Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1963 Weigand, Hermann. Wolfram’s Parzival: Five Essays with an Introduction.

Print. Updike, John, and John Updike. “Lifeguard.” The Early Stories 1953-1975. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. 602-607.

Euripides: Four Plays: Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae. Ed. Stephen Esposito. Newburyport, MA: Focus, 2004. 35-92.