Get everything you need to achieve your full potential at English Literature A Level or AS with York Notes Study Guides, now updated for Assessment Objectives 1 to 5.
A Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen tells the story of Nora, a woman who is treated like a doll in her own home. Set in Victorian Norway, Nora eventually flees her marriage and children in an attempt to discover herself despite being confined by patriarchal society. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes
Step into the world of societal expectations and personal liberation with Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking play, "A Doll's House." This poignant narrative follows Nora Helmer, a seemingly content wife, as she grapples with the constraints of her marriage and the roles imposed on her by society. As the story unfolds, Ibsen masterfully reveals the complexities of marriage, gender roles, and individual identity. Nora's journey of self-discovery challenges the traditional notions of femininity and duty, making this play a timeless exploration of personal freedom and societal norms. But here’s the provocative question that will ignite your curiosity: What happens when a woman decides to reclaim her autonomy in a world that expects her to conform? Nora’s bold choices lead to dramatic revelations that resonate deeply with audiences, prompting reflection on the nature of love and sacrifice. With its rich character development and powerful dialogue, "A Doll's House" remains a cornerstone of modern theater. Ibsen's unflinching examination of societal expectations encourages readers to confront their own beliefs about relationships and personal agency. Are you ready to witness Nora's transformative journey as she challenges the confines of her domestic life? This play is essential for anyone interested in literature that examines social issues and the human condition. Ibsen's compelling storytelling invites audiences to engage with the fundamental questions of identity, duty, and freedom. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this revolutionary work. Purchase "A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen" today and join the conversation about the roles we play in our own lives.
“Smart, funny and utterly engrossing…This unexpectedly rich sequel reminds us that houses tremble and sometimes fall when doors slam, and that there are living people within, who may be wounded or lost…Mr. Hnath has a deft hand for combining incongruous elements to illuminating ends.” —Ben Brantley, New York Times It has been fifteen years since Nora Helmer slammed the door on her stifling domestic life, when a knock comes at that same door. It is Nora, and she has returned with an urgent request. What will her sudden return mean to those she left behind? Lucas Hnath’s funny, probing, and bold play is both a continuation of Ibsen’s complex exploration of traditional gender roles, as well as a sharp contemporary take on the struggles inherent in all human relationships across time.
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
In a little house from another time, with lace curtains in every window and paintings hung in gold doily frames, Wildflower, Rockstar, and Miss Selene live a warm and cozy life. They wear fancy dresses, bake play-dough cakes, and spend their days enjoying one another's company. For the three dolls, life is small but good. But life is not good for Madison Blackberry, the owner of the dollhouse. Her grandmother pays more attention to the dolls than to her. The dolls have one another, but she is lonely in her big, empty apartment. Then one day, as things always do—even for dolls—everything changes. This beautiful story from the acclaimed team of Francesca Lia Block, author of such novels as Weetzie Bat, and Barbara McClintock, author and illustrator of many picture books, including Adèle & Simon, brings to life the power of love, family, and friendship.
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is the founder of modern theater, and his plays are performed all over the world. Yet in spite of his unquestioned status as a classic of the stage, Ibsen is often dismissed as a fuddy-duddy old realist, whose plays are of interest only because they remain the gateway to modern theater. In Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism , Toril Moi makes a powerful case not just for Ibsen's modernity, but for his modernism. Situating Ibsen in his cultural context, she shows how unexpected his rise to world fame was, and the extent of his influence on writers such Shaw, Wilde, and Joyce who were seeking to escape the shackles of Victorianism. Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism also rewrites nineteenth-century literary history; positioning Ibsen between visual art and philosophy, the book offers a critique of traditional theories of the opposition between realism and modernism. Modernism, Moi argues, arose from the ruins of idealism, the dominant aesthetic paradigm of the nineteenth century. She also shows why Ibsen still matters to us today, by focusing on two major themes-his explorations of women, men, and marriage and his clear-eyed chronicling of the tension between skepticism and the everyday. This radical new account places Ibsen in his rightful place alongside Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Manet as a founder of European modernism.
Distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning. Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar’s analysis starts with the building blocks of whole plays – plot, character creation, genre and structure – and moves on to scenes and devices. He shows how plays share a common architecture without which the uniqueness of their authors’ vision would be invisible. What does King Lear have in common with Cinderella? What does Jaws owe to Ibsen? From Aeschylus to Alan Ayckbourn, from Chekhov to Caryl Churchill, are there common principles by which all plays work? How Plays Work is a masterclass for playwrights and playmakers and a fascinating guide to the anatomy of drama. 'lucid, deeply intelligent... combines theoretical acumen with the assured know-how of a working dramatist' Terry Eagleton, TLS 'Fascinating... Read it. You will learn a lot' The Stage
At the end of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, Nora Helmer walks away from her family and comfortable life. It is 1879, late on a winter's night in Norway. She's alone, with little money and few legal rights. Guided by instinct and sustained by will, Nora sets off on a journey that impoverishes and radicalizes her, then strands her on the harsh Minnesota prairie. She's searching for love, purpose, and her true self, but struggles to be honest in a hostile world. Meanwhile, in 1918, a young university student tries to escape her family's bourgeois conformity as she unravels her grandfather's hidden shame and the fate of a shadowy feminist who vanished years earlier. With this inventive work of historical fiction, Swallow answers a question that has dogged theater audiences for A Doll's House: whatever happened to Nora Helmer? Masterfully crafted and painstakingly researched, the twin story lines of Searching for Nora combine to tell a powerful tale of redemption as they unfold over four decades in the fjords of Norway and the unforgiving American frontier. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Wendy Swallow writes about women's challenges, now and in the tender past. A memoirist, journalist and professor, Swallow spent ten years working on Searching for Nora, traveling to Norway to interview Ibsen scholars and Norwegian historians, and driving across western Minnesota to hear the stories of immigrant grandparents and experience the wide, empty land. She is also the author of Breaking Apart: A Memoir of Divorce (Hyperion/Thea) and The Triumph of Love over Experience: A Memoir of Remarriage (Hyperion). Her work has been critically acclaimed by Publishers Weekly, Elle, Booklist, Newsday, and The Washington Post, among others, and reprinted in many magazines. She and her husband divide their time between Reno, Nevada, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. AUTHOR HOME: Reno, NV