A Doll's House: What To Compare It To (OCR A Level English Literature)

Topic sentence

Both Ibsen and Chaucer consider the impact of secrecy and revelations by presenting insincere female characters who attempt to hide their true nature in order to maintain their respectability

Evidence and analysis

A Doll’s House

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

• Ibsen’s protagonist, Nora, is presented as exaggeratedly cheerful but is soon exposed as insincere: 

  • She manipulates her husband by indulging him (and other males), especially when she dances a frenzied and sensual dance for the men

• The Merchant tells a story about a female character, May, whose affair is perceived as hedonistic and indulgent:

  • However, she fools many of the characters with her virtuous and “fresshe” image

• Ibsen portrays the way Nora’s repression manifests in self-absorption and an escape in pleasure: 

  • Nora secretly eats macaroons, swears behind her husband’s back, flirts with Dr Rank and daydreams about a man who adores her

• In the tale, May presents an image to male characters that reflects their own desires, behaving as a submissive female in order to manipulate men:

  • However, in private she complains about her husband and declares he does not satisfy her at all

• Nora keeps secrets from her husband in order to keep her unlawful activity (that she arranged a loan without her husband’s consent or knowledge) hidden at all costs, pleading with Krogstad not to reveal the truth

• May’s deceit (an affair outside her contractual marriage) is kept from her husband by a trick played by the gods:

  • However, even when Januarie’s sight is restored, May works hard to convince him he is wrong, aware of the repercussions

• Nora’s secret drives the plot forward until her deception is revealed by Krogstad and her friend, Kristine Linde, who suggests that the truth must emerge

• May’s affair with Damyan is exposed when Januarie’s “sighte” is restored by Pluto, suggesting he sees the truth

• Nora’s defiance of her husband and the law presents her exiting her domestic sphere as a New Woman: 

  • This presents Nora’s deceit as necessary in order to find autonomy

• Similarly, May defies social expectations by exhibiting her resistance to social standards of behaviour for women:

  • The “typically female trait of deceit” is a theme throughout the poem

Both female characters highlight the way gender stereotypes and imbalanced marital constructs can result in repressed desire that manifests in socially unacceptable acts

Topic sentence

Both Ibsen and Chaucer explore hypocrisies within social constructs, which result in oppressive and controlling yet internally blind leaders

Evidence and analysis

A Doll’s House

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

• The male character, Torvald Helmer, represents a bourgeoisie lawyer/banker who believes marriage to a dutiful and pretty wife will gain him respect and admiration

• Januarie, the male character of the Merchant’s tale, is a “Knyte” who holds a position of power, is business-driven, and shows a desire to sustain a respectable and powerful position in society through his marriage to May, a younger woman

• Torvald is insistent upon his moral superiority, believing he is Nora’s teacher: 

  • His demeaning control over her leads her to compare him to her father

• Januarie, an older man, marries May, a much younger woman, in order that he can mould her like “wax” and so that she provides him with an heir: 

  • He declares his wife “shal nat passe twenty yeer”

• Torvald’s love for his wife is presented as superficial and based on her appearance and his own sexual whims:

  • He is stirred by her wild dance, calling her his “treasure”, and Nora knows he will tire of her when she is no longer young

• Januarie makes clear his attraction toward May is due to her youthful beauty, remarking on “hir fresshe beautee and hir age tender, hir middle small, hir armes longe and sklendre”

• Torvald is presented as ignorant to Nora as an individual as well as to her clear despair: 

  • His display of confusion in the final scene asking an empty room a rhetorical question portrays him as internally blind

• Although Januarie is physically turned “blynd” by Pluto for his arrogant ignorance, this is when Januarie begins to realise his flaws, noting that he is “jalos”

• Although Torvald says he would give “life and blood” to prove his strength as a man, Nora’s awakened perception of her husband is presented in her sarcastic line, “Oh, you’re always right whatever you do”

• Throughout the poem the heroic and virile image of the “Knyght” are exposed as superficial, something that May reveals to the reader when she says his sexual prowess was “not worth a bene”

• Nora’s “serious discussion” with the ‘intelligent’ husband does not lead to fruitless resolution, and, instead, reveals Torvald’s inability to see the truth or understand Nora

• May easily convinces her husband that he has no “parfit sighte”, and that he who “misconcyveth, he misdemeth”, suggesting he is blind to the real truth

Both texts explore the male stereotype through the lens of their prideful superiority, presenting their flaws and fallibilities which, if not understood, leave the characters abandoned

Topic sentence

While both Ibsen and Chaucer present characters who defy the system and are shamed for their misdeeds, Ibsen rewards these characters for their bravery in the resolution while Chaucer leaves his ending ambiguous

Evidence and analysis

A Doll’s House

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

• A Doll’s House can be considered a political satire as its resolution mocks established social constructs and rewards those who battle under its restraints

• While the poem is satirical, it can be considered a warning or a fable in its comparison to a folk tale, leaving an ambiguous ending to The Merchant’s Tale

• The play ends with a marriage between Krogstad and Kristine Linde, a restoration of order which suggests a balanced marriage based on love and support is hopeful and rewarding

• Whereas in The Merchant’s Tale, the unhappy and deceitful marriage between Januarie and May continues: 

  • Januarie strokes May’s stomach and takes her back to the castle

• Nora finds freedom and personal agency as she closes the door of the “doll’s house” behind her:

  • Although her future is uncertain (depicted by the foil character, Kristine Linde), Ibsen portrays her escape from an unhappy marriage positively

• However, The Merchant’s Tale seems to end with a confirmation that imbalanced marriage is inevitable:

  • A pregnant May is returned to Januarie

While Ibsen’s satirical play ends with a happy marriage and Nora’s release from her unhappy one, Chaucer’s fable, told by a merchant as an allegory about marital tensions, ends with the continuation of an unhappy marriage, perhaps as a warning to men to avoid imbalanced marriages

Topic sentence

While Ibsen mocks marital hypocrisies within a traditional and average  bourgeoisie European family, Chaucer satirises courtly love in a Romantic medieval England 

Evidence and analysis

A Doll’s House

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

• Ibsen’s realist setting, a comfortable, middle-class  home at Christmastime, depicts the marriage of an everyday couple in modern Europe

• Chaucer’s poem uses a fantastical and romantic setting, drawing on comparisons with the Garden of Eden

• Nora’s journey of self-discovery takes place in her own home, aided by interactions with visitors

• In The Merchant’s Tale, May goes to a garden (which perhaps alludes to the Garden of Eden) inhabited by gods, Pluto and Prosepina

• Nora’s Boxing Day dance, the tarantella, described as wild and seductive, is depicted as the moment of her awakening, yet any sexual encounters between her and Torvald are interrupted and Dr Rank (seduced by the dance too) is unable to act on his desire

• May’s sexual encounters with Damian by a pear tree (which may symbolise the Tree of Knowledge), are vividly presented as they are seen as they are “maken melodye” in the heavenly paradise

Text

Summary

Key comparisons with A Doll’s House

Paradise Lost: Books 9 and 10 by John Milton (1667) – set text list

The epic poem examines the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve and focuses on how the control exerted on Eve leads her to defy instructions and confront the “truth”

• The poem explores the way controlling figures can lead to dissatisfaction and rebellion 

• The female character faces a moral dilemma as an external force applies pressure

• The poem explores ideas relating to masculinity and power

• The male character is exposed to truths he attempts to conceal 

• The poem alludes to religious ideals of morality

Maud by Alfred Tennyson (1962) – set text list

The poem explores challenges within relationships due to dichotomies between love and marriage as a form of social mobility 

• The poem presents an emotionally unstable character

• The speaker, a male character, is confused about love

• External pressures cause conflict on the narrator 

• The speaker’s future relies on marriage

• The theme of wealth as a vehicle for happiness is presented

• The poem presents madness as a result of unrequited love

Selected Poems by Christina Rossetti (1840–1850) – set text list

The poems explore the nature of love, especially in relation to marriage and the changing role of women in the 19th century

• “Goblinmarket” considers the idea of temptation, of females straying from convention and expectation

• “Remember” explores the nature of love as pragmatic, displayed by selfless acts

• “Maude Clare” depicts a female rejecting the convention of marriage 

• “Winter: my secret” presents a flirtatious female, defying stereotypes

• “Sacrifice” explores the theme of sacrifice within love

• “Soeur Louise” depicts a female’s search for autonomy in a restrictive environment

Selected Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1830–1890)

The poems explore the notion of masculinity and power 

• “Kubla Khan” describes a powerful male figure who, suspended in an imaginary world, attempts to mould a young girl

• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” explores ideas relating to man’s power and morality

• “Christabel” describes a seductive and wild female who seduces the narrator

• “The Eolian Harp” speaks of a “coy” instrument that blows as the wind moves it, suggesting its fickle and wild nature

• “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” explores themes relating to personal agency and fate

• “Fears in Solitude” is a reflective poem that questions humility and morality