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Title: A Doll's House (Methuen Students Editions) by Michael Meyer, Henrik Johan Ibsen, Non Worrall ISBN: 0-413-54470-2 Publisher: Methuen Drama Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.93 (57 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not needed, but still helpful.
Comment: "Spark Notes A Doll's House" was helpful in clearing up small, subtly plot facts, but the play is so straightforward, that "Spark Notes" is essentially unnecessary. I "sorta" recommend.
Rating: 5
Summary: Splendid!
Comment: "A Doll's House" is a book that should be read by all women, but should also be read by men. The story is so powerful, intriguing, heart wrenching, nail biting, ulcer giving, and just fantastic! For Henrik Ibsen to write this during his time must have sent wives into fantasies and men into worries. While I'm unsure about Nora's final decision, I was positively sure that Torvald was a pathetic husband and didn't deserve a wife. I recommend!
Rating: 4
Summary: Dated but still important
Comment: There is no doubt that Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' is his masterpiece; one of the most famous plays ever. Notwithstanding it is very dated, and today's readers/audience may find it boring and hard to understand, because there is a very long interval since its first performance to the XXI century.
Although women, unfortunately, still have much to fight for when it comes to rights, they are no longer like Nora, the play's protagonist. She is a complete doll, living to his husband's, Torvald, will. Due to his health problems, she has involved with not reliable people, and borrowed money. Years later, when he is safe and sound, she is still paying her debts --however, he doesn't know it. In order to keep her lie, Nora is involved by a snowball effect, where one lie leads to another one, until the moment when it becomes unbearable.
While I much like the feminist thematic of the play, analyzing it as a literature work I think there are some flaws in the text. The most important character, Nora, is not very well developed. We can easily notice how repressed she is; and we do expect her to take charge in her life and do something, but when it happens, in the very end of the play, it seems to be so unrealistic that it is hard to believe she is a human being rather than a character of a play.
Another thing about Nora is that she is extremely selfish. If on the one hand, she does things to help her husband recover, on the other, she's doing it because she's afraid of losing him, and being left helpless alone. Moreover, in the end, she simply quits her life --good for her!--, but she doesn't care about her children. How convenient it is to leave their three small kids, claiming she is not a good person and will harm them. She becomes a free person, and under no shadow of doubt, her children will grow up problematic people.
Above all things, 'A Doll's House' is a play, and it doesn't deny its origins. The dialogues are very theatrical. The monologues pop up in almost every page, compromising the natural flow of the events.
All in all, it is still a good play, and has its cultural and social importance. It portraits the hypocrisy of XIX Century European society, when women had no power at all, and were brought up to satisfy their huband's will. It has lost its freshness and power, but still stands up as one of the first work with a feminist thematic, and for that matter should be read and known.
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Title: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles ISBN: 0486268772 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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Title: Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller ISBN: 0140481346 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Awakening by Kate Chopin ISBN: 0380002450 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 10 February, 1982 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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Title: Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy: Modern English Version Side-By-Side With Full Original Text) by William Shakespeare, Alan Durband ISBN: 0812036387 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Stranger by Albert Camus ISBN: 0679720200 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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