Ibsen's a Doll's House as Modern Tragedy

The most powerful and lasting contributions to the literature of a given era are invariably penned by bold thinkers struggling to comprehend the ever changing world in which they live. Spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, the European Modernist movement, which was propelled by the authorial brilliance of authors and playwrights such as like the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, was shaped and inspired by the momentous political and social upheaval roiling all the Old Continent following decades of societal transformation. The toppling of previously infallible monarchies and the sudden distribution of democratic ideals across boundaries of gender and class forced the literary-minded creative class to recalibrate their worldview instantly, and the result is a wealth of material -- including novels, plays and critical pieces of nonfiction -- all of which focuses intently on the crumbling conventions of marriage and faith. With the external foundations...
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