Concept
Narrative
A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen (1879)
A Doll’s House is one of the best known Norwegian plays, and it has had a lot of influence within the world of literature, especially within the theme of gender equality and feminism. The story revolves around the wife Nora helmer, who is ‘trapped’ in an unhealthy marriage where her husband basically treats her like a porcelain doll. The only thing she’s doing for the family is being the pretty, happy wife who doesn’t do anything of importance. Throughout the play though, the family encounters both economical and health related problems and are in great need of money, Nora wants to help and she does this by forging her deceased fathers signature to take a loan out. When Torvald Helmer, her ill husband, finds out he becomes disgusted by her, that she would dare forge her fathers signature. This sparks a discussion between the two of them, where Nora wakes up from the illusion she’s been living in, she realises that Torvald never even loved her, not once during their eight year long marrage. Torvald doesn’t agree with this at all, and keeps telling Nora that he does loves her, but Nora doesn’t believe with what he’s saying. The play ends after this discussion, it end with Nora leaving the house, leaving her husband and children behind, to never come back.
I will create a tableau where I represent Nora as the doll she is being perceived as by Torvald. I will visualise this by the clothes she will be wearing, her makeup and her pose. She will be sitting in the middle of a bed on her own, around her in the room there will be certain items that are significant to the original play. For instance, Torvald would call Nora ‘his lark’, so I might want to have an empty bird cage in the shot, both to represent the lark and how trapped Nora was in the relationship. Other items that could be relevant would be a christmas tree or presents, because the entire play is set around christmas time. The image will be carefully staged and lit to make sure the right story is told.