Naturalism

Naturalism in literature 

The play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen contains some elements of naturalism. Naturalism is a literary current that sees itself as a protest movement against realism. Naturalism, like realism, strives for an objective and accurate of reality, but in contrast to realism, the depiction of misery and ugliness is not rejected, but actually demanded. Above all, therefore, the depiction of the ever-growing social inequality between the wealthy middle class and the increasingly impoverished working class is at the center of the representation of naturalism.

Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, however, does not describe the social hardship and existing misery of the time, but limits itself to depicting a period of the life of a bourgeois family. The early representatives of naturalism, however, recognize in Ibsen's turn to contemporary material and socially critical themes a reference to their current. Ibsen's influence on the playwrights of naturalism is undisputed.

Authors who used naturalism want to portray social problems as accurately and realistically as possible. Therefore, they use the colloquial language of the respective people and depict them in their typical social environment, which is also the case in Nora (see analysis "Language"). Closely connected to the characterization of the individual characters is therefore the precise use of language. The language of the people in the play clarifies their educational background, but is also repeatedly characterized by different levels of language and everyday speech.

The authors of realism and naturalism represent two different views of humanity. The realist authors still grant the individual free will and autonomy, while the naturalists, on the other hand, understand people as being determined by the factors of biological heritage and social circumstances.

The socially determined role of women

Naturalism was used in literary works mostly between 1880 and 1900. Ibsen's work (1779) was written shortly before the beginning of this movement. Although the play contains many features of bourgeois realism, it already has some naturalistic traits that will play an important role.

For naturalists, people are determined by their social circumstances, thus they are usually not responsible for their prob...