Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House is a three-act play that takes place in a Norwegian upper middle class household during the late 19th Century. The significance of Ibsen’s play derives from the destiny of a married woman in a male dominated society which created a great deal of controversy as it challenged traditional marriage and focused on the self-discovery of an individual. All of the play’s main characters contrast with one another; this is seen with Nora and Torvald and with Mrs. Linde and Krogstad, especially when it comes to communication, honesty, love, and a mutual respect. The female protagonist, Nora Helmer is the silly, child-like wife of Torvald Helmer. Nora saved her husband’s life years ago when he was overworked to nearly …show more content…
He is her foil. Torvald is the epitome of the husband in the late 1800s. His character stands for all of the social values that Nora must stand up against. Unlike Nora, Torvald lives in the outside world. He has a powerful management position at a bank, a job that requires him to go with everything society wants. Ibsen designed Helmer to be unlikeable by the audience because of his representation of social status to the point of absurdity. Torvald is no different than her father. She was “papa’s doll” and now she has become Torvald’s “doll-wife” (3.720). Torvald loves the idea of being Nora’s provider and it gives him “great pleasure” to “criticize…and correct” Nora during their dance (2.707). Despite being saved by his wife, he believes that he is able to handle any kind of hardship that comes their way. He will “protect [her] like a hunted dove…saved from a hawk’s claws” and is even willing to risk his “life’s blood, and everything” to protect her from the harsh world (3.716). Torvald lusts after his wife, but almost never shows any kind of love for her in the way a modern husband would. He takes her away from a part early so he could “be all alone” with her (3.713). At this point, Nora is “all the beauty” that is his; she belongs to him, like she is his doll …show more content…
Her life and her interactions with her former lover, Nils Krogstad, is almost the complete opposite of what Nora and Torvald have went through. Linde is a widow; she claims to have married a man for money rather than love so she could care for her mother and her two brothers. After her mother passed, Christine was left on her own, where she found work and became self-sufficient. Christine arrives at Nora’s house in search of a job at the bank that Torvald owns. Krogstad also arrives at the Helmer’s household. Nils Krogstad was the man Christine was going to marry; she had to leave him because he was not a financially secure as the man she married. When the two reunite, their relationship is everything that Nora’s and Torvald’s relationship is not. The couple reunites just before the Helmer’s break up. They are both open with each other, and are willing to communicate. Christine explains to Krogstad that she had to leave him because she “could do nothing else” (3.709). She had to care for her family and his “prospects seemed hopeless then” (3.709). They both talk to each other like people, something that could not be found in Nora’s relationship with her husband. They are honest with each other. Krogstad describes himself as a “shipwrecked man clinging to a bit of wreckage” (3.709). When Christine admits to taking his job at
Nora deserts her family and walks out the door into a life of hardship, whereas Christine unites with Krogstad to form a new, hopefully happy home. By the end of the play, Nora is on the road to becoming the wise woman of the world that Christine already is.
Krogstad is different from Torvald because he is not as well off economically and socially and this leads him to try an extremer form of manipulation. Krogstad is desperate to keep his job at the bank and tries to get Nora to secure the job with her husband through blackmail. Since he was once found to be forging documents, his reputation has been flaky, so in order to regain his reputation for his sons: "For their sake I must win back as much respect as I can in the town" (22), he needs to keep his job at the bank.
Torvald is constantly referring to her through the use of pet names such as (quote pet names from book) and only ever refers to her by name when he is scolding her. Not only does Torvald see her as his doll, but also as her child (quote near end of story). By keeping Nora dependent and obedient to him, he plays the role of Nora’s second father. Nora eventually sees that her daughter is being treated in the same manner that she was her entire life, as a doll. In comes Mrs. Linde, Nora’s childhood best friend, whom she greats rather hesitantly.
He uses many imperatives and speaks to her in the 3rd person. The difference in each characters’ use of language is a personification of the power they have in their relationship. While Nora uses general descriptors indicating a lack of finite knowledge. Torvald delivers commands in a belittling way, a constant affirmation. to his wife (and himself) that he is the man of the house, and.
Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a controversial play focusing on the marriage of Nora and Torvald Helmer. The play is filled with symbols that represent abstract ideas and concepts. These symbols effectively illustrate the inner conflicts that are going on between the characters. Henrik Ibsen’s use of symbolism such as the Christmas tree, the locked mailbox, the Tarantella, Dr. Rank’s calling cards, and the letters allows him to give a powerful portrayal to symbolize aspects of characters and their relationship to each other.
The enforcement of specific gender roles by societal standards in 19th century married life proved to be suffocating. Women were objects to perform those duties for which their gender was thought to have been created: to remain complacent, readily accept any chore and complete it “gracefully” (Ibsen 213). Contrarily, men were the absolute monarchs over their respective homes and all that dwelled within. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora is subjected to moral degradation through her familial role, the consistent patronization of her husband and her own assumed subordinance. Ibsen belittles the role of the housewife through means of stage direction, diminutive pet names and through Nora’s interaction with her morally ultimate husband, Torvald. Nora parades the façade of being naïve and frivolous, deteriorating her character from being a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the security of home and ironically her own sanity. A Doll’s House ‘s depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th century housewife and the societal pressures placed upon her displays a woman’s gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald’s progressive infantilization of Nora and the pressure on Nora to adhere to societal norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century societal standards and their oppressive nature result in the gradual degradation of her character that destroys all semblances of family and identity.Nora’s role in her family is initially portrayed as being background, often “laughing quietly and happily to herself” (Ibsen 148) because of her isolation in not only space, but also person. Ibsen’s character rarely ventures from the main set of the drawi...
