Friday, August 2, 2013

Addendum: GKC on Ibsen

To: Ibsen the Norwegian playwright.

Re: A Doll's House


In Defense of Sanity, by G. K. Chesterton, p. 175: "But nobody seriously considers the remedy, or even the malady, or whether the existing individualistic dissolution [of the family] is a remedy at all. Much of this business began with the influence of Ibsen, a very powerful dramatist and an exceedingly feeble philosopher. I suppose that Nora of The Doll's House was inteded to be an inconsequent person, but certainly her most inconsequent action was her last. She complained that she was not yet fit to look after children, and then proceeded to get as far as possble from the children, that she might study them more closely."

Take that, Ibsen.

GKC FTW.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse