Incompleted work: 1. These tasks are "signs of an incompetent housekeeper to the officers of the court; to the women and to the audience these props help to establish the presence of a disturbed consciousness" (Noe 39). 2. "The incompleted tasks in Minnie's kitchen argue that she acted very soon after provocation, John's strangling of the bird" (Smith 182).
Party Telephone: 1. "For John, the party-line telephone was more than an unnecessary expense; it was a threat to the 'growing sense of exclusivity and possession' . . . . Minnie was his alone" (Smith 180). 2. This image is significant here because of its relation to the question of justice which unfolds at the end of the play where Mrs. Hale learns that the "greater crime . . . is to cut oneself off from understanding and communicating with others, and in this context John Wright is the greater criminal and his wife the helpless executioner" (Alkalay-Gut 7).
Wright: Glaspell intends a "Pun on the surname marking her [Mrs. Wright's] lack of 'rights,' and implying her 'right' to free herself against the societally sanctioned 'right' of her husband to control the family . . ." (Ben-Zvi 153-54).
A little closer together: "From their entrance, the women stand apart from the men, clustered at the stove. The men talk with a rough familiarity born of working together and knowing one another. The women seem less acquainted and never call each other by their first names. But at the men's first disparaging remarks about Minnie's housekeeping and women 'worrying over trifles,' the women move closer together" (Smith 177).
Jar of Cherries: 1. "Minnie herself stayed on the shelf, alone and unbefriended on the farm, until the coldness of her marriage, her life in general, broke her apart. Her secrets kept under pressure burst from their fragile containers . . . The single intact jar symbolizes the one remaining secret, the motive to complete the prosecutor's case" (Smith 175). 2. "'Preserves' explode from lack of heat, a punning reminder of the causal relationship between isolation and violence" (Ben-Zvi 154).
Quilt: "To comprehend the story one may follow the technique of the housewives, who in making their comprehensive patchwork quilt, sort and sift through trivia and discarded material, match small scraps together, and then sew piece after piece into ever enlarging squares. The 'log cabin' patchwork the women discover . . . is made exactly in this fashion: Rectangular scraps are sewn around the original square or rectangle, followed by a series of longer scraps which are measured to the increasing size of the quilt. . . . the general pattern is one that emerges with the quilt" (Alkalay-Gut 2).
Footsteps: The men enter and leave the room, "physically crisscross[ing] the stage as they verbally crisscross the details of the crime, both actions leading nowhere, staged to show ineffectuality and incompetence"; in this way, Glaspell undercuts their authority and questions their power (Ben-Zvi 155).
Bird: 1. The bird was a "child-substitute for the solitary Minnie; the canary's voice was to displace the silence of a coldly authoritarian husband and replace the sounds of the unborn children" (Makowsky 62). 2. "Through the traditional literary metaphor of the bird's song as the voice of the soul, the women acknowledge that John Wright not only killed Minnie's canary, but her very spirit" (Makowsky 62). 3. "Minnie understood her husband's action as a symbolic strangling of herself, his wife. It is not just because he killed the bird, but because Minnie herself was a caged bird . . . and he strangled her by preventing her from communicating with others" (Alkalay-Gut 6).
Knot it: 1. This image "conveys the sense of knotting the rope around the husband's neck: they have discovered the murderess. And they will 'knot' tell" (Alkalay-Gut 8). 2. "The bond among women is the essential knot" (Smith 179).
Studies in Liminality:
A Review of Critical Commentary on Glaspell's Trifles
Lisa Crocker
Dramatist Susan Glaspell wrote at a time when the boundaries between the private and public spheres were beginning to break down. No longer relegated to the home, but not yet accepted in the marketplace, women were caught in a position of liminality, pinned between the traditional female and male worlds by the expectations of both. Glaspell's play Trifles falls among the many shades of gray in this interface of perceptions, not only because of its context and content, but also because of the critical reaction to the play. Although most criticism discerns gender conflict in the indeterminate area between law and justice in Trifles, both the conflict and its consequences change form as each critic sees a different shape in the shadows.
Some critics find that gender differences create a dichotomy of perception in Glaspell's examination of law and justice. In "Trifles: The Path to Sisterhood," Phyllis Mael argues that the evolution of the women's relationships, from tenuous connection to collusion, illustrates the female ethos. Mael feels that the play's "moral dilemma" highlights the innate differences between male adherence to theoretical principles of morality and female empathic ethical sense which considers "moral problems as problems of responsibility in relationship" (282-83). Although the women draw closer as the men, using "abstract rules and rights," make comments that "trivialize the domestic sphere," ethical solidarity comes only after Mrs. Peters moves from "acquiescence to patriarchal law" to empathy, thus effecting a change "from a typically male to a more typically female mode of judgment" (283-84). This switch allows them to formulate a "redefinition of . . . crime" which finds more culpability in their earlier failure to help Minnie than in their "moral choice" to suppress evidence (284).
Karen Alkalay-Gut, in "Jury of Her Peers: The Importance of Trifles," also finds the gulf between male and female perceptions of judgment to be central to the play. Alkalay-Gut believes that the unfolding evidence not only unites the women, but highlights the division between "woman's concept of justice," which entails "social" and "individual influences, together with the details that shaped the specific act," and "[t]he prevailing law [which] is general, and therefore . . . inapplicable to the specific case" (8-9). As the "distance between the laws of the kitchen and the outside world increases," the women realize that the breach "negates the possibility of a 'fair trial' for Minnie Foster" (3, 8-9). Satisfied that Minnie's husband behaved so heinously that the "murder was totally understandable," they dispense justice by circumventing the law (6). According to Alkalay-Gut, the women are "clearly secure" about the correctness of their actions; their "secretive manner is one of superiority" (9).
An entirely different path is taken by Linda Ben-Zvi, who, in "'Murder, She Wrote': The Genesis of Susan Glaspell's Trifles," asserts that Trifles is less a comment on innate gender disparities than on assigned gender roles. Suggesting that "their common erasure" provides the impetus for women's actions, not "women's natures," she believes the question of guilt or innocence is irrelevant; what is on trial in the play is female "disenfranchisement" (158, 157). By focusing on the cruelties of Minnie's existence, her isolation, her "lack of options," and "the complete disregard of [her] plight by the courts and by society," Ben-Zvi feels that Glaspell "concretizes" the position of women in her society, moving the discussion beyond abstract problems of perception (157). The playwright's tactics force a recognition of "the central issues of female powerlessness . . . and the need for laws to address such issues" (157). The women's arrogation of authority serves as "an empowerment," as Ben-Zvi notes: "Not waiting to be given the vote or the right to serve on juries, Glaspell's women have taken the right for themselves" (158). Thus, the female enactment of judicial power subverts traditional concepts of law and justice.
Subversion is also the theme of Marsha Noe's "Reconfiguring the Subject/Recuperating Realism: Susan Glaspell's Unseen Woman" which makes the ultimate statement on the indeterminate status of women in Glaspell's world by focusing on Minnie's absence. According to Noe, the dramatic device of a protagonist who is present only by insinuation "centers attention on woman and the ways in which the patriarchy marginalizes her . . . " (38). The absent woman makes a mockery of male authority; not only does she "elude the male gaze," and, consequently, his control, but she calls into question the androcentric judicial system (38). Noe points out the need to trace the chain of cause-and-effect behind Minnie's action before assigning guilt: "Alienated from her husband, powerless and silenced by . . . her marriage . . . Minnie is an unseen woman long before she murders John Wright" (46). Unseen both "literally" and "metaphorically," Minnie becomes a surrogate for all the invisible women in Glaspell's society (46).
Contrasting Noe's external focus, Veronica Makowsky, in Susan Glaspell's Century of American Women: A Critical Interpretation of Her Work, sees the conflicts between law and justice in Trifles as a reflection of Glaspell's internal discord. Makowsky writes that tensions between the playwright's love for her husband, George Cook, and her resentment over his unfaithfulness found release in the "rebellions" of her characters, whose "actions demand that the patriarchal world consider their feelings and situations as something more than domestic 'trifles"' (61). However, while Glaspell recognizes the gender dichotomy and demonstrates an empathy with it in her work, Makowsky believes that an ambivalence in her life leads her to treat the mutinies as futile, if not negative, actions. While the "passive rebellion" of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters escapes discipline, Minnie's "active insurrection," the murder of her husband, earns her private and public chastisement (63). According to Makowsky, Minnie's actions afterward "indicate the ineffectual nature of her act"; her voluntary removal "from the center of the kitchen" to the fringes of the room seems to be self-punishment, an awareness of "her marginalized and outlaw status"; she realizes that "men still have overwhelming power" (63-64). Minnie, who ends "imprisoned and possibly mad," reflects Glaspell's uneasiness "with women who seek autonomy," women she "ultimately condemns . . . as selfish" (146). Law triumphs over justice in Makowsky's dark vision of Glaspell's work.
Although the ambiguity of Trifles creates such differing critical perceptions, some common images emerge. Most critical readings focus on female bonding as a means of gaining power; however, as Karen Alkalay-Gut notes, "Underlying this attitude is the assumption that . . . women's lives are individually trivial, and their only strength and/or success can come from banding together" (1). Such a premise defines women through masculine precepts and confirms the male value system, authenticating the power of the public sphere by the perceived need to replicate it. But, as evidenced in the ironically-named Trifles, where male disparagement proved male undoing as the women used their assigned invisibility to subvert the law and effect justice, women have a different kind of power. Women's power, subtle and indirect, is one of the liminal elements in Trifles; originating in, but unconfined to, the private sphere, it radiates outward into the indeterminate area, influencing both worlds. Bonding is both a manifestation of women's strength and its source; perhaps Glaspell wished to show the women of her time that they had more power than they--or anyone else--realized.
Works Cited
Jan Guardiano
Alkalay-Gut, Karen. "Jury of Her Peers: The Importance of Trifles." Studies in Short Fiction 21
(Winter 1984): 1-9.
Ben-Zvi, Linda. "'Murder, She Wrote': The Genesis of Susan Glaspell's Trifles." Theatre Journal
44 (March 1992): 141-62.
Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Vol. 1.
1900-1940. New York: Cambridge UP, 1982.
Fetterley, Judith. Introduction. Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women.
Ed. Judith Fetterley. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985. 1-40.
---. "Sara Willis Parton [Fannie Fern]: 1811-1872." Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century
American Women. Ed. Judith Fetterley. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985. 241-48.
Mael, Phyllis. "Trifles: The Path to Sisterhood." Literature/Film Quarterly 17 (1989):
281-84.
Makowsky, Veronica. Susan Glaspell's Century of American Women: A Critical Interpretation
of Her Work. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Mustazza, Leonard. "Generic Translation and Thematic Shift in Susan Glaspell's 'Trifles' and 'A Jury
of Her Peers.'" Studies in Short Fiction 26 (Fall 1989): 489-96.
Noe, Marsha. "Reconfiguring the Subject/Recuperating Realism: Susan Glaspell's Unseen
Woman." American Drama 4 (Spring 1995): 36-54.
Skaggs, Peggy. "Kate Chopin: 1951-1904." The Heath Anthology of American Literature.
Vol. 2. Gen. Ed. Paul Lauter. 2nd ed. Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1994. 635-37.
Smith, Beverly A. "Women's Work--Trifles? The Skill and Insights of Playwright Susan Glaspell."
International Journal of Women's Studies 5 (March 1982): 172-84.
Waterman, Arthur E. Susan Glaspell. New York: Twayne, 1966.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
“Biographical Influences on Glaspell's Trifles”
from “Biographical Influences on Glaspell's Trifles”
Elizabeth M. Evans
Susan Keating Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 1, 1876. She graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her Midwestern background would influence her writing throughout her career After graduation from college Glaspell took a full-time position as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. She based her first dramatic play, Trifles, on an actual murder case she covered while working for the newspaper. Looking back she would later say that her experiences at the paper provided her with enough material to quit her job and begin writing fiction. While Glaspell had many of the experiences necessary for her writing career, her eventual relationship with George Cook and the Provincetown Players ultimately allowed her the opportunity to start this career.
Susan Glaspell was already a successful novelist when she met George Cram "Jig" Cook, a married man also from Davenport. While her relationship with Cook allowed her an avenue for accessing radical ideas, it also, paradoxically, embroiled her in traditional gender roles. A few years after meeting, they began an affair, and, in 1913, they married. Cook was a nonconformist who appealed to Glaspell because he could "enact the rebellions" that her class and gender would not allow her to participate in By marrying Jig "she would no longer be the conventional, unmarried dutiful daughter of Davenport" Yet Cook was "a practitioner of free love" who was difficult to live with because of his many affairs. Indeed he also sometimes drank to excess. It has been suggested that Glaspell would use her work as an outlet to vent the anger she felt toward Cook's behavior.
The married couple spent their summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and their winters in New York. While in Provincetown, Glaspell, Cook and some fellow artists put on plays for their own amusement, eventually naming themselves "The Provincetown Players".
In New York, Glaspell and Cook resided in Greenwich Village, an established colony of artists and writers. There, Glaspell experienced a major influence on her work. She was "living in a community passionately concerned with socialism and feminism . . ." and was supported by a group of friends who were intellectuals, socialists, feminists and radicals. Glaspell herself was a founding member of Heterodoxy, a radical group of women activists who were prominent in the feminist movement of New York in the years 1910-1920. It was within this atmosphere that Glaspell would be encouraged to create female characters who desired to free themselves from the stereotypical roles into which they had been cast .
According to Glaspell's recollection, during their stay in Greenwich, George Cook, needing material for "The Players" first season in New York, demanded that Glaspell write a play (Makowsky 24). Searching for ideas, Glaspell turned to her experiences as a reporter in Iowa, combined with her feminist philosophy and her life with Cook. She credits his influence for challenging her to change her genre from fiction to drama, and to "overthrow convention" in her form and content. The result is the play that she is best known for, Trifles. This work was re-written in 1918 as a short story entitled, “A Jury of Her Peers" On December 2, 1900, sixty-year-old farmer John Hossack was murdered in Indianola, Iowa. His skull was crushed by an ax while he and his wife were asleep in bed. His wife, Margaret, was tried for the crime and eventually released due to inconclusive evidence. Like Minnie Wright, the main character of Glaspell's story, Mrs. Hossack claimed not to have seen the murderer. The trial was attended by many of the town's women. Among them was the sheriff’s wife, who showed much sympathy to Mrs. Hossack throughout the trial despite having initially testified against her. Critics believe that Glaspell based the character of Mrs. Peters on this woman. Because women were not allowed to be jurors at the trial, Glaspell created a jury of those female peers in her short story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” the short story adaptation of the play.
