A Doll's House, Christopher Plummer & Julie Harris (ending)

[Donald6193]

I have to memorize Torvald's lines for Drama by tomorrow. Ugh.

[mbrboc]

Superb acting. After bringing three children into the world, she is the one who looks like a jack ass for leaving them behind after 8 years of dancing and manipulating her husband. What a nutter!

[dychansavan]

im still reading the play... dang this part is sad

[123mercedess]

I understand that she wanted to be free but she is a mother first then a wife second..

She was just selfish

[Garrus2011]

man please tell me from where can i download the video? i need it for my school project please reply

[scottski02]

Wow, no religious arguments even though religion was brought up? Strange.

Anyway, I found this play to be a lot like the Greek tragedy Madea, in the sense that I felt no sympathy for any of the main characters, only the minor ones. When Nora walks out I immediately thought of the children, and how this will affect them for the worse. What will the children grow up to be like, living in a home where their mother abandoned them, their family torn apart from the selfishness of their parents?

[bruceagogox]

@scottski02 In Medea, Medea MURDERS her own children to get revenge, and spends a lot of time plotting and executing revenge for her scorn.

Nora simply wants to be treated as a human being and not a doll, to be an equal to her husband and so she leaves to find herself. Men have done it too, and still do.

[scottski02]

@bruceagogox I didn't mean that Nora is the same as Medea, but just like Jason and Medea, I didn't feel sympathy for either Nora or Torvald. Both of them act selfishly, and because of that, their children will suffer, just like Medea's children, who are caught in the crossfire of their parents' hatred.

[plummerfan80]

Who wouldn't fall in love with Torvald as played by the lovely Christopher Plummer she really annoys me gives women a bad name, its a great play though, someone said CP was wooden, they must have seen a different play to me

[heavenlylk]

I read Ibsen wrote this story about a friend's true life story, but the real Nora's husband ended up putting her in a insane asylum & when she got out she became a great author.

[LightsInTheNightz]

This is exhausting to perform. I just did the final scene last Monday as part of a historical styles class.

[HighPlainDrifta]

The squirrel Is on the move again...

[aSMARTblonde13]

wonderful! harris embodied who nora was and what ibsen wanted us to know.... she added emotion into this already emotional speech. it makes me feel empowered as a woman. yet, i cant help but to feel badly for torvald.... i feel like he did love nora. but she wasnt happy, so it was for the best. i hope that they were to be happy, the two characters, however ibsen imagined them. bravo. i love this play on paper, but on stage i love it even more. excellent!

[johnnysbubbletop63]

Getting by on second hand wishes.'" The dialogue's so good.

[bluegrl12491]

This helped me understand the play more. THANKS!

[playadominical]

The door should have been slammed off screen, and with emphasis. It is really the whole point of the play, the shutting out of androcentric hegemony while simultaneously glorifying her catharsis while acknowledging her failing as a parent by raising her children the same way her father did. This is the heart of the play and Ibsen insisted that the slamming of the door is the key moment in the play.

[phantom0288]

@playadominical closing of the door and seeing Nora leave is a key moment Torvalid realizes that she is leaving and not coming back slaming the door would have made Nora seem childish and make her look like she had learned nothing.Being subtle makes much more of a impact then shoving it in the audiences face. I am a theater student when it is performed on stage the way it to be performed seeing her leave is very important the door is always at center stage to draw the audiences focus to it.

[playadominical]

@phantom0288 that's interesting. i've never seen it performed, but i've studied Ibsen extensively and my understanding is that he preferred the door to be slammed, and off screen, for the reasons I stated. obviously it's open to interpretation, but I tend to think that it's best to perform it the way the writer wanted, but that's just me.

[sk8t3xas]

Heartbreaking ending.. SPRING BREAK TIME TO SKATE :O

[OvariesOfSteel]

I just don't find anything likeable about Nora.

[StillOBSESSED]

@OvariesOfSteel I kind of agree. But I do find her leaving Torvald at the end of the play a redeeming quality :)

[OkieGurl523]

She's very selfish. I have to go find myself and you and the children can go to hell, me me me me!!!!! Pfffffft.

[kieghacat]

she's crazy. who would leave christohpher plummer? he's so beautiful!

[JeeRant]

When I first read this play in high school, I found Nora shrill and petty. Now I realize what enormous courage and moral strength it takes for her to leave Torvald. I admire her.

[TKSiate]

this music on repeat gives me the creeps

[DeSpecial]

Thanks for posting !!

[fabolkriserr]

you just saved me 3 hours of reading =) thank you!

