Overview and Directions: We discussed Ibsen's play A Doll House and viewed the end of Act III. Nora leaving Torvald is famously called, "The door slam heard around the world." At the time, the powers that be forced Ibsen's hand, and he reluctantly changed the ending in order to avoid the outright ban on his play. Below, view the original ending and read the alternate ending. How does this new ending make you feel? How does it alter Ibsen's message and intent? Ibsen wrote Ghosts as rebuttal to this ending and the public 's reaction. What can we expect to see in Ghosts? Explore. I look forward to your responses.
Original Ending of A Doll House
Alternate Ending of A Doll House
NORA. ... Where we could make a real marriage out of our lives together. Goodbye. [Begins to go.]
HELMER. Go then! [Seizes her arm.] But first you shall see your children for the last time!
NORA. Let me go! I will not see them! I cannot!
HELMER [draws her over to the door, left]. You shall see them. [Opens the door and says softly.] Look, there they are asleep, peaceful and carefree. Tomorrow, when they wake up and call for their mother, they will be - motherless.
NORA [trembling]. Motherless...!
HELMER. As you once were.
NORA. Motherless! [Struggles with herself, lets her travelling bag fall, and says.] Oh, this is a sin against myself, but I cannot leave them. [Half sinks down by the door.]
HELMER [joyfully, but softly]. Nora!
[The curtain falls.]
The new ending where Nora decides to stay with Torvald makes everything seem pointless. We know that she risked herself for the better of her family and when Torvald was diminishing her for trying to support the family she made up her mind. By staying with Torvald she is saying that he was right, and this then gives him the option to walk all over her whenever he would like. In writing the play Ibsen generates a powerful feeling to viewers that maybe they could do the same thing if there is unequalness in their home. But by changing it the message then shows that leaving wouldn’t matter because as a woman you are always going to be set to a limited role. We can expect that Ghosts will again hold society against the wall and question it down to its core. I think he would have to hide it a little more in Ghosts since they had just made him rewrite A Doll House because he would then be considered a threat to society if he kept introducing and regulating such controversial ideas.
ReplyDelete-Regan Grygiel
The alternate ending for “A Doll House” really ruins the Ibsens whole point of the play, since the scene before sort of tells women at that time how they can stand up for themselves and they can be their own person and don't have to live with a man. Since the alternate ending is her looking at her children and she decides to stay since she can not leave them motherless. It really alters the meaning since you can get the whole persona of the story while making the ending that nora saw her kids and said “NORA. Motherless! [Struggles with herself, lets her travelling bag fall, and says.] Oh, this is a sin against myself, but I cannot leave them. [Half sinks down by the door.]” the story went from saying it is possible you don't have to abide to societies picture of you saying you basically have to stay with your kids because if your husband is driving you crazy you still have to stay for your kids.
ReplyDeleteJohn Marshall
ReplyDeleteThis new ending seems to try too much to please the viewer. IT maintains the role that the woman is inferior to the man because even though she truly doesn't love Torvald, she is forced to stay with him and be unhappy for a good portion of her life. She is made to feel guilty for leaving the side of her children.
Ibsen's message changes in the altered version because it shows that women can't achieve the freedom of every other man in the world
Ghosts will do similar to what Ibsen did in the original ending of Doll House and not conform to these societal standards and try not to appeal to what people want to here and, instead, show people what is true.
Sean Healey
ReplyDeleteSean Healey
The alternate ending to, “ A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen I felt lacked meaning, if Nora stays after being treated so poorly it loses all the suspense that had built up. Also contrasting to the original ending when Nora says, “I have to see whos right society or me” Nora does not agree with laws and the way society judges people and has to see the world for herself to be content. You can sympathize with Nora in the original ending as everyone has the right to be their own person and she actually is very ahead of her time for thinking this way as many felt marriage was binding to death. In the alternate ending it just feels as though you build up to the final scene and Nora cannot pull the trigger. In Ghosts by Ibsen we can expect to see the same type of writing where he subtly makes fun of society and many of the groups of people who are in/ run it. Finally I feel Ghosts will be a lot more shocking then “A Doll House” after hearing it was not edited like A Doll House but completely banned.
The alternate ending to “A Doll House” kind of left me hanging or the ending was not really clear to me what happened. Even though she decided to stay with her children because she did not want to leave them motherless, I felt like something else should have happened. But the fact that she did not leave, her point that she made is not as strong as it was before if she were to leave. Throughout the play she always says how she does not love him and it's fake love so the fact that she decides to stay would be kind of a big turn around in the story. It would be good of the ending was longer because it kind of leaves us hanging why her attitude changed. Yet again it was for her kids, but what about Torvald? This new ending shows basically how women cannot go off on their own and be successful by themselves or when they have freedom. Then I feel like Ghost will be more interesting than “A Doll House”
ReplyDeletethe alternative ending is no where as successful as the original ending. To me it is pointless in terms of the plot and has too shallow. Although Ibsen is brilliant and did an outstanding job with the original piece, the alternative ending is not entertaining and does not show the true craft of Henrik Ibsen in my opinion. The true sorrow and drama of "Doll House" is what made this play such an experience. Taking that away and choosing an alternative ending takes away the whole role of Nora's character and the original aspects of this heartbreaking drama. I hope to see Ibsen's skills again in Ghost and I don't doubt it will also be entertaining to watch or read as we already started it.
ReplyDeleteThe alternate ending if "A Doll House" is completely different to the real ending, and substantially less meaningful. It does not show the true emotion, especially when it shows the mother staying, and not being her own independent woman. It is hard to leave your kids motherless, and leave the guilt in the back of your head for the rest of your life. Although it is not a big a message, Ibsen just wanted to show you two different perspectives and how it is hard to just leave everything you started and created in your life.
ReplyDeleteThe original ending of "A Doll House" with Nora walking out on her family, her kids and her husband. She does this because she is trapped and needs to live the life that she wants. However with this being the ending a ton of people at this time were very angry about it. Everyone thought that this should not be the way it ends. That a women should always stand with her family and kids no matter what type of situation. Be there to serve them. With all of this negative feedback he decided to make an alternant ending to the play to make everyone happy. It ends with her about to walk out but then she realizes that she can't leave her kids so she doesn't leave. As I watched this I was very unhappy because I liked the original ending. The alternant ending makes me angry because of how awful she is being treated and she should be able to just like her husband to live whatever kind of life she wants. I don't think Ibsen liked this alternant ending at all but he just did it to please people. In his next writing Ghost I think we can expect for him to reflect this type of behavior. Him creating a dark type of story and will make fun of the society in the real world.
ReplyDelete- Justina Reppucci
The alternate ending to “A Doll House” was somewhat confusing to me. I feel as though it was meaningless to the entire plot. It was very different from the original ending and did not satisfy me at all. I feel like it had potential to make more sense. The general meaning of the story was that women can stand up for themselves and don’t need a man to make decisions. In the alternate ending it shows Nora making the decision to not leave her children. She didn’t stay strong even though her husband wasn’t treating her the way a man should. Overall I think the ending created a bad example for women. I hope to enjoy “Ghosts” it should be a lot different than “a doll house” and possibly make more sense.
ReplyDelete