How We Shop?

We may see them as American inventions, but we have fallen in love with them. Every weekend, millions of us indulge in some 'retail therapy'. The shopping mall is one of the most potent symbols of modern life; we go there not just to buy, but to eat, to hang out, may be to got to cinema or entertain the children. But behind the glistening facade of the shopping mall is world of cut-throat competition, aggressive planning and big money, where retailers and marketing experts are developing ever-more sophisticated ways to keep the tills ringing. 

The above precise was just a trailor. If you want to experience more of this entertaining and shrewd potrait of our fascination with shopping then do read - ' The call of the mall' by 'Paco Underhill'.

Human Behaviour

Compare and Contrast the Literary Movements - Realism and Naturalism

in ‘A Doll’s House’ and ‘Miss Julie’

A literary movement is one of the categories, based on form, style or subject matter, into which prose works of all kinds can be divided. Realism is the literary movement used to characterize works concerned with representing the world or the everyday scenes of the contemporary life as it is rather than as it ought to be. On the other hand, naturalism is claimed to give an even more accurate depiction of life than realism where the human beings shape their characters depending on the two major forces- hereditary and environment.

Henrik Ibsen in his play, A Doll’s House renders the exigent and demanding values of the conservative middle- class Victorian society with its façade of false morality, thereby showing most of the elements of a realistic drama.

‘Helmer: It’s because you plead for him that I can’t help him. Everyone at the Bank knows I’ve sacked him. If it comes out that the new manager changes his mind when his wife demands it –

Nora: What’s wrong with that?

Helmer: you mean if my little terrier got her way? I’d be a laughing stock. Before the whole staff. They’d think anyone could work on me. I couldn’t have that. In any case, I can’t take Krogstad back, under any circumstances.’¹

In the above conversation between Nora and Helmer the playwright has put Nora’s dialogue as an unrhetorical prose question where Helmer’s answer to it shows that he is more apprehensive about his prestige and reputation in the society than listen to his wife and save his family from Krogstad’s doom.

Ibsen has pictured the discussions between the husband and wife in such a manner that the readers find the dialogues to be colloquial and a part of their everyday life, hence showing realistic features. Also, when it was brought to Helmer’s knowledge about

Nora’s deceitful actions through Krogstad’s letter and Nora tries to abandon the family, Helmer stops her.

He tells her ‘as for you and me, we must go on as if nothing had changed between us.

In public, you’ll stay on here obviously. But, I won’t have you near the children. I can never trust you again.’²

This shows that Torvald is very conscious of people’s perception about him and his stand in the community. He demonstrates his deep need for society’s respect. Although he says that Nora has ruined all his happiness in his life and its all 'rags, crumbs, pretence, ____’³ – and that he doesn’t want her to remain in the house because his chief concern is saving” the appearance of his house.

Thus, Ibsen has utilized the elements of realism impressively to show that Torvald adapts to what society requires of him. According to him, pretending to be reputed in the eyes of the community is the only way to save his family from the destabilizing threats of the society.

In contrast, Strindberg uses scientific objectivity to handle his characters in the play Miss Julie where he has suggested many factors in explanation of, Miss Julie’s sad fate.

‘Julie- you see my mother was not of noble birth, but came of quite plain people. She was brought up in the ideas of her time about equality, and women’s independence and that kind of thing. And she had decided aversion to her marriage. There fore when my father proposed to her, she said she wouldn’t marry him- and then did it just the same.’⁴

The protagonist of the play, Miss Julie tells these words to jean to show that she had inherited her behavior from her mother and hence spent most of the time with the servants. This can also be seen when jean comments on the countess being there at home in the kitchen, among the cows and that she would wear cuffs till they were dirty. These characteristics of the countess have influenced Miss Julie genetically such that when she is born against her wishes she brings her up in a perfectly natural state. Miss Julie was to learn everything that a boy is taught – to prove that a woman is just as good as a man.

Also the countess was tied up in so many restrictions that she had no freedom or free will. This compelled her to take revenge against her husband as he had made himself master in his own house.

Miss Julie was brought up in such an environment because of the true circumstances, she learned to suspect and hate men and promised herself that she would never become a man’s slave. Therefore in the stable yard she made his fiancé leap over her horse whip in order to dominate over him.

Consequently, Strindberg has molded miss Julies character by the two factors of heredity and environment which further divided into her mothers fundamental inborn instincts, fathers mistake of not being a part in bringing up her daughter, her hatred for the male gender, her own nature with a weak and degenerate brain and her obsession with animals, dancing and spending time with the servants of the house and thus in all showing a naturalistic interpretation of a character.

Another feature of naturalism is that the characters in the literary work like lower animals have no soul and therefore religion and morality are irrelevant to them. The signs of these have been represented in both the plays.

‘Krogstad- may be not. But contracts the kind of contract you made with me, I know all about those. You understand? Good. Do as you please. But remember one thing: if I lose everything a second time, you keep me company.’⁵

Krogstad is the antagonist in A Doll’s house as he threatens Nora, to let out the secrets between them and about the contract to Helmer, if she doesn’t influence her husband to give Krogstad back his job. He uses immoral decisions to take advantage of Nora’s crime- forgery of signatures.

In spite of this, he has reasonable and valid motives for doing this as he wants to keep his job safe to earn a living for his family.

Thus Henrik Ibsen used one of the features of naturalism in his play to develop Krogstad’s character who feels that moral values and virtues are irrelevant in doing something fruitful for his family, unlike Torvald who desires respect for selfish reasons.

In Miss Julie Jean is shown as such a character to whom religion is not important.

Christine- are you coming with me to church? I think you need a good sermon on top of such a deed.

‘Jean- no, I am not going to church today. You can go by yourself and confess your own deeds.’⁶

This reveals about jean that he is an atheist and doesn’t consider religion to be pertinent as he is more interested I raising himself and making a lot of money.

The common feature of both naturalists and realists is that both prefer representing the common place and the everyday in minute detail. But they might render their materials in different ways.

In a realistic novel, the subject matter and techniques are illustrated in a manner that makes them seem to the readers the very stuff of ordinary experience. This element can be seen in A Doll’s house where Ibsen has casted the chemistry between nor and Helmer in accordance with literary conventions such that the readers have learnt to interpret the text in a way that would seem to be a reflection of the everyday husband- wife relation.

Along with it the dramatist has added the children a close good friend- Dr. rank who is aware of their family matters and later creating a scenario of problems faced by the family due to society pressures and then trying to overcome them by means of pomp and show.

This picture is the reality show of every bourgeois family which one sees it in its everyday life or experiences the same where its defining characters are mainly the social problems such as marriage, religion, property rights and the relations between the sexes.

In disparity with it, August Strindberg has handled his characters and subject matter employing scientific objectivity. He has given a detailed description of the mundane affairs of day to day life with a profound ordinariness as compared to the work by Ibsen.

This can be evidently noticed from the lines below where the tragedian has used his language in a minute and detailed way to describe the working and the appearance of the servants in a counts house:

‘Christine is standing by the stove, frying something in a pan. She has on a dress of light colored cotton, which she has covered up with a big kitchen apron. Jean dressed in livery and carrying a pair of big spurred riding boots, which he places on the floor.’⁷

Through this, we know that Henrik Ibsen has written his prose work in a realistic way where human behavior is determined largely by the society with a few elements of

naturalism as well, where as august Strindberg has solely been a naturalist by using the more concentrated and stream- lined form of realism, where the readers recognize the characters depending on the influence of heredity and environment.