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Stylistic devices in a dolls house by henrik ibsen
Literary devices in a doll house by ibsen
The symbolism of a doll's house
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When attending a masquerade, a person is expected to wear a mask. In fact, it’s looked down upon if a mask isn’t worn. But, what if for some people that mask never came off? In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, each character has constructed their own metaphorical mask that they set firmly in place every morning when exiting their bed. Each character: Nora, Torvald, Kristine and Krogstad all have masks that they put in place when speaking to each other. Throughout most of the play, it is clear that all of the aforementioned characters have multiple facades that they use when speaking to one another; often switching quickly as they begin speaking to someone else. Henrik Ibsen’s use of the masquerade serves as an extended metaphor to show the masks that the characters use in their everyday lives.
At the beginning of A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer seems stable in her marriage and the way that her life has panned out. She doesn’t seem to mind the her husband, Torvald, speaks to her, even if the audience can blatantly see that he is degrading her with the names he chooses to call her. “Hm, if only you knew what expenses we larks and squirrels have, Torvald” (Ibsen, 1192). Nora is notorious throughout Act I to play into the nicknames that Torvald calls her. She portrays that she is this doll-like creature that needs to be taken care of. Furthermore, we see that Nora is excited for her husband’s new job that will increase their income substantially. This is the first mask that the audience is presented with. As the play continues, Nora reveals yet another mask, this is a mask of a woman who so desperately wants to be taken seriously. The audience learns that Nora had previously taken out a loan to save her husband’s life. She proves that ...
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...d children. The final mask of Krogstad that is seen is that of love and caring. In the end Kristine goes back to Krogstad stating that she always loved him and only left him because “I had a helpless mother and two small brothers. We couldn’t wait for you” (Ibsen, 1225). In the end it is Krogstad who has changed for the better, not Nora or Helmer. It is the very man that Torvald so easily condemned for his past mistakes.
Henrik Ibsen uses the masquerade party as a way to demonstrate the masks that the characters so often wear and change depending on who they are speaking to in that moment. The metaphor being that throughout the entire play the characters are preparing for a masquerade party.
Works Cited
Mays, Kelly. "Poems for Further Study." Norton Introduction to Literature. Eleventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 2013. 771-772. Print.
to discover and educate herself. She must strive to find her individuality. That the perception of woman is inaccurate is also supported by the role of Torvald. Woman is believed to be subordinate to the domineering husband. Instead of being the strong supporter and protector of his family, Nora's husband is a mean and cowardly man. Worried about his reputation he cares little about his wife's feelings and fails to notice many of her needs. The popular impression of man is discarded in favor of a more realistic view, thus illustrating society's distorted views. Ibsen, through this controversial play, has an impact upon society's view of the subordinate position of women. By describing this role of woman, discussing its effects, and predicting a change in contemporary views, he stressed the importance of woman's realization of this believed inferiority. Woman should no longer be seen as the shadow of man, but a person in herself, with her own triumphs and tragedies. The exploration of Nora reveals that she is dependant upon her husband and displays no independent standing. Her progression of understanding suggests woman's future ability to comprehend their plight. Her state of shocked awareness at the end of the play is representative of the awakening of society to the changing view of the role of woman. "A Doll's House" magnificently illustrates the need f...
Nora had a secret that whole play that Torvald didn’t know about. Nora saved his life by taking him out on a long vacation away from everything so he could clear his mind at a very bad time. She told Torvald the money really came from her Papa. The money really came from a loan she took out from Kogstad that was forged. Krogstad was a former bank employee and long friend of Torvald’s. Torvald was very angry when he first found out of this because he was scared of his appearance, but when Krogstad met a old girl friend of his he didn’t worry about the loan.
While we all may be shown different faces and persona’s each day, it never becomes clear which a true personality is and which is just a mask. Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates the need for her characters to disguise themselves from the rest of society in order to either be accepted by others or to be seen in a more pleasant manner. However, these characters who conceals themselves are ultimately hurt because of their inability to shed their false fronts and accept who they truly are.
Although Krostad’s blackmail does not change Nora’s whimsical nature, it opens her eyes to her underappreciated potential. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald,” (Find a different quote perhaps?) she exclaims in her confrontation with Torvald. She realizes that she has been putting on a facade for him throughout their marriage. Acting like someone she is not in order to fill the role that her father, Torvald, and society expected her to have.
...ntroversial theme. Ibsen expresses to the audience his hope for the "miracle" of true equality, when neither men nor women abuse the power that society gives them. When Nora sheds her doll's dress and steps out into the real world, she opens up a new realm of possibilities for all women.
