Realistic and Believable Characters

Realistic and Believable Characters

Ibsen is described as the father of realism. His characters speak in everyday language and action of the play takes place in the same setting over a short period of time.

Ibsen turned the theatre into a mirror for the audience. No longer was the theatre a place where you went to be entertained by the problems of Kings and Queens. It was about real people 'Mr and Mrs' - reality, discussing topical issues of the day.

By discussing these topical issues, the audience can relate to the characters in the play, and the therefore feel more believable.

As in 'A Doll's House', 'Rear Window' is set in the time of its creation, so those watching it for the first time would understand with ease any references made as it plays. Set in 1954, New York, and in an apartment complex, Jeff lives the life of a middle class, single man of the time. In that way, it is similar to the setting of 'A Doll's House', where the characters are made believable due to how ordinary and 'normal they are. This is the same as in 'A Doll's House, as it also shows an ordinary, middle class couple, which as in Rear Window, would've been the target audience who would be viewing both the movie and play. This brings the characters down to the audiences level, and makes them more believable and realistic.

As opposed to 'A Doll's House' and 'Rear Window', King Lear is set in the seventeenth century. It centres around Kings and Queens, as opposed to 'Rear Window' and 'A Doll's House', which centre around everyday characters. For that reason, it would seem difficult for someone to understand the issues faced by the characters, and therefore find them believable, however, family discord and mental illness (as in the case of Lear himself) are still prevalent in today's society, so while parts of the play may seem over the top, they can still be compared with everyday issues, and therefore the characters facing these issues, in this case, King Lear himself, could be seen believable in that they are an over-the-top version of what a person today may be.


Another way in which Ibsen makes the characters in 'A Doll's House' more believable is through the use of foil characters. In this case, Christine is a foil for Nora. Essentially, they exchange places through the course of the play. Nora starts as a married woman with children. Christine has no husband or children. By the end this is reversed. When we meet Christine, she is wearing outdoor clothes. When Nora leaves, she is dressed in the same way.
By showing us Christine and Nora as two polar opposites, and just how much they are capable of changing within a short space of time, we see the scenario and their characters as more believable by the play's end.

In 'Rear Window' there is no obvious foil characters to make the characters more believable, however 'Rear Window' has Jeff, the protagonist, and Thorwald, the antagonist as mirrors for each other.

Jeff constantly looks out the window, as he is bored with his injury. Thorwald has murdered his wife, and this has made him paranoid. Because of this, we see him occasionally glance out the window in worry. Though their reasons for being a 'peeking Tom', vary, they are both guilty of it, as Stella points out to Jeff.

Similarly, they both have love interests. Jeff has Lisa, and Thorwald has his wife. Both of these men have issues with their wives. Jeff finds Lisa beautiful, but boring. He wants her to share his interests rather than her own, or he won't marry her. Thorwald is angered by his nagging wife, and this drives him to murder her. They both may share issues, however, Thorwald's way of dealing with it is extreme, and although they may share these similarities, they are different in this way.
This way of writing characters is how Hitchcock makes them believable. By having Jeff share some of his traits with Thorwald, it gives the audience and idea of what Jeff could be, and how he could be worse, like Thorwald. This doesn't justify his actions, however it helps us to see him in a slightly better light, and prevent him from being some kind of antagonist to the film, as he constantly antagonizes Lisa. In this way, Hitchcock writes them as believable characters.

As in 'A Doll's House' and 'Rear Window', in 'King Lear', Edgar and Edmund are a foil for each other as they are polar opposites like Nora and Christine in 'A Doll's House'. Edgar represents light and good, while Edgar represents evil. Although Jeff and Thorwald aren't necessarily foils for each other, as in King Lear, Jeff is clearly the protagonist while Thorwald is the antagonist. Edgar and Edmund clearly show their set rolls within the play, and never cross these boundaries or show anything but good or evil, retrospectively. By having these two clear polar opposites in King Lear, it gives an obvious sense of right and wrong. By setting these boundaries, Shakespeare creates characters within a play that can fit their rolls well, and can do as one would realistically believe or expect from them.

Twice in the play, Nora talks to herself in asides. In each case, she uses this as a way of communicating her thoughts with the audience. We see her change as her secret is near reveal. We are told exactly how and what she is thinking, and it reflects some of our own worries and concerns for what is to come.
Our ability to know exactly how she feels is believable in that talking aloud to oneself about ones worries is something everyone does, and also, this allows us to see deeper into her character than what dialogue alone gives us and seem more realistic, even if her thoughts are part of the dialogue.

