Doll's House--Henrik Ibsen

November 4, 2010

Ibsen's Doll's House is a commentary on gender roles and their stunting affect on those who attempt to confine themselves within those traditionally accepted roles. Nora, the protagonist, is a woman who has willingly chosen to accept being a 'trophy wife' to her husband Torvald, knowing that it means playing the naive, childish, and helpless counterpart to her husband. Despite having a brain for business and for, frankly, deception and manipulation, she allows her husband to believe her primary thought processes revolve around shopping and being beautiful, because that's what Torvald expects of women.

In exchange for playing this role, Nora expects Torvald to play the role of head of household, caretaker of his charges (including his wife), protector of his domain (which again, includes his wife). One cannot fault Torvald for believing his wife to be devoid of ambition or intelligent thought; he has been conditioned by society to believe this is his role, and encouraged by Nora to relish his part. It is only when a scandal is about to break and Torvald fails miserably in his role as savior and protector that Nora realizes all she has given up in the bargain. Once he turns on her, rather than protecting her, all deals are off. If he isn't willing or able to keep up his end of the bargain in the "Doll's House" they've created for themselves, she can no longer keep up her own role.

It's an interesting display of gender roles of a certain era, but the exaggerated characters can be somewhat grating. Or perhaps they aren't so exaggerated after all, and we've just come so far as a whole society that they just seem that way. At any rate, I do find the theme of being true to one's self an important one. Another prominent theme, the idea that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, is woven beautifully throughout the play, and is one of my favorite aspects of the work.

--Donna

Hedda Gabler--Henrik Ibsen

September 24, 2010

Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is the precursor to the modern soap opera. Hedda is the controlling, manipulative protagonist who insinuates her wills and whims into the lives of others. Her bookish, clueless husband is simply thrilled to have landed the beautiful Miss Hedda, and his myopic viewpoint doesn't allow him to see her with any clarity. His focus is on his research (which he spent most of their honeymoon engaged in), and the idea of being married to her--the idealistic vision he has for their future.

Hedda, meanwhile, loathes the romantic notion of 'family', including children, and how strict social contraints seek to subsume her into the proper role of wife and mother. She feels she is above relinquishing control, and certainly, she's too fiercely independent to passively slip into the traditional female role. Instead, she fully intends to carry on a torrid affair with the judge who is, in fact, her intellectual and moral equal (and who ultimately becomes one of the catalysts for her eventual undoing), as well as manipulating a former lover who was too given to lapse into battles with alcoholism to ever provide for her future monetarily, but who was, in truth, probably the one human being she could have loved. She also capriciously manipulates her husband's relatives and her own former schoolmates, largely out of boredom. This is not a pleasant person, to say the least, but as is often the case with soap opera divas, she has enough mental acuity to spin her personality in such a way that her victims fall willingly under her spell, becoming accomplices in their own dramatic downfalls.

Every calculated move, however, somehow falls into place in a way Hedda could not have forseen, and suddenly she realizes that all the puppets she danced so tightly together have spun out of her control, and taken on a life of their own, just as she is coming to grips with another new life she didn't bank on. In fine dramatic soap opera form, Hedda decides to wrest back control in the only way she knows how--with definitive finality.

--Donna

No Exit--Jean-Paul Sartre

March 22, 2010

"Hell is...other people." In Sartre's existentialism view, this is quite literally true. No Exit is a play that explores the afterlife in a satirical and often humorous way, challenging us to think about the how we define ourselves and the context we build for ourselves in order to create meaning in our world.

At the outset of the play, Garcin has just arrived in the afterlife. He is conducted by a valet to his new 'accomodations,' which is something akin to a mid-level hotel room, albeit one to which he will be confined forever. Still, it's nice enough. The valet is amused by Garcin's queries as to the location of the burning pincers, the hot pokers, the other instruments of torture. Garcin is confused and not a little relieved to learn none of these are part of the environs he would inhabit for all of eternity. This would be much easier than he had anticipated--or so he thought.

Not long after, he is joined by two women, Inez and Estelle. None of the three knew each other in life, and they are left to wonder how they three came to be one another's eternal roommates. In attempting to make connections among themselves, they at first maintain the facade of innocence, feigning surprise at their fate. Soon enough, though, the ugly truth comes out, and they each see the other in all their naked and calculating guilt. They see the blackness and the cowardice in their souls, dependent upon each other to absolve them, to mirror back what they want most to see in themselves--justification.

But, as Inez says, "You are--your life, and nothing else." There is no justification, no way to defend oneself. And yet that is what they continue to do--to seek approval and affirmation from one another, all the while recognizing they have the power to withhold that affirmation from the other two, and thus keep the upper hand. It's a vicious circle, being more drawn to the lure of the power over others than to the desire to work together for a common cause, a greater good. Rather than subverting the desire to wield power over others, each becomes more fierce in attacking the character of the others, knowing what they seek is salvation in each other.

And thus they begin eternity. No end in sight, no change expected. A forever of looking for peace, and a forever of knowing it won't come. Who needs the fires of Hell? Hell is..other people.

--Donna