“Doll’s House” by H. Ibsen Review

Subject: Literature
Pages: 1
Words: 275
Reading time:
< 1 min

A Doll’s House by Ibsen is an outstanding play because it is said to lay the foundation for a feminist movement to emerge and develop. This piece of art depicts women and their role in the man-dominated society. Back then, women did not have many rights, and all they needed to do was to take care of their families. Not everyone liked that state of affairs, and Nora Helmer was among them. Even though she lived in decent conditions, she did not feel free, which made her leave the family by the end of the play. However, the play is not all about feminism; the playwright used that setting to reveal his attitude towards a topic of personal freedom in general. That is why thousands of playgoers appreciate this piece of art, even nowadays.

Furthermore, A Doll’s House and its main themes can have good potential for theatricality, and Mabou Mines has proved it. This version of the play is peculiar because all the male actors are little people, while the female characters are played by the women of over 6 feet tall. Since the play reveals the underestimated women of those times, Mabou Mines decided to show it through this visual metaphor. This difference in height makes the audience think to find an explanation that, in its turn, becomes evident when Nora leaves her house with the little husband and enters a bigger society. It is a clear manifestation of theatricality because creative resources were utilized to show a particular phenomenon figuratively. Finally, the audience was captured by this visual metaphor from the beginning of the play.