Hedda Gabler: Criticism About Production

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Hedda Gabler: Criticism about production

Introduction

Henrik Ibsen’s work was, for many reasons, too advanced for his time, in fact, it was a pioneer in terms of his themes and topics, because he did not fear to immerse his literature in taboos that collided with contemporary social values, always putting his visionabove the morally established. This renowned author went through several literary stages throughout his life, so it is interesting.

While this acid criticism of society helped him last over time and being recognized as an author of cult, he did not favor him much in those years where his works were published, because in his time they were labeled inappropriate and immoral. This is why Ibsen had a rather late recognition in life, however, in the end it became the most important personality of his country, with his works being represented throughout Europe until today.

Developing

In a rather romantic first stage, the author collects the folklore and tradition of his native Norway, in order to explore the deficiencies of the same;According to his opinion, his most significant works of that period portray characteristics of culture and its most counterproductive aspects. The first example of this is found in his work Brand of 1866, where throughout a dramatic poem of five acts.

 We see the life of the priest Brand, who sacrifices his wife and his own son simply to be able to keep his own religious ideals. It is attractive to analyze how in this story we can find through symbolisms and reflections a subtle criticism of the lack of solidarity of the Scandinavian peoples during the development of the Prussian invasion of Denmark.

However, the clearest paradigm of this stage of the author can be found in his work Peer Gynt of 1868, where we follow Peer, the protagonist of all the events that move the plot, who is a rather incongruous dreamer with his reality thatLittle by little he leaves all responsibility in charge of his fantasy, which is represented as a genius of Norwegian folklore.

 During this same period of "playwright poet", the author also worked in several lyrical writings, which were later collected under the generic name of "poems" and published in the year of 1871, these compositions dealt with a collection of romantic versesloaded with symbolism with impressive quality.

In his second stage, Henrik Ibsen could be defined as a kind of "radical playwright", since his work crossed a special interest in realism and strong social criticism, with works much more attached to the reality of his time and opening controversialdebates about how ethical were certain topics of everyday life in bourgeois society.

It is at this point where the author goes into his most controversial stage, and it is here that romanticism leaves aside and begins to write prose works starring people very similar to the residents of their surroundings. The first work that served as a transition for Ibsen’s style was entitled "Samfundets Støtter" and published in 1877, in it we found an inexorable criticism against the hypocritical bourgeois society, represented by an unscrupulous and totally lacking moral merchant, which we will follow tothroughout all its frauds and scams, making special emphasis on the individualism of the time.

But without a doubt, the triumphant entry of this author to the universal panorama as far as the theater is concerned, we find it in its already work "et dukkehjem" (the dollhouse) of 1879, which since since its premiere inThe Real Theater of Copenhagen, became the most controversial of the playwright, and served as a worthy copy for feminism, in turn that a slap for the men of most conservative ideals of the time, the same who exclaimed that such a novel wasA direct attack on the values of the traditional family.

In this work we find Nora, who is forced to falsify the signature of her dying father to make a bank loan and thus safeguard her husband’s health. As the story progresses, Nora has many more problems to hide the secret, this added to her dailyown idea of happiness.

Another fairly recognized work of this stage of the author is Gengangere of 1881, where its protagonist Miss Alving, lives with her husband pretending to be happy despite the fact that it is clearly not;This work covers contemporary sexual morals impressive, taking as an excuse more superfluous issues such as hereditary madness or generational conflicts.

Finally, in his old age, the author is going through a dark symbolist stage full of metaphors and abstractions, where he performs several autobiographical references and subtlely describes gloomy predictions about death and what happens after it;At this stage we find a much densest prose where topics are addressed such as the sacrifices that people must make (the same Ibsen included) to meet the demands of their vocation and the high dedication that this requires.

This is how Fruen Ved Havet (the sea lady) appears in 1888, a work in which through Elida Wangel we immerse ourselves in a marriage very out of the standards of the time and away from any convention of her time, as she narrates theHistory of how this lady has a dispute with herself about whether she should leave her husband to leave with a sailor and get carried away by the most unconscious sense of adventure and passion. The play composed of five acts is loaded with a strong sense of insecurity and attachment for the abstract, so it is very fascinating and advanced for its time.

During this stage we can also find much more personal and introspective works of the playwright, such is the case of Hedda Gabbler of 1890, which is nothing more than a memory about a certain love relationship that the Norwegian author maintained in his youth;or the solness builder, a work of 1892 in which we follow a craftsman who serves as the author’s parallel to express as the passion he has had for his work throughout his life has consumed him in a spiritual sense.

If we analyze the literary production of Henrik Ibsen in general, we could catalog it as an "enemy of the people", because the opinion that the playwright had about this was quite negative, in fact, I came to say that the people and more specifically the bourgeois societyIt was nothing more than an "amorphous mass governed by dissected truths";And it is exactly where the essence of his work lies.

The work of this playwright was loaded with criticism of moral. It was also especially satirical when describing these problems, since all his works raise great characters, with a remarkable interest in female, an unprecedented thing for the time.

Ibsen was not afraid to express his political and ideological ideals;He was a staunch critical of capitalism and openly thought that society was governed by law laws, something totally unfair to women. All this disagreement with his environment was reflected from his first works, however, it is from his second stage as a writer and playwright where he really begins to put on paper his most controversial opinions, expressed through impeccable poems and lyrical thatLater theatrical works would become.

conclusion

Although its vast literary and theatrical production starts in a somewhat weak way, with a friendlier and more romantic prose, it is evolving as the author adapts to the new literary currents of the second half of the nineteenth century (such as symbolism,realism or naturalism), which takes impulse to perfect its style, experiencing a dense and abstract writing, with situations much more attached to European society. 

His creativity to formulate stories did not wait, because he knew how to create with great ingenuity dramatic characters that were totally consistent with the concerns of the time, as well as debates between strong social contradictions that would later be worth the title of “The father of the drama of the dramamodern". 

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