A Doll's House and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen, Deborah Dawkin (Translation), Erik Skuggevik (Translation)

A Doll's House/Ghosts/Pillars of the Community/An Enemy of the People'Our home has never been anything other than a play-house. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Daddy's doll-child'These four plays established Ibsen as the leading figure in the theatre of his day, sending shockwaves throughout Europe and beyond. A Doll's House scandalized audiences with its free-thinking heroine Nora. Ibsen's even more radical follow-up, Ghosts , exposes family secrets and sexual double-dealing, while Pillars of the Community and An Enemy of the People both explore the hypocrisy and the dark tensions at the heart of society. This new translation, the first to be based on the latest critical edition of Ibsen's works, offers the best version available in English.A new translation by DEBORAH DAWKIN and ERIK SKUGGEVIKWith an Introduction by TORE REMGeneral Editor TORE REM

Genres: Plays, Classics, Drama, Fiction, 19th Century, Theatre, School

ebook

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major Norwegian playwright largely responsible for the rise of modern realistic drama. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama." Ibsen is held to be the greatest of Norwegian authors and one of the most important playwrights of all time, celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians.

His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many contemporaries.

Ibsen largely founded the modern stage by introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Victorian-era plays were expected to be moral dramas with noble protagonists pitted against darker forces; every drama was expected to result in a morally appropriate conclusion, meaning that goodness was to bring happiness, and immorality pain. Ibsen challenged this notion and the beliefs of his times and shattered the illusions of his audiences.

Reviews

[Laila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhhh I believe I have fallen in love with Henrik Ibsen.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction

--The League of Youth
--A Doll's House
--The Lady from the Sea

Notes

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Doll's House - Four out of five stars.

I really really enjoyed this play if not because it was simply entertaining, then definitely for the early feminism Nora exhibits in the end. We're studying it as a feminist text and I cannot wait to get into detail about it in class!
I recommend this to everyone who is interested :)

[Saadullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

read somewhere that without Ibsen there would be no Bergman. i love bergman characters, and ibsen's are very similar in their psychological intensity. pakistani readers and creatives will enjoy him, I think. in the same way Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are constantly in conversation with concepts of "Russia" and "Russian", Ibsen is constantly in conversation with what it means to live in Norway. tho unlike the Russians, who seem to love Russia, Ibsen appears to absolutely hate his Norway. this kind of sophisticated hate literature is why i think pakistanis can find these plays highly adaptable.

[Jako · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is only about A Doll's House

What a captivating short read! I find Ibsen's reserved stage directions a bliss. His work is an etalon of a great play, and his characters are exciting and alive. Everyone has a goal they're trying to achieve, and no one is wandering around the scenes meaninglessly.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read A Doll's House and The Lady from the Sea and enjoyed both. Unlike his contemporary August Strindberg, Ibsen seemed to truly care about the experience of women in his time. He certainly expresses with nuance and pathos the plight of women who felt pressured to marry. The recurring theme (as helpfully pointed out by the Penguin end notes) is that of a "true marriage" being the joining of two independent wills - not a subservient, dependent will to a masculine one. Even material wealth cannot generate nor be substitute for a love that arises out of freedom. A good man desires a wife with a mind of her own, and in this way she will always be fully his and he will be hers.

Of the two plays, A Doll's House was stronger; there was quite a bit of soap in The Lady from the Sea, only salvaged by the satisfying ending. I wasn't really in the mood to read a political play so I skipped The League of Youth...

[Yasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my first encounter with Henrik Ibsen, of course I have heard of his name before and about A Doll's House, but never read anything of his until now. After reading these three plays I am smitten by Ibsen's writing. Having heard about A Doll's House before I skipped to it to read first. He is a remarkable writer and I would gladly read more of his writings. Some might think that the themes of his plays are dated. However, when I read his plays I can see how they relate to the 21st century. There are still people who come off interested in politics in bettering the human condition but are in fact really looking to get ahead themselves over and above others. In unequal relationships there is one partner who undermines the other and say that they can't handle challenges and don't need "to worry their pretty little head" about things and therefore can't decide things of their own free will. That is what freedom really means, not free speech or freedom to walk the streets without being harassed, free will. For without free will none of your words or actions is freedom. You may parrot someone else's words that subtly tricked you into thinking it was your idea or you may walk the streets but you have forfeited your rights for surveillance for so called security, but you're not free unless you exercise your own free will. The right to chose. Free will is the main theme in these plays, something that people are forgoing in the 21st century. Many women are being denied the right of free will about their bodies; wars are being declared without the population's free will to decide if they want it or not. Henrik Ibsen is a writer for all times and one of the best there is.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

1st play: political boringness
2nd play: yum yum
3rd play: rip off 2nd play

[My Little Forest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasure to meet this towering artist.
Signed, an Ibsenite newbie.



