A doll house essay

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Arts

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Nora loves and worships her husband and takes care of the house and the children but her husband's love towards her is more like a father than a husband. He treats her like a silly, innocent child who does not know the value of money. Nora is hiding a secret from his husband. Initially, in their marriage, we learn that Torvald was seriously affected by an illness, and doctors recommended that he had to dwell in a southerly climate if he was to survive. Nora manages to borrow money from Krogstad, a lawyer, and friend of Torvald by faking her deceased father's signature. It appears as if she is oblivious to her doll-like existence in Torvald’s world, where she is patronized, and coddled.

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Progressively, she shows that she is not just a “silly girl” as her husband thinks but a brave woman who has a mind of her own. However, as we come to be aware of her intellectual aptitude and role in challenging the patriarchal society we also see a dark side of her when she lies and the extent she goes to hide the forgery incident from her husband (Plung, 138). Torvald is introduced as a man who subscribes to the view that a man’s purpose in marriage is to guide and protects his wife. He instructs her with trite and moralistic views. Nora who is the paragon of the new era woman with regard to choices is poised to challenge these archaic views and offer an alternative where women also deserve to choose the kind of life they want to live.

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Bernice uses her to challenge the view that the woman’s activity in the male-dominated space will result in her unworthiness (Langås, 162). The feminine characters in the play are presented with personalities that are compliant and immature to represent society's contemporary view, and Nora is the heroine who challenges them. • Main ideas of the play The play introduces the concept of filial and parental obligation where characters such as Torvald and Dr. Rank hold the view that a parent ought to be upstanding and honest since immorality of the parents is passed down to their children like a disease. Nora brutally realizes her husband's perception of her and refuses to remain in such a marriage where she is a doll.

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She sits her husband down to have a serious conversation with him and ends the scene by declaring Torvald is a stranger and departing to search for her path. Performance Analysis • The message of the playwright and director The theme of Marriage was among the primary target message of the playwright of A Doll's House where he presents that a good marriage should be that which consists of a union of equal parties. The play presents the apparent break-down of a union mainly because it does not meet this qualification. Initially, the Helmers appear happy, but throughout the play, the imbalance and inequality between them become clearer to us. This means that in the process of staging. A Doll's House, the focus of the directors, should be ensuring that the psychological plausibility of motifs and themes in the play are realized fully in a home setting (Klaus, 97).

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The set for this play is a theatrical of an apartment. The lighting play uses atmospheric lighting which does not variate or dim at different times. The play has a beautiful set and costumes which act like the stars of the show. The blocking of the play was not well organized. Also, there was much unnecessary movement and no real relationship to the house on the characters side to make us feel like they truly owned the place, at times It felt like they were in a hotel due to the minimum interaction. The delivery of the cast especially Lauren Foxworth as Nora managed to capture the attention of the audience from such shortcomings and in the end, Bernice Garfield-Szita was able to produce a successful play of famous playwright Henrik Ibsen’s A doll house.

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Production Proposal • Designs including theatre, customs, makeup, and light The entire play "A Doll's House" occurs in a mono set that presents a middle-class family set living room. Thus the focus of the directors, should be ensuring that the psychological plausibility of motifs and themes in the play are realized fully in a home setting (Hooti & Pouria, 1105). The lighting of the play will also be an important aspect as it affects how the audience interprets a given scene or get the message intended by the playwright. This could be in the form of atmospheric lights used to set the mood of a given scene and symbolize emotions such as hope, despair, anger. The stage may also be shadowy, as a metaphor for regrets and memory of longing.

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Lighting during soliloquies will keep on changing as the rest of the play is dimmed, and will come up on the solo character. There will also be the use of rainbow lights sometimes to suggest transient hopefulness. The director should create the preconditions necessary for the cast to genuinely portray this transition in their onstage performance. These preconditions will help reveal the developmental aspects of the psychological makeup of the played characters. To achieve this, the director will ensure that actors play in a complementary manner, building on each other's characterization. The director may also consider indulging the audience in some verbal interactions if seen to be contextually appropriate. Audience participation will be employed since the play uses a theatrical production of a modernist approach.

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