Rviws. A Doll's House
This article is of a fictional matinee performance of the 'Doll's House', in the West End Theatres, London, late 1893, post the period where the play was drumming up quite as much scandal due to Ibsens other contributions, such as 'Ghosts', which provided fresher objects for the public's ire. The magazine is 'Punch ' Magazine, comical and satyrical in it's presentation, but quite serious in subject, written for a upper middle class, educated readership. There is no modern trend, in the wide variety of modern trends available for a young lady's perusal, more disturbing than that of a matinee performance of drama at the West End theatrical establishments. These establishments, at three o' clock on a Saturday afternoon, become a hive of predominantly female activity; of be-feathered, grossly oversized hats (which indeed lose all practical purpose in terms of attractive decoration and seem to be worn almost solely in order to impress other women), chattering voices communicating essentially silly pleasantries, quite charmingly of course, and most perturbingly of a sense of wild, girlish giddiness at the idea of an afternoon spent absented from the household. It seems, according to one young woman of my acqu
aintance who I happened to meet, that the women themselves seem to view these events as 'almost sinful', and give them a 'delightful little thrill, as if doing something forbidden'. Elizabeth Robins), wife of emerging banker Torvald (played by Mr. The diminshed social status that this lack caused (as was evidenced through some very scornful looks from women more excecssively adorned in the cranial region) did yield me one advantage; that unlike many other men inexperienced in the event of an matinee, I was able to view the action of the play to be performed. It is becoming slowly more acceptable for ladies to follow Nora's 'door-slam' lead. The first Nora is the same as the ladies viewing the play; dainty, playful, 'a scatterbrain' as she is called by Torvald; and so she is. He is quite right; the ladies who I had the pleasure of sharing the Ibsen experience with were certainly not New Women- they sat in clumps eating chocolate by the pound and treating the thing as if it were quite illegal- and I am sure that not a few of them might be inclined towards the latter type of women. The Realism of the play is quite infectious, and it is easy to see why some women cried during the performance. It seemed at that point to be merely the distinctly female habit of creating an illusory perception allmost intentionally, in order to increase the enjoyment of an experience. It was somewhat surprising to me that most matinees the action of the drama is almost solely heard, as it is impossible to see through the multitude of feathered hats. I had misjudged her however, and when one considers that the above quotation was a direct one, one can begin to understand the frightening flippancy involved in the situation I will shortly relate. At the conclusion of the play, Nora says to Torvald; 'You're not bound in any way.
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Acceptance Essays
