The Role Of Change In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

‘A Doll’s House’ is written by Henrik Ibsen, is centred around the protagonist Nora Helmer, who has several important changes throughout the play. However after reading the book twice and analysing the acts in detail you focus not on how Nora changes, but why this drastic change in her character comes about. From the beginning of the play we see that Nora is not in touch with reality and lives in a world she has made up. However throughout we see that several events let the harsh reality of her life creep into her conscience. This has exposed the question to what extent is Nora’s process of realisation self-inflicted, or of the fact that she is driven into this change by those around her, which is most notably her husband, Torvald. We do see

We see his a very controlling and almost derivative man. Nora is seen by him as an object, a possession like being that is just another piece of the puzzle that makes up his life. We realise that Nora is only in Torvalds’s life, not because he loves her, but because it was strict tradition to do so in this time. He rejects Nora and pushes her away from him with his sarcastic and derogatory comments such as pet

She is constantly pushed by Torvald, and to her it all builds up and she is not able to cope with the way Torvald treats her. This pushes her to the result of her realization process and it is then that she comes to terms with the fact that she has to leave Torvald in order to be happy and free. I think that Nora’s interactions with her husband does cause her to change throughout the novel, playing a huge role in Nora’s self-realization process.

However we do see that Nora is willing to participate in the dysfunctional relationship that she has with her husband. She realizes that Torvald sees her in a different light and she understands that he sees her in a childlike way, that she is innocent and does what he says. However as Torvald pushes her away we see that see eventually has to drop the façade. She feels the need to please Torvald in order to make them both happy and to make sure the secret that she is hiding does not slip out which would seriously affect their relationship. The main way of hiding this dark secret is to use pet names whenever she tries to persuade her