Nora was wife of Helmer and a mother of 3 children. They lived in a house where their nurse Anne-Marie took care of the children and Helene which was their maid took care of the house work. Nora was a stay at home mother and would occasionally take on little jobs in order to make ends meet. Nora has lived her whole life as a puppet. Her life has always been controlled by someone else; first by her father and then by her husband Helmer. “Her whole life is a construct of societal norms and the expectations of others” (Wiseman). “Nora’s father would force his beliefs on her and she would comply with them lest she upset him; she would bury her personal belief under Papa’s. According to Nora, Torvald was guilty of the same things” (Wiseman). Nora has always lived her life according to the beliefs of someone else. She didn 't know how to live life any other way because this is how she was raised. She felts trapped in the life she lived because she knew no other way of living besides her current lifestyle. Due to Nora being controlled her whole life she seemed childish and lacked knowledge of the world outside her house. At the end of the story Helmer decides to show his true colors once his future was threatened. This made Nora realize that she does not love her husband nor does he love her, and decides that is not the life she wants to live. “Helmer: You talk like a child. You don 't know anything of the world you live
Lastly, the amount of deception and dishonesty between Nora and Torvald would have broken the marriage even without Krogstad’s extortion plot. Both Nora and Torvald are living in a world of lies, and both of them are not honest with each other and themselves. In the beginning of the play, Torvald and Nora are portrayed to be a perfect couple with a perfect life. Nora is seen returning home after a day of shopping and is greeted lovingly by her husband. Even though they seemed to have had some financial troubles in the past, Torvald just received a new job as a bank manager and everything seemed to be alright, but behind the scenes nothing was alright.
Throughout A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen illustrates through an intriguing story how a once infantile-like woman gains independence and a life of her own. Ibsen creates a naturalistic drama that demonstrates how on the outside Nora and Torvald seam to have it all, but in reality their life together is empty. Instead of meaningful discussions, Torvald uses degrading pet names and meaningless talk to relate to Nora. Continuing to treat Nora like a pampered yet unimportant pet, Torvald thoroughly demonstrates how men of his era treat women as insignificant items to be possessed and shown off. While the Helmer household may have the appearance of being sociably acceptable, the marriage of Torvald and Nora was falling apart because of the lack of identity, love, and communication.
His appearance in the story proves to be the catalyst forcing Nora to examine how happy she is hiding secrets from her husband for fear that he would not love her if he finds out. Because both are the lone ones in A Doll’s House who see every case about morality situationally, they starkly see how those who do not conform to society’s conventions are greatly ostracized. Krogstad has even experienced this isolation when he is shunned from his work place despite being fairly competent at his tasks. This unfair treatment lingers in Nora’s mind as she struggles with her own worries. To aid her toward the direction of self-honesty, Krogstad and Christine decide that the truth of Nora’s actions must be revealed since they have just finished their talk about their feelings and pasts. Ultimately, Nora realizes that no matter her efforts, she is fake for constantly trying to be someone she is not without finding who she really is. She sees that Torvald treats her horribly like how he treats Krogstad because both committed a similar crime, and she decides that if Torvald acts the same way to her as to a coworker for the sake of appearances, she is like a stranger to him. The two must separate to reflect in order to live a life without deceit, even if it means breaking this perfect doll-house life Nora has meticulously crafted for the past eight
Both Krogstad and Nora have proven themselves double-dealing, disregarding morality in some cases and the culture of their households. Krogstad reveals that he has malicious intentions threatening the image of the Helmer family. No one is so far gone as to being unable to find their morality. The only time that one is incapable of being able to be morally upright is when they simply disregard the wrong of their actions. Krogstad shows that he is “dangerous” when he threatens to blackmail Nora. He displays his character and its flaws with his bad intent. He shows himself to be a self-serving individual be simply caring for himself and not the lively hood of Nora and her husband. Nora in her own right has shown us, the reader, her double dealing and secretive nature. Her reputation and appearance in her home to her husband are endangered by the constant fact that she disregarded Torvald’s disdain for debt. She therefore, must struggle to keep her head above water in upholding her unique relationships to the other
an example of the individual’s struggle against society” (Mitchell 136). She was punished severely for something that could be considered a petty crime and the crime ultimately led to her and Torvald’s separation and her leaving the house. In addition, “Christine Linde and Nils Krogstad’s subplot ending in marriage happens at the same time as Nora’s break with Torvald.” (Davies 51) The sharp contrast between the two creates conflict within the audience members because Krogstad is being rewarded for blackmail as Nora is being punished for saving her husband’s life.
When Torvald does not immediately offer to help Nora after Krogstad threatens to expose her, Nora realizes that there is a problem. By waiting until after he discovers that his social status will suffer no harm, Torvald reveals his true feelings, which put appearance, both social and physical, ahead of the wife whom he says he loves.
Both are willing to sacrifice themselves for values dear to their lives. This act of aiding significant loved ones gives us a better understanding of Nora. It gives us an image of who the character Nora really is.
In "A Doll's House", Ibsen portrays the bleak picture of a role held by women of all economic classes that is sacrificial. The female characters in the play back-up Nora's assertion that even though men are unable to sacrifice their integrity, "hundreds of thousands of woman have." Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad, her true but poor love, and marry a richer man in order to support her mother and two brothers. The nanny has to abandon her children to support herself by working for Nora. Though Nora is economically advantaged, in comparison to the other female characters, she leads a hard life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriages dominant member. Torvald condescends Nora and inadvertently forces Nora to hide the loan from him. Nora knows that Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, could aid in saving his life.