Weintraub, Stanley. ""Doll's House" Metaphor Foreshadowed in Victorian Fiction." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 13: 67-69. Web. 6 Jan. 2011.
...t to blackmail to bring about his desires. However, when one learns more about Krogstad, one sees that he is desperately trying to prove himself to his society in order that he may support his children. Krogstad became a social outcast because society was unforgiving. It could not forgive Krogstad for committing a crime for a greater good. Krogstad becomes redeemed by love and learns to forgive. He forgives Christine for forsaking him; he also forgives Nora of her debt. While Torvald is ungrateful of his wife’s love, Krogstad appreciates the new life given to him and is resolved to reform his life. Furthermore, Krogstad serves as the catalyst which prompts the process of Nora’s maturation. In the process, he has also changed into becoming a kinder man. By the end of the play, the future looks bright and promising for Krogstad as he begins a new life with Christine.
Krogstad who was fired from the bank by Torvald is going to blackmail Nora if she does not help him get his job at the bank back. " When your husband was ill, you came to me to borrow two hundred and fifty pounds."
In Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”, characters are constantly changing their identity. Nora opens up the play by presenting her childish mind to Torvald. Always being in control, Torvald see’s Nora only as a child and not ever being serious. Her father and Torvald brainwashed her mind to act like a cute puppet to them. She pretends to be vulnerable to him to receive attention and money. Nora’s true self is hidden deep underneath herself waiting to appear. Because of unfortunate events in the play, Nora will stop at nothing to receive what is rightfully hers as her sense shifts from Torvald’s joking wife, into a self-empowering, prepared woman.
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, many characters perform actions that end up costing them literal money, morals, and even friendships. One of these characters is Torvald, whose dislike for anything “ugly,” cost him relationships with many other characters in the play. It is hinted throughout the play that Torvald never wants to be around anything ugly, and it is clear that the other characters know about this fetish for beauty. The first place where this impartiality towards ugliness is present is where Krogstad tells Nora that he plans on telling Torvald about their contract if she doesn’t get him his job back, and Nora explains her feelings about this.
The truth always has a way of coming out, no matter how hard one tries to keep it hidden. In Henrik Ibsen’s compelling play, A Doll’s House, the truth that Nora has been hiding comes to light through Krogstad and his deceitful actions. However, one may propose the question of Krogstad’s necessity in Nora’s action of leaving her family. Certainly, Krogstad acted as a catalyst in the story and pushed Nora to make the decision to leave, but Nora still would leave her family even without help from Krogstad. Her husband’s attitude towards her, her defiance against Torvald and ultimately society, and her thirst for independence and self-actualization prevail above everything else in her life, causing her to desert her husband and their doll house.
The play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen is not only about the Helmers’ marriage, but also about the institution of marriage itself. There are three key points that appear in the play in which Ibsen highlights what detrimental effects could occur when a marriage is unequal. In the first act, we can observe and agree that within the Helmers’ marriage there is an imbalance of power. Helmer says to Nora, “What are little people called that are always wasting money?”
“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” (Pugachevsky). G.D. Anderson, the modern feminist who stated this quote, and Nora Helmer from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House share similar views regarding the strength of women: it is overshadowed by the world’s inability to recognize it. In his revolutionary play A Doll’s House, playwright Henrik Ibsen exceeds his years by breaching the controversial subject of women’s rights.
Nora Helmer is seemly carefree about life in the first act, but behaves frantically in the second, and then gains a sense of reality during Part three of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll’s House. At the beginning of the play, Nora exhibits many childish characteristics such as tossing her head around saying that Mrs. Linde would do better if she could just run off to a bathing spa, instead of dealing with any real life problems (Ibsen 1196). Once she returns from what seems to be an expensive shopping trip with lots of packages she eats a few of the desserts she has secretly purchased while out and when her husband, Mr. Helmer, asks if she has been eating his macaroons and she denies it. Even though the act is nothing serious, the audience learns that even Nora is capable of lying. She is more childish when she speaks to her husband but she behaves playfully but complacent towards his commands.
As the play goes on, Nora seems to transform from her delicate little character into something much more. At the end of act one, Krogstad goes to Nora for the recollection of the money she had borrowed from him. "You don?t mean that you will tell my husband that I owe you money?" (21). Since Nora was wrong in doing so socially, she could not tell Torvald or anyone else about her problem. Not only would that affect their social standard but also Torvald's ego, which inevitably would happen anyway. After Krogstad threatens to expose Nora for forging her father's signature, she realizes that no matter what she does Torvald was going to know the truth. The flaw with...