[hansecuador]

@fabolkriserr if u go to el camino college and read this book for ms. bachmann's class for her quiz then holy shit wat a huge coincidence

[fabolkriserr]

@hansecuador lmao haha dude youll be suprised hhow many people actually decided to watch the play from bachmann's class instead of reading it! and yes i bealieve we're in the same class -_-

[fabolkriserr]

you just saved 3 hours of reading =) thank you!

[noirrachel]

Thank you for posting this video. I just have watched the entire play. It made an impression on me. Torvald really showed himself as an egoist, but I also think that Nora was wrong to leave, and I hope she will return. Otherwise I do not understand what the play teaches us. When family is being destroyed, the world is being destroyed.

[al1936ful]

They change it some. The door slam is supposed to occur after Torvald's last line, and offscreen.

[Taharah007]

How many women do I know today that would DIE to find a husband like him. Feminism has DESTROYED the perfect life women once had...unfortunately, the children are the price we paid...In attempting to "find" ourselves, we destroyed ourselves. Nora is a poster woman of a discontented, neurotic, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman...Poor husband, poor children...

[noirrachel]

@Taharah007 I really like what you have written. I agree with you, but at the same time am trying to understand Nora.

[WonderWoman200290]

What happened to the door slam? Personally i found this a bit feeble compared to the Juliet Stevenson version. Perhaps Julie Harris's was a more realistic interpretation but i find her mewling whine rather grating and Christopher Plummer's Torvald is rather wooden compared to Trevor Eve

[knivesinmyhand]

I just really loved it,good post :) Im so sorry for Nora =/ Torvald, you MUST go to hell!

[frustratedummy09]

i loved the ending......im so touched...ok uh...weird.....no really...i am

[filipinagurl32]

wow i really did enjoy watching this =) thanx 4 the upload

[Syntavo]

Thanks so much for posting this. I had to read it tonight and I watched this instead. But watching this only intriged me more and now Im reading it. Lol.

[Rocafilm]

Thank you very much! It´s a great play :)

[jhonyrotten]

good adaptation. excellent post.

[me0415]

What a wonderful adaptation of the play. The play is truely ahead of it's time. I really enjoy Ibens plays.

[nswick1]

Is the ending an elaborate metaphor for suicide? Does Nora really leave at the end? Does Nora leave not because shes fed up with her life, but because she is ashamed and feels guilty because of her behave? Is Nora a narcissist? Is Nora truly repress. Is Nora the hero or villain. Is this play really about Nora. Is Nora really such a horrible person. At the end of the play stereotypical gender roles of the period are reversed. Etc. Etc read the play!

[nswick1]

I v been reading some of the comments and thats exactly my point. Torvaled is represented as a chauvinist monster and Nora is a feminist hero. I think it is ironic that this play is seen as a feminist rally cry when you could just as easily read it as being very anti feminist. Im not say thats what is going on im just saying that the play is so much more complex, beyond that of a simple reading.

[nswick1]

Yes! erica94a, it was published in 1879 and went to the stage that same year. It was very controversial when it came out, primarily because of the ending, and yes it still is one of the most hotly debated works of fiction.  People have a tendency to over simplify the plays meaning, witch is something of a shame.

[JustinistheWalrus]

@nswick1 Witches totally are a shame. =)

[nswick1]

read the play

[dglekjofg]

Plays are conceived to be performed. :)

[nswick1]

You are quite right, and dont get me wrong im not trying to degrade the film. however that being said this is not Ibsens a dolls house it is an interpretation of his original play as are all productions. Ibsens a dolls house is so tightly constructed, and complex that something, usually a great deal, is lost. The only way to really see and understand what Ibsen intended is to read the original play

[maxwellcofehouse]

@dglekjofg

soo much win

[railroaded1000]

@dglekjofg Yes, thanks for posting A Doll's House. Btw, there are three different BBC TV versions of Hedda Gabler on YouTube....

[Smieling]

That was an amazing ending

[kittiliciousanime]

this is so much better than reading the play XD

It's a really good play, it's just that, with this I can multi-task! thank you for posting this!

helped me too with seeing the emotions instead of just reading them!

and with english class!

[strung7]

Can you just leave kids behind? lol Aside from that, loved this.

[erica94a]

I read this play and wrote an essay for finals in the fall of 02. This story opened my eyes to the effects of conformity. The defining moments do persuade one to see the truth. To think that Ibsen wrote this play in the late 19th century, introducing concepts which caused much controversy about the role of women in society.

[dglekjofg]

Opening our eyes to the effects of conformity is the essence of theatre. And opening our hearts to the effects of emotion, as well. :)

[RobWein83]

@dglekjofg Yes, but Ibsen was one of the first pioneer's of "realism" in theatre which introduced these concepts in theatre as erica stated. Theatre was not like this before the movement of "realism". Ibsen conceived this new style of theatre.

