Realism as a dramatic art form dates back to 19th
century – specifically to the plays of Henrik Ibsen. It started as a movement
in theatre against Romanticism. In its purest form Romanticism concentrated on
the spiritual, which would allow humankind to transcend the limitations of the
physical world and the body and find a complete truth. The realists, however,
were more interested in the physical than the spiritual. Henrik Ibsen is said
to be the father of the realist movement of the 19th century. His
realistic drama of ideas surpassed other such works because they blend together
a complex plot, a detailed setting and middle-class emergence of ordinary
people. Realism has grim sister – Naturalism. Naturalism can be defined as a
selective realism emphasizing the more sordid and pessimistic aspects of life.
Ibsen wanted to address the life and concerns of ordinary middle class citizens
who were quickly gaining political and economic supremacy. A Doll’s House
deals with an aspect of realism that is known as the ‘problem play’. It’s a
drama that exposes a specific social problem. A Doll’s house is a story
of a young woman, Nora, who forges signature of her father to save her husband.
The husband has complete authority over Nora and treats her as a doll, a
decorative piece. He does not consider her as a human being with intellect. The
play deals with a realist theme- the woman’s issue, a potent issue in the 19th
century. What is her identity? Can she not carve a niche for herself in the
world outside her house? The play, like other realist plays, follows the fourth
wall technique that is everything is contrived on stage. When we sit in the
theatre and see a living room set, the fourth wall has been removed, so we
believe that the entire action is real, but everything from the pre-arranged
props to timely exits and entrances have been fabricated. The audience becomes
the unfortunate eavesdropper, as every movement is carefully crafted to create
the ‘illusion of reality’. This technique is illusionism for which the language
must be colloquial and the stage settings extremely real. To create a suitable
‘haunting ground’, for his dramatic scenes, Ibsen makes his stage sets come
alive and take part in the action. Just as Nora evolves from the mini-Nora of
act one to the super-Nora of act three, so the set of the play goes through a
drastic evolution, from light to darkness, from paradise to prison until, by
the end of the play, it has been ethically demolished.
One could imagine the
doll house set, when Nora slams the door, collapsing like a house of cards, to
the collective gasp of relief from the audience. Looking at the set we see, the
two doors in the rear wall, the door on the left leads to Torvald’s study, and
is opened and closed only when he chooses. It represents security and authority
and his invisible presence behind that door is felt god like. Whenever he
emerges from this door, it is always on his own terms, to direct and control
events. The door to the right in the rear wall leads to the outside world. Only
damaged people come through this door: Christine, Rank, Krogstad, all of whom
have been variously hurt by the world outside. So this door represents the
menacing reality of the outside world, its power to hurt but also, its power to
force- to force one to grow up, to stop being a doll. By the end of the play
these two doors undergo a dialectical change- Tovald’s door will lose all its
authority, whereas the other door will transform to become the door of
liberation from the doll’s house. There is another door, which leads to the
nursery and bedroom. This is the world of sexual fantasy, of Nora performing
childish roles of squirrel, lark and others to keep Torvald infatuated with
her. Nora however is hardly an innocent. She plays along with this for her own
convenience and lies to manipulate her husband. Ibsen’s point is that both Nora
and Torvald are damaged by thelie they live. If not, then there would be no
need for this awakening. Ibsen’s other plays also are realist in nature like Hedda
Gabler and An Enemy of the People. However, films and television now
better serve this genre than theater.