Elizabeth M. Evans
Susan Keating Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 1, 1876. She graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her Midwestern background would influence her writing throughout her career After graduation from college Glaspell took a full-time position as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. She based her first dramatic play, Trifles, on an actual murder case she covered while working for the newspaper. Looking back she would later say that her experiences at the paper provided her with enough material to quit her job and begin writing fiction. While Glaspell had many of the experiences necessary for her writing career, her eventual relationship with George Cook and the Provincetown Players ultimately allowed her the opportunity to start this career.
Susan Glaspell was already a successful novelist when she met George Cram "Jig" Cook, a married man also from Davenport. While her relationship with Cook allowed her an avenue for accessing radical ideas, it also, paradoxically, embroiled her in traditional gender roles. A few years after meeting, they began an affair, and, in 1913, they married. Cook was a nonconformist who appealed to Glaspell because he could "enact the rebellions" that her class and gender would not allow her to participate in By marrying Jig "she would no longer be the conventional, unmarried dutiful daughter of Davenport" Yet Cook was "a practitioner of free love" who was difficult to live with because of his many affairs. Indeed he also sometimes drank to excess. It has been suggested that Glaspell would use her work as an outlet to vent the anger she felt toward Cook's behavior.
The married couple spent their summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and their winters in New York. While in Provincetown, Glaspell, Cook and some fellow artists put on plays for their own amusement, eventually naming themselves "The Provincetown Players".
In New York, Glaspell and Cook resided in Greenwich Village, an established colony of artists and writers. There, Glaspell experienced a major influence on her work. She was "living in a community passionately concerned with socialism and feminism . . ." and was supported by a group of friends who were intellectuals, socialists, feminists and radicals. Glaspell herself was a founding member of Heterodoxy, a radical group of women activists who were prominent in the feminist movement of New York in the years 1910-1920. It was within this atmosphere that Glaspell would be encouraged to create female characters who desired to free themselves from the stereotypical roles into which they had been cast .
According to Glaspell's recollection, during their stay in Greenwich, George Cook, needing material for "The Players" first season in New York, demanded that Glaspell write a play (Makowsky 24). Searching for ideas, Glaspell turned to her experiences as a reporter in Iowa, combined with her feminist philosophy and her life with Cook. She credits his influence for challenging her to change her genre from fiction to drama, and to "overthrow convention" in her form and content. The result is the play that she is best known for, Trifles. This work was re-written in 1918 as a short story entitled, “A Jury of Her Peers" On December 2, 1900, sixty-year-old farmer John Hossack was murdered in Indianola, Iowa. His skull was crushed by an ax while he and his wife were asleep in bed. His wife, Margaret, was tried for the crime and eventually released due to inconclusive evidence. Like Minnie Wright, the main character of Glaspell's story, Mrs. Hossack claimed not to have seen the murderer. The trial was attended by many of the town's women. Among them was the sheriff’s wife, who showed much sympathy to Mrs. Hossack throughout the trial despite having initially testified against her. Critics believe that Glaspell based the character of Mrs. Peters on this woman. Because women were not allowed to be jurors at the trial, Glaspell created a jury of those female peers in her short story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” the short story adaptation of the play.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Women and the Law in Early 19th Century
From “Women and the Law in Early 19th-Century” byTimothy Crumrin
A woman's gender and marital status were the primary determinants of her legal standing from 1800 to 1850. By custom and law she did not enjoy all of the rights of citizenship. In the legal realm women were decidedly dependent, subservient, and unequal. National and state constitutions included little mention of women. Rights for which a revolution was fomented were denied women-- as they were to slaves, "lunatics," and "idiots."
Further exacerbating the situation, rights normally enjoyed by women were often withdrawn when she married. Indeed, a woman gave up so many civil and property rights upon crossing the threshold that she was said to be entering a state of "civil death." …Married women generally were not allowed to make contracts, devise wills, take part in other legal transactions, or control any wages they might earn. One of the few legal advantages of marriage for a woman was that her husband was obligated to support her and be responsible for her debts. It is highly doubtful that these latter provisions outweighed the lack of other rights, particularly in the area women faced the most severe restriction, property rights. The common law tradition "considered women almost as perpetual juveniles" in designing its statutes. Under them, a single woman had few special strictures placed upon her property rights. Her married sisters, however, found themselves subordinate to and bound by the decisions of their husbands. Under the common law doctrine of coverture, a woman's property usually went to her husband with the whispering of the "I do." The man "assumed absolute ownership of his wife's personal property," and for all practical purposes, her real estate as well. He also gained control of any wages or other income accrued by his spouse. Technically, this meant that a man could do anything he wished with his wife's material possessions. He could sell them, give them away, or simply destroy them as was his wont. Married women were also forbidden to convey (sell, give, or will) any property.
There was some solace for married women under common law besides charging the husband to support his wife. The law of dower (not to be confused with dowry) was also a part of its tenets. Dower stipulated that one-third of the husband's estate (one-half if the couple was childless) was reserved for the wife. Although this might seem a small share for a lifetime's efforts, considering the small concern shown for women in other areas of common law, it seems almost enlightened by the day's standards. Dower also furnished the wife a weapon to protect herself while her husband was alive. As she was entitled to her share of the estate, no real estate transaction could take place without her approval. This offered a means of asserting some control over her husband’s actions.
Married women had another legal ally, equity law. Equity law, as usually practiced in chancery courts, was adjudicated on the "inherent justice" of each case and acted as a counterbalance on the scales of justice to the more restrictive common law doctrines. When adopted, the tenets of equity law could help loosen some of the strictures placed on married women-- if the state and courts allowed their use. One such feature was the separate estate, in which property could be set aside under the wife's control. Such property could have been willed to the wife, brought into the marriage, or been given to her by her husband. This afforded the wife some freedom of action and protection.
Divorce
Divorce was neither prevalent nor particularly acceptable during the first half of the nineteenth century. There were strong social and religious objections to the sundering of what many viewed as a sacred commitment. The whole "concept of divorce" was anathema to many and was usually applied only as a least resort….
A woman's gender and marital status were the primary determinants of her legal standing from 1800 to 1850. By custom and law she did not enjoy all of the rights of citizenship. In the legal realm women were decidedly dependent, subservient, and unequal. National and state constitutions included little mention of women. Rights for which a revolution was fomented were denied women-- as they were to slaves, "lunatics," and "idiots."
Further exacerbating the situation, rights normally enjoyed by women were often withdrawn when she married. Indeed, a woman gave up so many civil and property rights upon crossing the threshold that she was said to be entering a state of "civil death." …Married women generally were not allowed to make contracts, devise wills, take part in other legal transactions, or control any wages they might earn. One of the few legal advantages of marriage for a woman was that her husband was obligated to support her and be responsible for her debts. It is highly doubtful that these latter provisions outweighed the lack of other rights, particularly in the area women faced the most severe restriction, property rights. The common law tradition "considered women almost as perpetual juveniles" in designing its statutes. Under them, a single woman had few special strictures placed upon her property rights. Her married sisters, however, found themselves subordinate to and bound by the decisions of their husbands. Under the common law doctrine of coverture, a woman's property usually went to her husband with the whispering of the "I do." The man "assumed absolute ownership of his wife's personal property," and for all practical purposes, her real estate as well. He also gained control of any wages or other income accrued by his spouse. Technically, this meant that a man could do anything he wished with his wife's material possessions. He could sell them, give them away, or simply destroy them as was his wont. Married women were also forbidden to convey (sell, give, or will) any property.
