Download Realism was a general movement in 19th

ENGLISH IV-1302
IBSEN’S THEATRE OF REALISM
Realism was a general movement in 19th-century theatre that steered theatrical texts and
performances toward greater fidelity to real life.
19th-century realism is closely connected to the development of modern drama, which, as
Martin Harrison explains, "is usually said to have begun in the early 1870s" with the
"middle-period" work of the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen's realistic drama in
prose has been "enormously influential."[3]
In opera, verismo refers to a post-Romantic Italian tradition that sought to incorporate the
naturalism of Émile Zola and Henrik Ibsen. It included realistic – sometimes sordid or
violent – depictions of contemporary everyday life, especially the life of the lower
classes.
Theatre
Main article: Realism (theatre)
The achievement of realism in theatre was to direct attention to the physical and
philosophic problems of ordinary existence, both socially and psychologically. In plays
of this mode people emerge as victims of forces larger than themselves, as individuals
confronted with a rapidly accelerating world.[5] These pioneering playwrights were
unafraid to present their characters as ordinary, impotent, and unable to arrive at answers
to their predicaments. This type of art represents what we see with our human eyes.
Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈhɛnɾɪk ˈɪpsən]; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a
major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred
to as "the god father" of modern drama and is one of the founders of Modernism in the
theatre.[1] His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian
values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe. Ibsen's work examined
the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing a revelatory nature that was
disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the
conditions of life and issues of morality. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great
playwrights in the European tradition, alongside Shakespeare.
Interestingly, late in his career Ibsen turned to a more introspective drama that had much
less to do with denunciations of Victorian morality. In such later plays as Hedda Gabler
(1890) and The Master Builder (1892), Ibsen explored psychological conflicts that
transcended a simple rejection of Victorian conventions. Many modern readers, who
might regard anti-Victorian didacticism as dated, simplistic, and even clichéd, have found
these later works to be of absorbing interest for their hard-edged, objective consideration
of interpersonal confrontation. Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder center on female
protagonists whose almost demonic energy proves both attractive and destructive for
those around them. Hedda Gabler is probably Ibsen's most performed play, with the title
role regarded as one of the most challenging and rewarding for an actress even in the
present day. Hedda has a few similarities with the character of Nora in A Doll's House,
but many of today's audiences and theater critics[who?] feel that Hedda's intensity and drive
are much more complex and much less comfortably explained than what they view as
rather routine feminism on the part of Nora.[citation needed]
The character of Hedda is considered by some critics as one of the great dramatic roles in
theatre, the "female Hamlet," and some portrayals have been very controversial.[1]
Depending on the interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine fighting
society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist, or a manipulative villain.
Hedda's married name is Hedda Tesman; Gabler is her maiden name. On the subject of
the title, Ibsen wrote:"My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a
personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife."[2]
Joseph Wood Krutch makes a connection between Hedda Gabler and Freud, whose first
work on psychoanalysis was published almost a decade later. Hedda is one of the first
fully developed neurotic heroines of literature.[3] By that Krutch means that Hedda is
neither logical nor insane in the old sense of being random and unaccountable. Her aims
and her motives have a secret personal logic of their own. She gets what she wants, but
what she wants is not anything that the normal usually admit, publicly at least, to be
desirable. One of the significant things that such a character implies is the premise that
there is a secret, sometimes unconscious, world of aims and methods — one might almost
say a secret system of values — that is often much more important than the rational one.
Joan Templeton makes a connection between Hedda Gabler and Hjørdis from The
Vikings at Helgeland, since the arms-bearing, horse-riding Hedda, married to a passive
man she despises, indeed resembles the "eagle in a cage" that Hjørdis terms herself.[4]
http://www.whopopular.com/Henrick-Ibsen
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