IBSEN

Antigone

Weekend HW: Interactive Oral – Reflection RD 300-400 words.  This is your final journal, which I will collect on Monday.

Class Monday we will be completing the in-class writing.  Take some time this weekend and prepare – review your journals and notes and come prepared to write.

Ibsen:
Journals for Ibsen will be a little different.  We’ll focus on six areas for each journal.   Our goal is to track the topics through the play as opposed to jump around to different topics for the reading.  I’m expecting you to tab and think about all six topics, but you need only write on one topic each night.  You may choose a different topic each night or you may choose to discuss the same topic and examine how Ibsen’s develops an argument.

 Topics:

1.  Social structures:  What rules or structures of society does Ibsen introduce?  Consider who feels compelled to conform and who is unaffected by them?  How does Ibsen create the structures?  What are the benefits of the structures? What are the consequences to them?

2.  Environment: Darwin’s theories influenced many writers of the late 1800’s.  Part of Darwin’s theory suggested that one’s environment influenced his/her actions.   Consider the environments of the characters, both present environment and what is hinted about the past.  Does Ibsen seem to embrace or reject Darwin’s theories? 

Besides examining the environment to understand a character’s actions, please also consider the Norwegian culture’s link with nature.  Norwegian’s culture suggests that removing yourself from buzz of civilization is essential for the spiritual well-being of a person.  How does Ibsen use the natural and manmade landscape of the play?

 
3.  Family:  What type of relationships do we see? 

4.  Motif/Techniques: Does Ibsen use doubling or oppositions?  Where, how and to what effect?

5.  Theme:  Which characters are honest and which are dishonest?  How do characters create illusions?  Who assists in the illusions: how and why?  Who tries to break the illusions: how and why?  Consider how Ibsen discusses shame and guilt. Where do you see it and how do the characters cope with it?  Do you notice any patterns that Ibsen creates?

6.  "Realism and Naturalism are terms used to describe fiction that aims at minute fidelity to actual existence.  Realism connotes an attempt to give the illusion of the ordinary life, in which unexceptional people undergo everyday experiences"(Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 2)  Identify ways in which Ibsen portrays the common man and the common experience.
 

Reading Due: Act 1 Monday, Act 2 Tuesday, Act 3 Wednesday, Act 4 Thursday, Act 5 Friday.