There was some solace for married women under common law besides charging the husband to support his wife. The law of dower (not to be confused with dowry) was also a part of its tenets. Dower stipulated that one-third of the husband's estate (one-half if the couple was childless) was reserved for the wife. Although this might seem a small share for a lifetime's efforts, considering the small concern shown for women in other areas of common law, it seems almost enlightened by the day's standards. Dower also furnished the wife a weapon to protect herself while her husband was alive. As she was entitled to her share of the estate, no real estate transaction could take place without her approval. This offered a means of asserting some control over her husband’s actions.
Married women had another legal ally, equity law. Equity law, as usually practiced in chancery courts, was adjudicated on the "inherent justice" of each case and acted as a counterbalance on the scales of justice to the more restrictive common law doctrines. When adopted, the tenets of equity law could help loosen some of the strictures placed on married women-- if the state and courts allowed their use. One such feature was the separate estate, in which property could be set aside under the wife's control. Such property could have been willed to the wife, brought into the marriage, or been given to her by her husband. This afforded the wife some freedom of action and protection.
Divorce
Divorce was neither prevalent nor particularly acceptable during the first half of the nineteenth century. There were strong social and religious objections to the sundering of what many viewed as a sacred commitment. The whole "concept of divorce" was anathema to many and was usually applied only as a least resort….
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Expectations for Women from "The Frugal Housewife"
The Woman of the Early Nineteenth Century
The "Frugal Housewife”"Man is daring and confident, woman is diffident and unassuming; man is great in action, woman in suffering; man shines abroad, woman at home; man talks to convince, woman to persuade and please; man has a rugged heart, woman a soft and tender one; man prevents misery, woman relieves it; man has science, woman taste; man has judgment, woman sensibility; man is a being of justice, woman of mercy."
Perceptions of Women in the 19th CenturyDuring the early 1800s, people generally believed that there was a definite difference in character between the sexes -- man was active, dominant, assertive, and materialistic, while woman was religious, modest, passive, submissive, and domestic. As a result, there developed an ideal of womanhood, or a "cult of true womanhood" as denoted by historian Barbara Welter. This cult, evident in women's magazines and religious literature of the day, espoused four basic attributes of female character: piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity.
1) Religion/Piety was the "core of woman's virtue, the source of her strength" Women were expected to be the "handmaids of the Gospel," serving as a purifying force in the lives of erring men. Women naturally possessed virtues of faith, simplicity, goodness, self-sacrifice, tenderness, affection, sentimentality, and modesty.
2) Purity was an essential characteristic to maintain one's virtue against the continuous "assault" of the more aggressive male. To protect one's self, Mrs. Eliza Farrar recommended in The Young Lady's Friend (1837): Sit not with another in a place that is too narrow; read not out of the same book; let not your eagerness to see anything induce you to place your head close to another person's."
Eliza Farnham stressed the importance of preserving one's innocence and demonstrating female moral superiority, concluding that "the purity of women is the everlasting barrier against which the tides of man's sensual nature surge" (Welter, 24-25).
3) Submissiveness required women to accept their positions in life willingly and obediently, thereby affirming God had appointed them to that special position. Godey's Lady's Book of 1831 emphasized this attribute: The lesson of submission is forced upon woman...To suffer and to be silent under suffering seems the great command she has to obey. (Welter, 30)
Likewise, Samuel Jennings advocated complete submission in The Married Lady's Companion (New York, 1808): [Marriage rests on a] condition of a loving and cheerful submission on the part of the wife. Here again you object and say, "Why not the husband, first show a little condescension as well as the wife?" I answer for these plain reasons. It is not his disposition; it is not the custom but with the henpecked; it is not his duty; it is not implied in the marriage contract; it is not required by law or gospel...when you became a wife, he became your head, and your supposed superiority was buried in that voluntary act.
4) Domesticity, or the cheerful performance of social, household, and family duties, was highly prized by women’s magazines of the day. Women were expected to comfort and cheer, to nurse and support, to manage and oversee. Housework was to be viewed as a morally uplifting mental and physical exercise. Marriage was the proper sphere for women where, according to Rev. Samuel Miller (1808), she could fulfill her divinely ordained mission: “How interesting and important are the duties devolved on females as WIVES....the counselor and friend of the husband; who makes it her daily study to lighten his cares, to soothe his sorrows, and augment his joys; who, like a guardian angel, watches over his interests, warns him against dangers, comforts him under trials; and by her pious, assiduous, and attractive deportment, constantly endeavors to render him more virtuous, more useful, more honorable, and more happy” (Welter, 37-38).
Thus, popular women's literature perpetuated an image of the "perfect woman" -- the loving wife, the caring mother, the responsible housekeeper. While social reform movements, industrialization, migration, and other social forces instilled changes which eventually affected the status of women, the "true" woman was that female at home, "the Valiant Woman of the Bible, in whom the heart of her husband rejoiced and whose price was above rubies" (Welter, 41).
Education of WomenAnti-intellectualism was implicit in the "cult of true womanhood." Women were not expected to use logic or reason, only to exhibit morality and domesticity. Consequently, female education was designed to maintain the dichotomy of spheres -- schools prepared men for careers and trained them to think, whereas women learned to be worthy companions for their husbands, good managers of their households, and virtuous examples for their children. Regarding the place of female education, the Western Patriot of Canton (Ohio) Almanac of 1842 noted: The destiny of women is obviously, to become at some time spouse & mother of a family, & as such her sphere of action is the domestic fire-side. In order therefore to become a good wife & mother of a family & to act usefully & blessingly within the circle of her family -- she must possess all those attributes such as knowledge & habits, which are required of a good housewife & mother of a family. If a woman was displeased and unhappy with her status, it was her fault for failing to strive for her fulfillment which was inherent in her nature and in her domestic environment.
The "Frugal Housewife”"Man is daring and confident, woman is diffident and unassuming; man is great in action, woman in suffering; man shines abroad, woman at home; man talks to convince, woman to persuade and please; man has a rugged heart, woman a soft and tender one; man prevents misery, woman relieves it; man has science, woman taste; man has judgment, woman sensibility; man is a being of justice, woman of mercy."
Perceptions of Women in the 19th CenturyDuring the early 1800s, people generally believed that there was a definite difference in character between the sexes -- man was active, dominant, assertive, and materialistic, while woman was religious, modest, passive, submissive, and domestic. As a result, there developed an ideal of womanhood, or a "cult of true womanhood" as denoted by historian Barbara Welter. This cult, evident in women's magazines and religious literature of the day, espoused four basic attributes of female character: piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity.
1) Religion/Piety was the "core of woman's virtue, the source of her strength" Women were expected to be the "handmaids of the Gospel," serving as a purifying force in the lives of erring men. Women naturally possessed virtues of faith, simplicity, goodness, self-sacrifice, tenderness, affection, sentimentality, and modesty.
