Draw Connections: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Compare and Contrast: A Doll’s House and George Bernard Shaw’s commentary on the play

George Bernard Shaw, a playwright and literary critic roughly contemporaneous with Henrik Ibsen, was among the first to take Ibsen’s work seriously. In his commentary on the work of Ibsen, he considers the social issues at play in Ibsen’s work.

Document links:

Annotated text of A Doll’s House

Annotated text of “Commentary on A Doll’s House”

  1. In opening his discussion of A Doll’s House, Shaw talks about another play—Pillars of Society—as a propagandist play. He suggests that previous play was not as good as this one. How does A Doll’s House avoid being propaganda, despite the fact that it has a clear social commentary at its heart?

    Question

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  2. Shaw (himself a man of the late nineteenth century) suggests that Nora uses her womanly wiles to “coax her husband into giving her what she asks.” How does the opening of the play bear that idea out? In what way might Nora be seen as manipulating Torvald? Is there another way to read that relationship?

    Question

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  3. Shaw focuses much of his commentary on the idea of the illusions that Nora and Torvald both cling to. In the opening scene of the play, what items or actions suggest these illusions? What support can you find for Shaw’s claim of the illusory nature of this household?

    Question

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  4. Shaw’s commentary begins with a suggestion that Torvald Helmer is a “pillar of society.” In what way is that pillar, as embodied by Torvald, ignorant of the world in the opening scene of the play? How does that ignorance compare to what Shaw says about Nora’s own ignorance about the outside world?

    Question

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