IB Interactive Oral: Reflective StatementVictoria West 11BWhat have you learnt about the culture and context of the play, A Dolls House?The play A Dolls House was written and published in 1879 by Henrik Ibsen and is set in 19th century Norway. Our first interactive oral surrounding this play took place, having discussed Norways perception of women, religious beliefs, political and economic development over the 1800s as well as the life of Ibsen himself and his plays influence on feminism in Norway. Personally, found that I lacked cultural knowledge of women in Norwegian society during this time whilst reading the play and thereby took the liberty of selecting this topic area to research. I learnt that women in Norways patriarchal society lived their lives according to the societal expectations at the time. They were expected to tend to their husbands or fathers needs but at the same time being solely dependent on these male figures, which Lily explicitly conveyed by means of drawing parallels to Nora and Torvald in the play. Both married and unmarried women had gender-specific roles and responsibilities whereby they had little rights to do otherwise until well into the 20th century. This led to the discussion of feminism in Norway.The subject of feminism was mentioned to have been increasing in popularity since the mid-1800s. Since Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House was written for the cause of women, it had a huge influence on progression of feminism into the 20th century by raising awareness on contradicting Norways patriarchal society norms. Subsequently, Ibsens life was important to the discussion of the culture and context of the play since its plot and premise was based on a real-life event, whereby Nora was based on a friend of Ibsens, Laura, whose husband sent her to an asylum following her fall into debt on his behalf.Political and economic development of the time was discussed since the play has a recurring theme of money and finance throughout. With Norway having become independent from Denmark in the early 1800s, it was relatively poor, isolated and still in the process of forming its unique culture. Norways main religion was Christianity which was referenced in the play. I learnt that Christianity was introduced into Norway in the 1700s by traders and in the church; there were organisations that had a conservative influence on society. Beliefs such as that of morals being hereditary were common around this time, which can also be seen in the play with Torvald explaining to Nora that he constant lying will have a moral effect on the children.[408 words]