2) Purity was an essential characteristic to maintain one's virtue against the continuous "assault" of the more aggressive male. To protect one's self, Mrs. Eliza Farrar recommended in The Young Lady's Friend (1837): Sit not with another in a place that is too narrow; read not out of the same book; let not your eagerness to see anything induce you to place your head close to another person's."
Eliza Farnham stressed the importance of preserving one's innocence and demonstrating female moral superiority, concluding that "the purity of women is the everlasting barrier against which the tides of man's sensual nature surge" (Welter, 24-25).
3) Submissiveness required women to accept their positions in life willingly and obediently, thereby affirming God had appointed them to that special position. Godey's Lady's Book of 1831 emphasized this attribute: The lesson of submission is forced upon woman...To suffer and to be silent under suffering seems the great command she has to obey. (Welter, 30)
Likewise, Samuel Jennings advocated complete submission in The Married Lady's Companion (New York, 1808): [Marriage rests on a] condition of a loving and cheerful submission on the part of the wife. Here again you object and say, "Why not the husband, first show a little condescension as well as the wife?" I answer for these plain reasons. It is not his disposition; it is not the custom but with the henpecked; it is not his duty; it is not implied in the marriage contract; it is not required by law or gospel...when you became a wife, he became your head, and your supposed superiority was buried in that voluntary act.
4) Domesticity, or the cheerful performance of social, household, and family duties, was highly prized by women’s magazines of the day. Women were expected to comfort and cheer, to nurse and support, to manage and oversee. Housework was to be viewed as a morally uplifting mental and physical exercise. Marriage was the proper sphere for women where, according to Rev. Samuel Miller (1808), she could fulfill her divinely ordained mission: “How interesting and important are the duties devolved on females as WIVES....the counselor and friend of the husband; who makes it her daily study to lighten his cares, to soothe his sorrows, and augment his joys; who, like a guardian angel, watches over his interests, warns him against dangers, comforts him under trials; and by her pious, assiduous, and attractive deportment, constantly endeavors to render him more virtuous, more useful, more honorable, and more happy” (Welter, 37-38).
Thus, popular women's literature perpetuated an image of the "perfect woman" -- the loving wife, the caring mother, the responsible housekeeper. While social reform movements, industrialization, migration, and other social forces instilled changes which eventually affected the status of women, the "true" woman was that female at home, "the Valiant Woman of the Bible, in whom the heart of her husband rejoiced and whose price was above rubies" (Welter, 41).
Education of WomenAnti-intellectualism was implicit in the "cult of true womanhood." Women were not expected to use logic or reason, only to exhibit morality and domesticity. Consequently, female education was designed to maintain the dichotomy of spheres -- schools prepared men for careers and trained them to think, whereas women learned to be worthy companions for their husbands, good managers of their households, and virtuous examples for their children. Regarding the place of female education, the Western Patriot of Canton (Ohio) Almanac of 1842 noted: The destiny of women is obviously, to become at some time spouse & mother of a family, & as such her sphere of action is the domestic fire-side. In order therefore to become a good wife & mother of a family & to act usefully & blessingly within the circle of her family -- she must possess all those attributes such as knowledge & habits, which are required of a good housewife & mother of a family. If a woman was displeased and unhappy with her status, it was her fault for failing to strive for her fulfillment which was inherent in her nature and in her domestic environment.
It's Tough to Be a Man, Baby
From “It's Tough To Be a Man Baby: A History of Manhood”
by Daniel Simer Ó Connell
Before 1800, men were seen as being virtuous and having great reason. The greater reason moderated their passions of ambition, defiance, and envy. Women were seen as not having as much control of those emotions as men did.
In this phase, a man’s identity was based on his social obligations and his social usefulness. His family name and history, his social position in society, his class, were seen as the ultimate determiner of his worth as a man. The amount and type of public service a man had to offer became part of his social worth which in turn defined his identity, which further affected how "manly" other people thought of him.
The second phase begins in the late 18th century. Then it becomes a man’s work role, not his social role that helped to define who he was. The idea of a man’s personal success in business came to be seen as more important to his identity than the notion of whatever public service he might offer. The traditionally male passions were given freer reign. Ambition, rivalry, and aggression were begun to be seen as good things in and of themselves not as vices. These passions then were not to be moderated as before, but channeled appropriately. What was heretofore seen as defiance was now seen as independence.
The third phase started in the late [19th] century. Society became much more positive about the "male" passions. Male sexual desire gained legitimacy as it had not before. Ambition, competitiveness, aggression: these were all seen as uplifting and necessary for the social good. They were exalted at the expense of the female sensibilities, particularly tenderness and mercy. Those qualities, seen in a man were viewed with scorn.
The ideas of what made up the self and the value of the manly passions moved from one of control and denial to what was good in constituting identity and worth. The contrast between men and women, which before this period had been seen as opposites, was now seen as different.
This is of course, the time of the rise of sports. Sports [had been] viewed as exercise. At the end of the 19th century, sports were seen much more as competition and this is when uniforms became standardized for teams.
Of course men’s views of women played a role in how men viewed themselves. As today, men felt they could turn to women for a kind of nurturing understanding that other men were unwilling or unable to provide. The hero of a 19th century novel put it like this: "I would as soon confess to my horse [as to a man]."
These ideas led people then to believe that women must take the initiative as the source of virtue in society, rather than men, as before. Women now had the task of trying to control the male passions by educating men in the art of self-denial. Marriage became based more on love than on social arrangements, although of course, a woman’s identity was still derived mainly from her husband’s.
Men came to marriage at this time with all sorts of conflicting feelings too. No longer merely a social contract with the community, marriage began to define manhood in new ways at this time. Rotundo writes:
Men came to this relationship with desires to dominate and to be nurtured; with views of woman as angel and as devil; with the fear that marriage and domesticity were a trap and the hope that they were a sanctuary; with the expectation that a wife would be a source of morality and the assumption that she would be a source of restriction; with the wish that marriage would offer him intimacy and an end to loneliness, and the fear that marriage would smother him and put an end to his freedom.
by Daniel Simer Ó Connell
Before 1800, men were seen as being virtuous and having great reason. The greater reason moderated their passions of ambition, defiance, and envy. Women were seen as not having as much control of those emotions as men did.
In this phase, a man’s identity was based on his social obligations and his social usefulness. His family name and history, his social position in society, his class, were seen as the ultimate determiner of his worth as a man. The amount and type of public service a man had to offer became part of his social worth which in turn defined his identity, which further affected how "manly" other people thought of him.
The second phase begins in the late 18th century. Then it becomes a man’s work role, not his social role that helped to define who he was. The idea of a man’s personal success in business came to be seen as more important to his identity than the notion of whatever public service he might offer. The traditionally male passions were given freer reign. Ambition, rivalry, and aggression were begun to be seen as good things in and of themselves not as vices. These passions then were not to be moderated as before, but channeled appropriately. What was heretofore seen as defiance was now seen as independence.
The third phase started in the late [19th] century. Society became much more positive about the "male" passions. Male sexual desire gained legitimacy as it had not before. Ambition, competitiveness, aggression: these were all seen as uplifting and necessary for the social good. They were exalted at the expense of the female sensibilities, particularly tenderness and mercy. Those qualities, seen in a man were viewed with scorn.