Shared Similarities: Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism, Shaw's The Quintessence of Ibsenism.

[Lancer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I got my fill of morality for the next couple decades. Was rather good though for a university read.

[Sophia Eck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ibsen’s work in The Doll House is definitely more deftly wrought and politically and morality focused than my own imaginative girlhood dollhouse narratives, but in terms of exploring women’s intricacies, his plays are not truly or undeniably any more feminist than the dreams of a young girl. Despite this, we can confidently still recognize his definite innovation for his time, and his classic skill in building a strong narrative that successfully reaches a poignant snd compelling conclusion. Each play included in this volume does well to create its own impression, but all do mainly adhere to an overarching moral or political principle Ibsen aims to communicate, which is to always be made clear by the end of each production. Ibsen writes primarily of women in the status of their marriages, and the ways in which their marriages do not define them and/or satisfy them, and writes about how these women of admitted self realization smartly hold their subversive cards close to their chests, patiently and deftly waiting for the right time to play them. All of the plays included here are rather provincial, made up of small casts and gossipy towns, all which serve to exacerbate the outrage against any straying from the norm, most concernedly the contrary actions of women concurrently realizing their nuances. I think Ibsen excels in his ability to present a potentially controversial idea in a way easily able to be accepted by the masses, writing characters, (even female ones, can you believe?) that feel real, and each cast member aptly and valuably serves a particular purpose and role in the grander theme; despite his nuanced ideas, he doesn’t insist on superfluidity in his narratives, wrapping them up quite satisfyingly. In regards to his modernity, Ibsen saw women as decidedly nuanced and human, and celebrated them in his work as such, which though now is seen as the bare minimum, back then it was unfortunately quite forward thinking. A win is a win?

[Lisa of Troy]

This is a book that F. Scott Fitzgerald recommended in his College of One, a set of 40 books he considered necessary for an education: https://www.listchallenges.com/f-scot...

[Kaja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! A doll's house is definitely my favourite of the four plays, really loved that one.

[Khulood Alqahtani · Rating 4 out of 5]

أول مدخل لي في الأدب النرويجي وأول قراءة للكاتب هينرك إيبسن. ستشهد أثناء قراءة هذه المسرحية عملية الحصول على الحرية الفردية؛ تكمن في صورة انتقال (نورا) من زوجة منقادة ومسلوبة الحق -لا يشغل تفكيرها إلا شكل الفستان الذي سترتديه في الحفلة القادمة- إلى إمرأة مستقلة، كاملة الأهلية. تحدثك هذه المسرحية عن الإنفصال؛ عن امتلاك الشجاعة لهجر من كان يشكل نصفك الآخر.. عندما يصل الكمد ذروته فتخرج تلك القوة الكامنة بداخلك التي تخبرك أن لا شيء يجري كما يجب، وأن الانفصال قد حان وقته.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The hysterical woman enthrusts her undomesticated, unsatisfied desires to the sea. A divided amphibian subject smothered by terrestrial loaming – modernity fossicking the trace metals of a desire refused in tranquilizers gulped and tourism’s picture-perfect post-card sceneries of stale and tepid bourgeois fjords. Forget the other two plays in this book. Bin them. Straight in the trash. Although I must admit the last half of the fourth act of A Doll’s House transforms the preceding tediousness of all those muted marionette drawing room sequences at a backward glance. The Lady From the Sea though. She is for the bitches who don’t play about no sea cure.

The sea corrupts. The sea tempts and seduces diffusely with its unceasing ebbs and flows of inarticulate possibilities, irrational possibilities, which expand being into its becoming.

In the play the sea is a constant – always present and never seen. Seemingly unattainable yet enthralled in the ambient drift of its undertow. Dead fisheyes stare out of a pinned pearl – the unearthly living talisman of a private ‘neurotic’ mythology – suffocating in the stench of land and begging to be drowned. Only when agency is regained through the tangled primordial waters of desires made inevitable, can this terrifying machination cease. Can one acclimate to the accepted (enforced) morality of the everyday in which our basic choices have already been made for us? I don’t know about you but that shit drives me insane too. Unmake them. Or, stay trapped mesmerized by the sparkling reflection of your own willingly misplaced self ossified on dry land.

