A Doll's House vs. The Visit

             In A Doll's House author Henrik Ibsen uses fazade to portray his characters as being shallower than what they truly are; this allowed him to give the characters Nora and Krogstad depth toward the dénouement. As for Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit, he uses fazade to give his play dramatic irony. Each play uses fazade, but the ulterior motives of the characters differ between the two plays. In A Doll's House, the characters conceal their motives for the better, while in The Visit, the townspeople conceal their motives for the worse. Ibsen and Durrenmatt's technique of fazade also differ by the character type on which they choose to utilize it. In Ibsen's play, he gives fazades to specific characters, while in Durrenmatt's play, the fazade is also used for a more generalized group. Upon examination of the plays, The Visit and A Doll's House, one can note that each author uses a strategy of facade to add depth to the characters.
             Henrik Ibsen created a fazade around two of his central characters that imposed ideas and emotions into the audience's mind. These thoughts were the opposite of what they appeared to be in the conclusion of the play. The characters' personalities were transformed in the dénouement when their true intentions were revealed. For instance, Krogstad appears to be a manipulative man with intentions only fitted for his personal gain. The audience is presented with the fazade that Krogstad wants to gain power and destroy the Helmer residence, without mention of his children and impoverished household. As the play progresses, the audience begin to realize that his intentions for bribing Nora are not completely ignoble. We find out that the basis for his actions is to retain his position at the bank to be capable of supporting his family. Another example of Ibsen's use of fazade is exhibited through the heroine, Nora. Here, Ibsen presents the audience with the stereotypical housewife of Victorian times.