The ideas of what made up the self and the value of the manly passions moved from one of control and denial to what was good in constituting identity and worth. The contrast between men and women, which before this period had been seen as opposites, was now seen as different.
This is of course, the time of the rise of sports. Sports [had been] viewed as exercise. At the end of the 19th century, sports were seen much more as competition and this is when uniforms became standardized for teams.
Of course men’s views of women played a role in how men viewed themselves. As today, men felt they could turn to women for a kind of nurturing understanding that other men were unwilling or unable to provide. The hero of a 19th century novel put it like this: "I would as soon confess to my horse [as to a man]."
These ideas led people then to believe that women must take the initiative as the source of virtue in society, rather than men, as before. Women now had the task of trying to control the male passions by educating men in the art of self-denial. Marriage became based more on love than on social arrangements, although of course, a woman’s identity was still derived mainly from her husband’s.
Men came to marriage at this time with all sorts of conflicting feelings too. No longer merely a social contract with the community, marriage began to define manhood in new ways at this time. Rotundo writes:
Men came to this relationship with desires to dominate and to be nurtured; with views of woman as angel and as devil; with the fear that marriage and domesticity were a trap and the hope that they were a sanctuary; with the expectation that a wife would be a source of morality and the assumption that she would be a source of restriction; with the wish that marriage would offer him intimacy and an end to loneliness, and the fear that marriage would smother him and put an end to his freedom.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Power Point Presentation Tips
Power Point Presentation Tips
Introduction & Outline
l Make your 1st slide a title page, and your 2nd slide an outline of your presentation
l Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation
l Only place main points on the outline slide
– Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
Slide Structure
l Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation
l Write in point form, not complete sentences
l Include 4-5 points per slide
l Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only
l Show one point at a time:
– Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying
– Will prevent audience from reading ahead
– Will help you keep your presentation focused
l Do not use distracting animation
l Do not go overboard with the animation
l Be consistent with the animation that you use
Fonts
l Use at least an 18-point font
l Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points
– this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point, and the title font is 36-point
l Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial
l If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
l Capitalize only when necessary; it is difficult to read
l Don’t use a complicated font
Color
l Use a color of font that contrasts sharply with the background
– Ex: blue font on white background
l Use color to reinforce the logic of your structure
– Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
l Use color to emphasize a point
– But only use this occasionally
l Using a font color that does not contrast with the background color is hard to read
l Using color for decoration is distracting and annoying.
l Using a different color for each point is unnecessary
– Using a different color for secondary points is also unnecessary
l Trying to be creative can also be bad
Backgrounds
l Use backgrounds (such as this one) that are attractive but simple
l Use backgrounds which are light
l Use the same background consistently throughout your presentation
l Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from
l Always be consistent with the background that you use
Illustrations
l Use high-quality graphics including photos
l Use high-quality images available on line
– Never simply stretch a small, photo to make it fit your layout.
Graphs
l Use graphs rather than just charts and words
– Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data
– Trends are easier to visualize in graph form
l Always title your graphs
Spelling and Grammar
l Proof your slides for:
– speling mistakes
– the the use of of repeated words
– grammatical errors you might have make
l If English is not your first language, please have someone else check your presentation!
Conclusion
l Use an effective and strong closing
– Your audience is likely to remember your last words
l Use a conclusion slide to:
– Summarize the main points of your presentation
– Suggest future avenues of research
l End your presentation with a simple question slide to:
– Invite your audience to ask questions
– Provide a visual aid during question period
– Avoid ending a presentation abruptly
Works Cited Page
l Use MLA citations
l Cite all sources actually used
Introduction & Outline
l Make your 1st slide a title page, and your 2nd slide an outline of your presentation
l Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation
l Only place main points on the outline slide
– Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
Slide Structure
l Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation
l Write in point form, not complete sentences
l Include 4-5 points per slide
l Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only
l Show one point at a time:
– Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying
– Will prevent audience from reading ahead
– Will help you keep your presentation focused
l Do not use distracting animation
l Do not go overboard with the animation
l Be consistent with the animation that you use
Fonts
l Use at least an 18-point font
l Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points
– this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point, and the title font is 36-point
l Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial
l If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
l Capitalize only when necessary; it is difficult to read
l Don’t use a complicated font
Color
l Use a color of font that contrasts sharply with the background
– Ex: blue font on white background
l Use color to reinforce the logic of your structure
– Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
l Use color to emphasize a point
– But only use this occasionally
l Using a font color that does not contrast with the background color is hard to read
l Using color for decoration is distracting and annoying.
l Using a different color for each point is unnecessary
– Using a different color for secondary points is also unnecessary
l Trying to be creative can also be bad
Backgrounds
l Use backgrounds (such as this one) that are attractive but simple
l Use backgrounds which are light
l Use the same background consistently throughout your presentation
l Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from
l Always be consistent with the background that you use
Illustrations
l Use high-quality graphics including photos
l Use high-quality images available on line
– Never simply stretch a small, photo to make it fit your layout.
Graphs
l Use graphs rather than just charts and words
– Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data
– Trends are easier to visualize in graph form
l Always title your graphs
Spelling and Grammar
l Proof your slides for:
– speling mistakes
– the the use of of repeated words
– grammatical errors you might have make
l If English is not your first language, please have someone else check your presentation!
Conclusion
l Use an effective and strong closing
– Your audience is likely to remember your last words
l Use a conclusion slide to:
– Summarize the main points of your presentation
– Suggest future avenues of research
l End your presentation with a simple question slide to:
– Invite your audience to ask questions
– Provide a visual aid during question period
– Avoid ending a presentation abruptly
Works Cited Page
l Use MLA citations
l Cite all sources actually used
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
About the Author: Henrik Ibsen
You are responsible for the following information. If you have not picked up A Dolls House by Ibsen, please do so by 10/29/08.
CG
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Henrik Johan Ibsen was born in 1828 in Skien, Norway, the eldest of five children after the early death of an older brother. His father, a product of a long line of sea captains, had been born in 1797 in Skein and married a German daughter of a merchant, in 1825. Ibsen’s childhood was not particularly happy. Described as an unsociable child, his sense of isolation was increased at the age of sixteen when his father¹s business had to be sold to meet his creditors. On top of this, a rumor began to be circulated that Henrik was the illegitimate son of another man. This fear (never proved), manifested itself in a theme of illegitimate offspring in Ibsen¹s later work. After his father’s business was possessed, all that remained of the family’s former wealth was a dilapidated farmhouse at the outskirts of Skein.
At the farmhouse, Ibsen began to attend a small middle-class school. In 1843, at the age of fifteen, Ibsen was taken from school and apprenticed to an apothecary despite his declared interest in becoming a painter.
Leaving his family, Ibsen traveled to Grimstad, a small, isolated town, to begin his apprenticeship, where he studied with the hopes of gaining admission to the University medical school. (While there he also fathered an illegitimate son by the servant of the apothecary). Grimstad is where Ibsen began to write in earnest. Inspired by the revolution of 1848 that was being felt throughout Europe, Ibsen wrote satire and elegant poetry. (Classic)
Henrik Ibsen became an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of modern realistic drama.