I’m not saying go with the murderous sailor to sea. I’m saying you should at least be given the option. An option which represents a false choice, cause when I think about the ocean all the faces of the men in the world die.

[Sajid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House and Other Plays" is a collection of four plays that are as relevant and thought-provoking today as they were when they were first written. Ibsen's exploration of societal norms and gender roles in the late 19th century remains compelling and poignant, and his writing is both incisive and emotive.

The centerpiece of the collection is "A Doll's House," which tells the story of Nora Helmer, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage and a restrictive society that affords her little agency. As the play progresses, Nora begins to question the societal expectations placed upon her and the role she has been assigned as a woman. The play is a powerful commentary on the oppressive nature of gender norms and the importance of individuality.

The other plays in the collection are equally engaging. "Ghosts" explores the devastating consequences of repressed emotions and societal hypocrisy, while "An Enemy of the People" critiques the dangers of groupthink and the consequences of speaking out against the status quo.

What sets Ibsen's plays apart is the depth of his characters and the complexity of his plots. Each play features multi-dimensional characters grappling with issues that are both personal and universal. Ibsen's writing is both nuanced and evocative, and his plays are a masterclass in the art of modern drama.

[Cate]

I hope Knets stubs his toe.

[SophieMG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ibsens is a true master of ambiguity and I can highly recommend to read “A Dolls House” 👍🏼❤️

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't read "The League of Youth" or "The Lady from the Sea" before, and I'm so impressed. Wonderful plays! "A Doll's House" seemed different to me this time. There seemed to be more in it. I'd feel pretentious "reviewing" Ibsen--it doesn't seem reasonable that there should be any need to review him any more. He has such a modern way of writing, it's striking. Or maybe not of writing--perhaps it's thinking, I can't tell. Also, each character is so very different from the others. I wonder if playwrights are a bit better at that than novelists. There always seems to be so much more to the character than you ever get to see in the play--a small island, the peak of an oceanic mountain range. Marriage seems to clarify literature more than I would have thought. I'll have to read these again in a few years, and see what will have happened by then. Isn't it strange that life goes on in books--that it isn't the same life, the same story, over and over?

[Collin B.tawney]

A Doll's House was a wonderful play. The fact that Ibsen discussed social issues within the play make the play even today a model for every human to be equal. While reading this during a two week school exploration of masculinity, the power that the play has, is that it made me realize how lucky I am to be a man. The amount of adversity faced by women in Ibsen's time and even today, just was shocking and eye-opening. The play, I believe was written for every human, who deep down has a self-obligation towards herself or himself. This seems selfish but if cannot take care of ourselves how could we possibly take care of someone else. The play was a great complement to our school exploration of masculinity because it showcased the adversity faced by women, but in addition showed how all humans must find themselves before they are to ever help others. Overall this was a great play/story and would recommend everyone on the planet to read it!

[Luke McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a while since I 'read' a play so took a while to get used to doing that again, but it was well worth the effort.

This collection includes 3 plays, The League of Youth, A Dolls House and The Lady from the Sea, so I'm going to give them each a quick review.



"The League of Youth" is the earliest of the plays, and definitely the least refined, but is nonetheless a fun escapade of 19th century social climbing.

Stensgard, the protagonist, is a duplicitous and conceited man who has no single conviction or belief. He manages to tangle himself up in some loose ambition of politics and a surfeit of lies, before being found out in a scene that had me physically cringing (in a good way). Light and airy, not too much to say.




"A Dolls House" is an incredible piece of work, the entirety of the action taking place in the Helmer flat over Christmas. The protagonist, Nora, realises over the course of the play that her husband doesn't really know her, see her or truly love her, and she doesn't love him. She emphatically cuts herself loose, to break free and become a whole person of her own and not just the wife of Torvald. The passages of her epiphany are so realistic and well written, I can't do justice to the feeling I had of being in the room with them as I sat on the bus reading it. This passage was the best of the three plays.

"NORA [undisturbed]: I mean when I passed out of Papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything to suit your own tastes, and so I came to have the same tastes as yours... or I pretended to. I'm not quite sure which... perhaps it was a bit of both - sometimes one and sometimes the other. Now that I come to look at it, I've lived here like a pauper - simply from hand to mouth. I've lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. That was how you wanted it. You and Papa have committed a grievous sin against me: it's your fault I've made nothing of my life."

That all too familiar feeling of absorbing the personality of your partner to please them, paired with the socially accepted subjection she was under, and the realisation that she never had the chance to be anything else but a doll. It was absolutely perfect. It was so gratifying to see Nora escape Helmer's overbearing, controlling realm, his treatment of her as if she were some household pet.

As such, it was disturbing to find out when the play was run in Germany they forced Ibsen to modify the ending so that she stayed 'for the kids'.

I don't want to imagine this play without the catharsis of her taking her life back for herself, instead sacrificing it again at a separate altar. It was my favourite of the three and definitely the one pushing the rating up to five stars.




"The Lady from the Sea" was also gorgeous, it had really vivid descriptions of the area in which it was set and much more detailed and subtle stage directions than the previous two, some of my favourites:

"BOLETTA [cautioning Hilde]: Ahem!

HILDE [ignoring her]: No, it's Mother's"

"ELLIDA [rising nervously, as if in distress]: Because I must have someone to tell. No, don't get up."

"BOLETTA [quietly, wrapped up in herself]"

my very favourite

"WANGEL [in quiet grief]: I realise that, Ellida. Step by step you're slipping away from me. Your longing for the boundless and the infinite - for the unattainable - will, in the end, carry your soul out into the darkness"

This quote really struck me, particularly the stage direction of "[in quiet grief]". In the end, life is a series of quiet grieving and fleeting joy, and this and everything in between is captured in this collection of Ibsens work

[Taylor Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve wanted to start reading Ibsen’s plays ever since hearing how much of an impact they had on James Joyce in his biography. I had it in my head that I didn’t really enjoy reading plays but this volume has really put that misconception to rest. The introduction was very helpful for putting each play in context, providing insight into what Ibsen was commenting on, and priming the reader for interesting things to look out for in the upcoming plays.

I really enjoyed the theme running through many of the plays of how leaders of the community insistied upon their morality as the foundation of their leadership, even when that foundation of moraliry was revealed to be completely corrupt. Ibsen uses this Catch-22 to great effect, having these leaders twist the revelations of their true immorality into an argument for having to protect the community from these revelations for the greater good. He does a great job of showing the ridiculous way in which women were treated during this period, being completely in thrall to their husbands, hardly having any separate existence from them in the eyes of the law and society.

I will certainly be reading the rest of these Penguin editions of Ibsen’s plays, just great.

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for performance; 4 for writing. It’s hard to judge modern plays by their writing alone since they depend on the actor, staging etc. You can see how Ibsen packs a theatrical punch - and why these caused a sensation in the late 19th century as he turned a lens on the “respectable” - but when read alone the scripts are flat, even didactic and tract like. I get the power of Nora’s exit but I didn’t believe in the “turn on a dime” transition of her character. Anyway, if we are to celebrate Nora, let’s remember that it’s based on the necessary sacrifice of her friend K Linde who has no options - economic, social, familial - and is forced into marriage. I wonder what Ibsen thought of Madame Bovary.
Also: this is a very good edition with introductions to the plays and their translation as well as textual notes.

[Steph K · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. what a delightful read. i enjoyed each one thoroughly and have such admiration for the translators who put so much effort into capturing the idiosyncrasies and complexities of Ibsen’s writing, along with Ibsen himself. these plays reflect so thoroughly on what we owe ourselves, what we owe others, and what we owe society at large, while weaving in timeless analysis and criticism of gender roles.

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of plays that gained Ibsen international fame. They are less mythological in nature than his earlier works and are more contemporary in nature, even if they are still well over one hundred years old, they still have modern applicability. *A Doll’s House* is in particular an early feminist play, as is *Pillars of the Community* although to a lesser degree. *Enemy of the People* is more standard fare, although it does feel similar in tone to *Brand* in that the protagonist is the source of his own destruction. An interesting group of plays.

[Baani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only read A Doll's House (for school), but it was so enjoyable, the character so complex, the writing so in depth with so much to unpack (am I turning into and English Teacher?).
The ending and character interactions leaves so much room for thought, and I'm so inclined to read the rest of the plays in here when I have a chance.

[kiara :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

only read a doll's house for english but this was actually great

[yaz 🍉 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Doll's House - 4/5

RTC

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit verhaal heeft zo ongelofelijk veel invloed gehad op de theatergeschiedenis, dat wil je niet weten.

[nouhaila Elkhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
The league of youth 🌕🌕🌕🌗
A doll's house 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
The lady from the sea 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