The Reading Stack

The last 20 days have been pretty busy for me and my reading stack is a little dusty. While admitting that a book had "beaten" me is difficult, for the time being I am leaving One Hundred Years of Solitude on the nightstand with a bookmark in it. The stream of consciousness writing and the confusion with characters has made my head hurt, so I will leave it alone for a while. In the meantime, I have read, with pleasure, "A Doll House" by Henrik Ibsen. This one is on my summer reading list for AP Lit this year, and I plan to do like a colleague of mine does and pair it with Jane Eyre. Interestingly, the play was originally named "A Doll House" (no apostrophe to make a possessive after "Doll"), but often, in translation, it is referred to as "A Doll's House." In my estimation, that little possessive makes all the difference in the world. To speak of a doll house brings to mind a child's toy available in a room for play. It is a stagnant image with no ownership attached. When the translation adds the "apostrophe + s" on the end, a character suddenly emerges - that of the doll who will inhabit the house. The doll is a plaything, a toy, nothing to be taken seriously.

Personally, I'm not sure what Ibsen's original intent was with regard to the title, but the meaning in the play is obvious. Nora is the main character. She is a wife and mother, married to Helmer. Helmer refers to her using playful titles like "lark" and "squirrel." He gently chides her for spending money and his tone is sweetly condescending - in order words, he speaks to her as if she is a child playing house. She, of course, is the doll. Dolls are supposed to be pretty and serve the purpose of entertaining the owner - nothing more. But Nora has a little secret about something she did for her husband's benefit which will ruin his reputation as a business man if it ever comes out. Spoiler Alert! The secret does come out and although Helmer's reputation is not ruined, his vision of his wife is altered. This is the point of Nora's awakening and her complete shift in personality.

"A Doll's House" (you can see which title I prefer) is most easily read through the lens of feminist criticism; however, I think a psychoanalytical criticism applies as well. Ultimately, this play is a power struggle. Those who appear to be in power never really are and those who seem to be without power secretly hold all the cards. What a character will do to maintain (1) respectibility in the eyes of the world and (2) a foothold on a higher link in the "food chain" are probably not so surprising in 2011, but in 1879, some of the actions might be considered shocking.

This play is a super quick read, but it left me puzzling for a days. I do believe there is a little Nora in all of us gals.

By the way, I'm about mid-ways of Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'm ashamed to say that I missed her during my college years. I don't have any idea how that happened, but I'm happy to have discovered her now. Beloved is heartbreaking but beautifully written prose - fiction based on things that should never have happened. She reminds me of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splended Suns for another place and time. There are so many symbolic references in Beloved that it makes my head swim and I have to put it down just to process them. Next post will have more to say.