In 'Rear Window', characters never seem to speak to themselves in asides, however, Ms Lonelyheart seems often to be lost in her own thoughts. Rather than directly communicating what she is thinking by use of words, instead, Hitchcock writes Ms Lonelyheart through her actions. We see he desperation for love play out, and how she comes so close to suicide, all without the use of words, unlike Nora. This shows us how Hitchcock is capable or writing realistic, believable characters, without the use of dialogue.

In 'King Lear', soliloquys are a very common way for characters to speak directly to the audience. Most obviously, Edmund does this. Like Nora's asides in 'A Doll's House', soliliquays give the audience a direct view into the thoughts and mind of the characters, however, Edmund's soliloquys are much longer than Nora's asides, and give an in depth view of his thoughts and plans rather than just skimming the surface of one's thoughts, as in the case of Nora. Ms Lonelyheart's actions in 'Rear Window' are similar to Edmund's soliloquys in that through Edmund's soliloquys we can hear what he is thinking, just as we can see what Ms Lonelyheart is thinking.
By having Edmund communicate so directly to the audience and explain all of his plans, it also help us to more deeply understand his character and motives in the play, and set up our expectations of how we believe he will act through the course of the play. By giving us this insight and his motives, we don't just see him as some mindless power hungry son, but rather a power hungry son who feels betrayed by his father's attitude towards his, and has taken drastic actions in order to get his way. This makes him more believable to the audience.

Finally, I will discuss the importance of dialogue. As I stated previously, Ibsen's characters speak in an everyday language, but also their dialogue is believable, in that it reflects the atmosphere of each scene.
In the final scene, when Nora is confronted by Torvald and her secret is revealed, Torvald notably does most of the talking. Nora sits silently, only adding an occasional comment such as 'What about me?' or simply 'yes'. Her lack of speaking shows the impact his actions have had on Nora, and you can even see the moment she decides she's leaving him, as her answers grow few and far between.
As we are able to see her character slowly changing through the play, and then suddenly being forced to change due to Torvald's actions in the final scene, gives us a realistic view on the change of Nora's character through the duration of the play.

As in 'A Doll's House', dialogue plays an important role in 'Rear Window'. Through the use of dialogue, Hitchcock is able to develop the relationship, or in the case of Thorwald, the failing relationship between characters. Throughout a large part of the play, Lisa and Jeff speak to each other near or at the window. This allows for the development of plot while the relationship of Lisa and Jeff also reaches its ups and downs, as opposed to how Nora and Torvald don't communicate until things reach their climax, and Nora leaves Torvald. Nora and Torvald's relationship is similar to Thorwald and his wife's relationship, as Thorwald and his wife did not communicate, and in a fit of blind anger, Thorwald made the decision to kill his wife, as how Nora made the rash and bold decision to leave her husband. Dialogue not only allows characters to build connections between characters, but it also allows for the viewer to judge how realistic and believable play was been written. Dialogue that does not flow easily is stiff and awkward, meaning that for the audience to believe that these characters could be real, the dialogue must feel like something a person would say in a normal conversation. By having Lisa and Jeff talk while life goes on around them, it feels natural and realistic.

Finally, like in 'A Doll's House' and 'Rear Window', dialogue is an important plot device in driving the story forward and making the tragedy play out. Like in the case of both 'A Doll's House' and 'King Lear', dialogue is what can quickly build or destroy relationships, with the wrong or right words. In this case, it is the father-daughter relationship between Lear and Cordelia. Like in 'A Doll's House', it is the rash and sudden words of Torwald to Nora which so quickly break any connection she once felt to him. Their lack of communication meant it was only a matter or time before it happened, just as Lear's unrealistic expectations of Cordelia meant that it was only a matter of time before she disobeyed him, as she did in the first act. Like 'King Lear', in 'Rear Window', Thorwald makes a rash decision in the heat of the moment, and ends up murdering his wife. They didn't communcate as they should have, and Thorwald's expectations of marraige were not met, just like how Cordelia couldn't meet Lear's expectations in 'King Lear'.
The affect that dialogue and the lack of communication has on characters is a powerful one, and is enough to completely breakdown society. Because King Lear is a father who expects too much of his daughter, one can easily compare him to many modern day examples of parents in similar situations with their own kids. Because of this, the dialogue between them is what allows them to be believable.

For these reasons, I believe that the characters in 'A Doll's House', 'Rear Window', and 'King Lear' are all believable and well written in their own rights, and all of them can be easily linked or compared to each-other for these reasons.