1984 New York production removed reference to
Nora’s stockings. Other productions?
- No information found on the specific 1984 production but removal of Nora's stockings from the play could be because of their sexual meaning. The 19th century had strict rules for the way people act and dress, especially for women. Women at the time were supposed to wear long clothing that cover their ankles and even gloves to cover their hands, with those parts only to be shown to the husband. In the play Nora pulls out a pair of stockings and playfully shows them to Dr. Rank, who is not her husband, ultimately flirting with him and causing him to confess his love for her. At the time this was an unacceptable sexual act but in the 1980s women had much more freedom to express their sexuality thus maybe causing the producers of the 1984 play to remove reference to the stockings and add in a more intimate sexual act that would cause a more relatable play for the time period.
- https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/literature/in-a-dolls-house-what-risqueacute-item-does-nora-reveal-to-dr-rank-that-eventually-prompts-him-to-disclose-his-own-secret
- http://historyofsexuality.umwblogs.org/mid-to-late-20th-century/the-sexual-revolution/
- http://ibsen.nb.no/id/110728.0
- Plays at the time had a strict formula or structure of which playwrights followed to write and produce plays. 19th Century Melodrama followed the following "formula":
- Good was always threatened by evil
- Usually but not always, good triumphed over evil in the end
- No matter how desperate the situation, there was usually a happy ending
- Horror and mystery were central elements in every story
- Heroes and heroines were always placed in situations of extreme danger
- Heroines were always pure and virtuous
- Heroes were always brave
- Villains were always evil, wicked, vicious and immoral
- Success was always snatched at the last moment from the jaws of defeat
- The audience was expected to experience extreme emotion.
- Ibsen's work was so revolutionary because he broke many of those rules in his plays ultimately changing theatre at the time. His work continues to influence theatre today.
- Ibsen challenged the idea that plays had to have a happy ending in many of his works. A Doll's House is a good example because its controversial ending left a father and kids alone because their mother left, which isn't a very happy ending. His plays also always ended with an inevitable conclusion, after Nora decided to start the talk with Torvald she was determined and there was no going back. This also included a lot of suspense getting to the final solution where each event keeps the audience on edge.
- A good play was considered one that had good vs evil in it, the ending always had the good force winning in a surprising but logical way. For Nora to leave her husband and kids this way would have sounded like a very irrational move on her part but she justified it very well, even though people at the time found it extremely unacceptable, Nora’s reason to leave would be totally acceptable in this century.
- http://crossref-it.info/articles/517/nineteenth-century-melodrama
- http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/books/a-dolls-house-iid-12160/do-9781408167557-div-00000008
- https://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/cfrederic/henrikibsen.htm
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