Who Is The Criminal?:A Doll's House Vs. Ghosts

Both Ghosts and A Doll’s House bear a striking similarity to the “perfect play”. The curtain opens, and the audience is introduced to the one room which will serve as the setting for the entire production. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about either room; on the contrary, the room appears to be average. In creating an eerily common scene, Ibsen works to break down the invisible fourth wall between audience and character. By placing the story in a place so familiar and personal as an upper middle class living room, he has give

n the audience a sense of comfort. He has also ensured that they won’t be distracted by the setting and can easily relate to at very least the social status of his characters. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen’s next maneuver introduces Nora, a seemingly bubble-headed housewife, and her husband Torvald. We are quick to forgive Nora’s absent-minded qualities when her husband so blatantly dotes on her. In the first dialogue between Nora and Torvald, there is a significant amount of relationship background established. Through it, the audience comes to the conclusion that the man controls the woman but lovingly, and within reason. We may almost compare their relationship to that of father and daughter. However, it is not until Mrs. Lynde enters the house that we begin to see any of Nora’s identity (or lack thereof, as the case may be). On the other hand, Ghosts begins with a conversation that isn’t nearly as superficial; the dialogue that begins the first act, between Regina and her Father Engstrand, proves actually to be slightly uncomfortable in its private nature. Through the dialogues and behaviors of his characters, Ibsen implies subjects taboo to the time, especially when referring to their pasts. This implication appears in A Doll’s House, as Nora confides in her old friend Mrs. Lynde. Nora establishes herself as satisfied with the accepted family hierarchy until this conversation, when the audience discovers her need to be recognized as a woman of intelligence. With the mention of a loan which she has procured (something completely unacceptable for a woman of the time), immediately the audience must rethink their opinion of her. Their personal ethics are drawn out to judge Nora’s moral character. Ghosts takes a mildly different route, ending the personal conversation between Regina and her father, and moving onto a safer, more restrained exchange between Mr. Mande

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