[brianfl83]

I absolutely LOVE the end, this part is perhaps one of Ibsen's finest monologues. No wonder he is the father of modernism.

[eckosama]

so real it was scary

[zeroknight55]

I didn't like this play much at all. I feel like in the end, the only character I truly liked at all was Mrs. Linde. She was an honest hardworking person who ended up letting the final pieces unravel into place. Nora was a selfish naive woman who in the end blamed the people around her solely for how she was, and Torvald was the typical, stereotypical male in those times. Krogstad was selfish for blackmailing Nora.

I just...really didn't like this play at all. Good message though.

[eckosama]

i like degs

[unfinished8kt]

this is my favorite play of all time :)

[salisindie]

Awesome Play Not boring to read at all... Really loved it and its complexity...a real gift to literature...thanks Ibsen ....Cheers

[blade853]

ugh i think i'm going to puke in my suit... or torvalts

[bbrittanytothh]

i have to do this scene. nora is such a complex character

[Snowcat1521316]

thanks for sharing this. i had to read this for school last year and i had no idea that there was an adaption of the play. it was interesting to watch for sure and christopher plummer, yum! =D

[loskck]

Oh boy! I know that he's really mean but still he's so handsome I just had to forget about the cruelty!! LOL

[Revoltingblob]

THANK YOUUU

saved my ass

thabks from every one who watched this and did not read the play

i can almost say i love you for uploading all 12 videos in a play list

[valleygirl1919]

you tell him...girl power..lol

[blodbotina]

thanks for uploading this man!

yeah the whole story is ridiculous and it totally sucks ass but you know it'd be much longer and more painful to read all this bullshit than to simply watch it.

[applejackblack84]

amen

[blodbotina]

:S i got downrated for speaking the truth?... what the... xD

[condicionXdulce]

you obviously didn't get it at all. oh well, what a pity.

[blueberrylesbian]

That is not the truth. That is your opinion.

[blueberrylesbian]

They are all dolls, the lot of them. Even when  Torvald was playing dress up with Nora, she in turn was playing with Torvald and directing him to the point where the great miracle will happen. I liked how the ending kept going.

[Snowcat1521316]

=D tell me about it. i had to read it just last summer for school and it was dreadfully boring. i had to force myself to finish reading the damn thing. i enjoy the play better though, because christopher plummer is in it and it's more bearable. : ] it has a good lesson to it, though i think nora should've been smart enough to figure out earlier that her marriage was a sham.

it's kind of ironic that she had wanted torvald to save her and then she realized she wanted to be independent. :-/

[blodbotina]

with all due respect sir, I find it not having a lesson to it AT ALL. it is all so utterly and unbearably shallow and I can't find a single useful information in the whole play. and i find it ironic people like you dare posting something like that. if nora was truly smart, she wouldn't have been married at all. we don't need these kind of plays, there are plenty of shallow, romantic, delusional women in the world, i see those every day. do i really have to read about one for school too? fuck it

[Snowcat1521316]

i'm a mam, but it's cool. : ] well, it doesn't really have a lesson now that i've thought about it some more. you're right, if she was smart, she would never have gotten married or even stayed with him. but, just to note, this was back in 1879 when women were just seen as dependent mothers and wifes. it was utterly boring to read. i hated reading it for school. >: [

[blodbotina]

you simply don't get it, and you never will I'm afraid... but it's ok, it's not like you're the only one.

[Snowcat1521316]

you're saying the world is full of superficial people who believe they're in love when it's really just their view of what love is or should be. correct?

[blodbotina]

xD hilarious. no, no... please. come back in a few decades and i'll explain you. cheers

[eckosama]

boy someone is angry

[clonedghost]

haha shame on torvald's life

[djlaw56what]

yea i know

[ruslanuwc]

Thank you for uploading this movie, I really enjoyed it :)

[zoltar000]

You're an dick , you know that (I'm a man)

[not1easily1impressed]

Is Nora a fruitcake? I really want to know...I'm playing her in a scene from Doll House. And what is the greatest miracle?

[zoltar000]

the greatest miracle is if she fall's in love with Torvald again , something that won't happen because she says that she doesn't believe in miracles anymore.

[jferkfjkj]

I just saw the Fonda version and she screwed it up, Harris does it to a "T"

Bravo

[ObamaPress]

Thanks for this!!

[jackfable]

Dude, this upload ha s totally just saved my degree.

[seetherfan1369]

hahahaha i have an english quiz on this play today lmao

[SilverSiana]

I love this play. Julie Harris was absolutely wonderful as Nora! So much passion in her speech!

[hamedhamed5440604]

Thank you so much.That was really helpful

[9WlD]

Thanks for uploading!