His plays were considered scandalous in much of society at the time, when Victorian values of family life and propriety were still very much the norm, and any challenge to them considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many a facade, which the society of the time did not want to see.
In a very real way, Ibsen created the modern stage, by introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Prior to him, plays were expected to be moral dramas with noble protagonists pitted against darker forces. Every drama was expected to result in a "proper" conclusion, meaning that goodness was to bring happiness, and immorality only pain. Ibsen was to turn that concept on its head, challenging the beliefs of the times and shattering the illusions of his audiences. He was born into a relatively well-to-do family in the small port town of Skien, Norway, which was primarily noted for shipping timber. Shortly after his birth, however, his family's fortunes took a significant turn for the worse. His mother turned to religion for solace, while his father declined into a severe depression. The characters in his plays often mirror his parents, and his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty.
His first play, Catilina (1848), was published when he was only 20, but was not performed. His first play to see production was The Burial Mound (1850), but it did not receive much attention. Still, Ibsen was determined to be a playwright, although he was not to write again for some years.
He spent the next several years employed at the Norwegian Theater, where he was involved in the production of more than 145 plays as a writer, director, and producer. During this period he did not publish any new plays of his own. Despite Ibsen's failure to achieve success as a playwright, at the Norwegian Theater he gained a great deal of practical experience, experience that was to prove valuable when next he wrote.
He returned to Oslo in 1857, where he lived in very poor financial circumstances. Still, he managed to marry (Suzannah) in 1859. He became very disenchanted with life in Norway, and left for Italy in 1864. He was not to return to his native land for the next 27 years, and when he returned it was to be as a noted playwright, however controversial.
His next play, Brand (1865), was to bring him the critical acclaim he sought, along with a measure of financial success, as was his next play, Peer Gynt (1867).
With success, he became more confident and began to introduce more and more of his own beliefs and judgments into his dramas, exploring what he termed the "drama of ideas". His next series of plays are often considered his Golden Age, when he entered the height of his power and influence, becoming the center of dramatic controversy across Europe.
A Doll's House (1879) was a scathing criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage. …Some theatre houses refused to stage the play. Ibsen followed A Doll's House with Ghosts (1881), another scathing commentary on Victorian morality. In it, a widow reveals to her pastor that she has hidden the evils of her marriage for its duration. The pastor had advised her to marry her then fiancé despite his philandering, and she did so in the belief that her love would reform him. But she was not to receive the result she was promised. Her husband's philandering continued right up until his death, and the result is that her son is syphilitic. Even the mention of venereal disease was scandalous, but to show that even a person who followed society's ideals of morality had no protection against it, that was beyond scandalous. Hers was not the noble life which Victorians believed would result from fulfilling one's duty rather than following one's desires. Those idealized beliefs were only the “ghosts” of the past, haunting the present.
Society's criticism of Ibsen was raised to a fever pitch at this point, but society itself was losing its control over the mass of people, most of whom didn't live in the rarefied air of the Victorian Gentleman. They wanted to see Ibsen's plays because he showed what so many of them already knew to be the reality. The tide had turned.
In An Enemy of the People (1882), Ibsen went even further. Before, controversial elements were important and even pivotal components of the action, but they were on the small scale of individual households. In An Enemy, controversy became the primary focus, and the antagonist was the entire community. One primary message of the play is that the individual, who stands alone, is more often "right" than the mass of people, who are portrayed as ignorant and sheep-like. The Victorian belief was that the community was a noble institution that could be trusted, a fiction Ibsen challenged.
The protagonist is a doctor, a pillar of the community. The town is a vacation spot whose primary draw is a public bath. The doctor discovers that the water used by the bath is being contaminated when it seeps through the grounds of a local tannery. He expects to be acclaimed for saving the town from the nightmare of infecting visitors with disease, but instead he is declared “an enemy of the people” by the locals, who band against him and even throw stones through his windows. The play ends with his complete ostracism. It is obvious to the reader that disaster is in store for the town as well as for the doctor, due to the community's unwillingness to face reality.
As audiences by now expected of him, his next play again attacked entrenched beliefs and assumptions -- but this time his attack was not against the Victorians but against overeager reformers and their idealism. Always the iconoclast, Ibsen was as willing to tear down the ideologies of any part of the political spectrum, including his own.
The Wild Duck (1884) is considered by many to be Ibsen's finest work, and it is certainly the most complex. It tells the story of Gregers Werle, a young man who returns to his hometown after an extended exile and is reunited with his boyhood friend Hjalmar Ekdal. Over the course of the play the many secrets that lie behind the Ekdals' apparently happy home are revealed to Gregers, who insists on pursuing the absolute truth, or the "Summons of the Ideal". Among these truths: Gregers' father impregnated his servant Gina, then married her off to Hjalmar to legitimize the child. Another man has been disgraced and imprisoned for a crime the elder Werle committed. And while Hjalmar spends his days working on a wholly imaginary "invention", his wife is earning the household income.
Ibsen displays masterful use of irony: despite his dogmatic insistence on truth, Gregers never says what he thinks but only insinuates, and is never understood until the play reaches its climax. Gregers hammers away at Hjalmar through innuendo and coded phrases until he realizes the truth; Gina's daughter, Hedvig, is not his child. Blinded by Gregers' insistence on absolute truth, he disavows the child. Seeing the damage he has wrought, Gregers determines to repair things, and suggests to Hedvig that she sacrifice the wild duck, her wounded pet, to prove her love for Hjalmar. Hedvig, alone among the characters, recognizes that Gregers always speaks in code, and looking for the deeper meaning in the first important statement Gregers makes which does not contain one, kills herself rather than the duck in order to prove her love for him in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. Only too late do Hjalmar and Gregers realize that the absolute truth of the "ideal" is sometimes too much for the human heart to bear.
Probably Ibsen's most performed play is Hedda Gabler (1890), the leading female role being regarded as one of the most challenging and rewarding for an actress even in the present day. There are many similarities between Hedda and the character of Nora in A Doll's House.
Ibsen had completely rewritten the rules of drama with a realism which was to be adopted by Chekhov and others, and which we see in the theater to this day. From Ibsen forward, challenging assumptions and directly speaking about issues has been considered one of the factors that makes a play Art rather than entertainment.
Finally, Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891, but it was in many ways not the Norway he had left. Indeed, he had played a major role in the changes that had happened across society. The Victorian Age was on its last legs, to be replaced by the rise of Modernism not only in the theater, but across public life.
With a stellar career behind him, the likes of which few authors or playwrights ever see, Ibsen died in Oslo. (Biography Base)
(http://www.biographybase.com)
(Classicnotes.com)
CG
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Henrik Johan Ibsen was born in 1828 in Skien, Norway, the eldest of five children after the early death of an older brother. His father, a product of a long line of sea captains, had been born in 1797 in Skein and married a German daughter of a merchant, in 1825. Ibsen’s childhood was not particularly happy. Described as an unsociable child, his sense of isolation was increased at the age of sixteen when his father¹s business had to be sold to meet his creditors. On top of this, a rumor began to be circulated that Henrik was the illegitimate son of another man. This fear (never proved), manifested itself in a theme of illegitimate offspring in Ibsen¹s later work. After his father’s business was possessed, all that remained of the family’s former wealth was a dilapidated farmhouse at the outskirts of Skein.
