The Lady From the Sea: Melodramatics

In the beginning of reading The Lady From the Sea, I felt that aspects of this play were more melodramatic than A Doll House. Both had the same basic conflict, that is the secret being kept from Ellida and Nora’s husbands. And like Nora in A Doll House, Ellida emotionally and difficultly reveals her secret. But Ibsen drags out the suspense of Ellida’s revelation, having her mention to Arnholm in Act I, “…I want to tell you something now that I couldn’t have mentioned then to save my life (p. 9).” However, she never actually tells Arnholm, and the act ends. It isn’t until the next act that she tells her husband, Wangel, about her promise to the Stranger, her “engagement,” as she calls it (p. 18). Wangel is confused and hurt, and doesn’t seem to understand how their promise could amount to a lasting commitment to one another. But it is with Ellida’s statement about her baby’s eyes – “The child had the stranger’s eyes (p. 22)” – that she rushes dramatically offstage, and the act ends. The ending of this play, while still melodramatic in many ways – such as Wangel’s decision to free Ellida coming only just in the nick of time (p. 48) – ends on such a happy and uplifting note (such a contrast to A Doll House) that it almost doesn’t fit. I suppose that melodramas are allowed to end happily, it is just that there is such a difference between the endings, that I hesitate to refer to them as the same type of play.