[bryson3000]

thank you for uploading this

i wrote an on it

my professor said it was my best work so far

which doesn't say much

but it saved me 5 hours of reading

[rjq552]

Thank you for this. I read "A Doll's House" in

college and had seen snipets of the play. Again,thank you very much.

[djsghostly]

I had to read this play in my literature class last week. I found it interesting yet sad at the same time. One of my favorite plays I've read (though I'm not much of watching plays, to be honest). But a good play indeed.

[whatsarahsaid921]

I'm prepping a monologue from this scene for acting class. Watching other actors' interpretations of it has been really helpful, but I have a bone to pick with Julie Harris. She portrays Nora as a meek little whiney thing, and I'm not entirely sure that's accurate: Nora's inner rebellion is not yet defeated.

[ObamaPress]

Reply to Whatsarahsaid: I thought the idea was that Nora was 'a meek little whiney thing' until the final act?

[SweetieALD]

I'm doing this scene in this play for Studio class!:)

[santairis]

I love this play, when I read it I felt the same way when I actually saw it. Thanks for posting all three acts...thank you very much! I wish I could be as brave as NORA!!

[hell0hkitty]

this last act was a direct mirroring of what happened in my own life. thank you for posting it!

[susantamm]

Julie Harris is the kind of actress we don't see much anymore. She has a poetic, sensitive quality. She's very individual. Now, a lot of them look like clones and the roles! Actresses now have to represent tough chicks with perfect, immobile features and stainless steel legs. It's sad really.

[dglekjofg]

Poor Julie, with all her health problems, fate hasn't been benevolent with her. She certainly deserved better luck.

[jules10109]

Wow! A friend sent this to me cause he seen it in school, and he thought I could relate... Boy was he right! i think many today women can relate to this..... This looks like a good show, iam gona have to watch all of it now. :)

[ihateskirts]

i get where shes coming from, wanting independence and all, but who could leave chirstopher??? lol

[KatherineXIX]

I agree that he's really good-looking, but just in this clip he made me hate Torvald! It's amazing that he can be slimy and chauvinistic, too.

[dglekjofg]

This obviously means that, besides being amazingly handsome, he is first and foremost an incomparable player. :)

[susantamm]

Yes. It looks creaky. But in the fifties when I assume this was made, Ibsen's message was still somewhat radical. In the fifties women had given up jobs they held during the war and turned themselves into immaculate domestic accessories. Nora would have been told to get over it. Torvald had a moment and he was willing to forgive and forget - get in the kitchen. Actually Dr. Laura still gives this sort of advice. So maybe the director was censored or self-censoring.

[susantamm]

thank you for doing this.

[dglekjofg]

Thank you for subscribing! Don't you think James Costigan's adaptation tends to play the dramatic climaxes down (and not only in the ending) a bit too much? I think so, and in my opinion this is the only shortcoming of this little gem.

[susantamm]

i keep doing this wrong. My reply is actually in Comments. I'm new to youtube. I want to add that compared with some of the radicalized productions I also viewed - complete with fake penises and unbridled hysteria - I find this version more satisfying. Julie Harris is very touching.

[dglekjofg]

Julie Harris is an awesome player! And watching her and Chris working together is a real aesthetic pleasure.

[susantamm]

Yes. And it's interesting that he's so handsome. He's the kind of man who would be a real 'catch' for a girl who looked like Julie Harris. She's pretty of course - but he's a very good-looking guy. That gives a subtext to the piece and expains both his sense of superiority in the situation and her desperation. I saw a GISELLE once, where the Giselle was winsome but no beauty -and it gave a poignance to the ballet that was suprising.

[dglekjofg]

They had worked together for the first time in 1955 in the Broadway production of Anouilh's The Lark, in which Julie Harris played Joan of Arc and Chris Plummer played the Earl of Warwick (next to Henry II in Becket, one of the most amusing dramatic characters ever, but I adore Anouihl and I'm partial to him). And I remember watching an interview with Julie Harris in which she candidly and wittily confessed that she had fallen in love with Chris the very first time she had seen him performing.

[susantamm]

Well, who can blame her? She is certainly a sensitive actress. Are you an actor by any chance? I'm a playwright. It's hard by the way, to get out stuff about what really interests and impacts on women. A lot of roles now are superficial and compromised views of women and the poor actresses are not able to show their considerable talents. Julie represents a tradition of sensitive, fragile actors. I used to like Blyth Danner too.

[dglekjofg]

I'm a social science academic researcher! I'm afraid that nothing could be farer from an artistic profession, even though my main research interest is cultural/artistic production and consumption. :(

But in my spare time I'm very very fond of classical theatre and cinema, actors, directors, playwrights... and of course beautiful eyes just like Chris's. :)

[susantamm]

Yeah - sigh - he's very attractive.