At the farmhouse, Ibsen began to attend a small middle-class school. In 1843, at the age of fifteen, Ibsen was taken from school and apprenticed to an apothecary despite his declared interest in becoming a painter.
Leaving his family, Ibsen traveled to Grimstad, a small, isolated town, to begin his apprenticeship, where he studied with the hopes of gaining admission to the University medical school. (While there he also fathered an illegitimate son by the servant of the apothecary). Grimstad is where Ibsen began to write in earnest. Inspired by the revolution of 1848 that was being felt throughout Europe, Ibsen wrote satire and elegant poetry. (Classic)
Henrik Ibsen became an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of modern realistic drama.
His plays were considered scandalous in much of society at the time, when Victorian values of family life and propriety were still very much the norm, and any challenge to them considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many a facade, which the society of the time did not want to see.
In a very real way, Ibsen created the modern stage, by introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Prior to him, plays were expected to be moral dramas with noble protagonists pitted against darker forces. Every drama was expected to result in a "proper" conclusion, meaning that goodness was to bring happiness, and immorality only pain. Ibsen was to turn that concept on its head, challenging the beliefs of the times and shattering the illusions of his audiences. He was born into a relatively well-to-do family in the small port town of Skien, Norway, which was primarily noted for shipping timber. Shortly after his birth, however, his family's fortunes took a significant turn for the worse. His mother turned to religion for solace, while his father declined into a severe depression. The characters in his plays often mirror his parents, and his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty.
His first play, Catilina (1848), was published when he was only 20, but was not performed. His first play to see production was The Burial Mound (1850), but it did not receive much attention. Still, Ibsen was determined to be a playwright, although he was not to write again for some years.
He spent the next several years employed at the Norwegian Theater, where he was involved in the production of more than 145 plays as a writer, director, and producer. During this period he did not publish any new plays of his own. Despite Ibsen's failure to achieve success as a playwright, at the Norwegian Theater he gained a great deal of practical experience, experience that was to prove valuable when next he wrote.
He returned to Oslo in 1857, where he lived in very poor financial circumstances. Still, he managed to marry (Suzannah) in 1859. He became very disenchanted with life in Norway, and left for Italy in 1864. He was not to return to his native land for the next 27 years, and when he returned it was to be as a noted playwright, however controversial.
His next play, Brand (1865), was to bring him the critical acclaim he sought, along with a measure of financial success, as was his next play, Peer Gynt (1867).
With success, he became more confident and began to introduce more and more of his own beliefs and judgments into his dramas, exploring what he termed the "drama of ideas". His next series of plays are often considered his Golden Age, when he entered the height of his power and influence, becoming the center of dramatic controversy across Europe.
A Doll's House (1879) was a scathing criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage. …Some theatre houses refused to stage the play. Ibsen followed A Doll's House with Ghosts (1881), another scathing commentary on Victorian morality. In it, a widow reveals to her pastor that she has hidden the evils of her marriage for its duration. The pastor had advised her to marry her then fiancé despite his philandering, and she did so in the belief that her love would reform him. But she was not to receive the result she was promised. Her husband's philandering continued right up until his death, and the result is that her son is syphilitic. Even the mention of venereal disease was scandalous, but to show that even a person who followed society's ideals of morality had no protection against it, that was beyond scandalous. Hers was not the noble life which Victorians believed would result from fulfilling one's duty rather than following one's desires. Those idealized beliefs were only the “ghosts” of the past, haunting the present.
Society's criticism of Ibsen was raised to a fever pitch at this point, but society itself was losing its control over the mass of people, most of whom didn't live in the rarefied air of the Victorian Gentleman. They wanted to see Ibsen's plays because he showed what so many of them already knew to be the reality. The tide had turned.
In An Enemy of the People (1882), Ibsen went even further. Before, controversial elements were important and even pivotal components of the action, but they were on the small scale of individual households. In An Enemy, controversy became the primary focus, and the antagonist was the entire community. One primary message of the play is that the individual, who stands alone, is more often "right" than the mass of people, who are portrayed as ignorant and sheep-like. The Victorian belief was that the community was a noble institution that could be trusted, a fiction Ibsen challenged.
The protagonist is a doctor, a pillar of the community. The town is a vacation spot whose primary draw is a public bath. The doctor discovers that the water used by the bath is being contaminated when it seeps through the grounds of a local tannery. He expects to be acclaimed for saving the town from the nightmare of infecting visitors with disease, but instead he is declared “an enemy of the people” by the locals, who band against him and even throw stones through his windows. The play ends with his complete ostracism. It is obvious to the reader that disaster is in store for the town as well as for the doctor, due to the community's unwillingness to face reality.
As audiences by now expected of him, his next play again attacked entrenched beliefs and assumptions -- but this time his attack was not against the Victorians but against overeager reformers and their idealism. Always the iconoclast, Ibsen was as willing to tear down the ideologies of any part of the political spectrum, including his own.
The Wild Duck (1884) is considered by many to be Ibsen's finest work, and it is certainly the most complex. It tells the story of Gregers Werle, a young man who returns to his hometown after an extended exile and is reunited with his boyhood friend Hjalmar Ekdal. Over the course of the play the many secrets that lie behind the Ekdals' apparently happy home are revealed to Gregers, who insists on pursuing the absolute truth, or the "Summons of the Ideal". Among these truths: Gregers' father impregnated his servant Gina, then married her off to Hjalmar to legitimize the child. Another man has been disgraced and imprisoned for a crime the elder Werle committed. And while Hjalmar spends his days working on a wholly imaginary "invention", his wife is earning the household income.
Ibsen displays masterful use of irony: despite his dogmatic insistence on truth, Gregers never says what he thinks but only insinuates, and is never understood until the play reaches its climax. Gregers hammers away at Hjalmar through innuendo and coded phrases until he realizes the truth; Gina's daughter, Hedvig, is not his child. Blinded by Gregers' insistence on absolute truth, he disavows the child. Seeing the damage he has wrought, Gregers determines to repair things, and suggests to Hedvig that she sacrifice the wild duck, her wounded pet, to prove her love for Hjalmar. Hedvig, alone among the characters, recognizes that Gregers always speaks in code, and looking for the deeper meaning in the first important statement Gregers makes which does not contain one, kills herself rather than the duck in order to prove her love for him in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. Only too late do Hjalmar and Gregers realize that the absolute truth of the "ideal" is sometimes too much for the human heart to bear.
Probably Ibsen's most performed play is Hedda Gabler (1890), the leading female role being regarded as one of the most challenging and rewarding for an actress even in the present day. There are many similarities between Hedda and the character of Nora in A Doll's House.
Ibsen had completely rewritten the rules of drama with a realism which was to be adopted by Chekhov and others, and which we see in the theater to this day. From Ibsen forward, challenging assumptions and directly speaking about issues has been considered one of the factors that makes a play Art rather than entertainment.
Finally, Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891, but it was in many ways not the Norway he had left. Indeed, he had played a major role in the changes that had happened across society. The Victorian Age was on its last legs, to be replaced by the rise of Modernism not only in the theater, but across public life.
With a stellar career behind him, the likes of which few authors or playwrights ever see, Ibsen died in Oslo. (Biography Base)
(http://www.biographybase.com)
(Classicnotes.com)
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