Critical Analysis Of A Doll's House By Ibsen

“A Doll House” by Ibsen exposes one of the main trials facing Nora and women of today that a lot of men tend to underestimate women. They assume that
women are innocent and weak, simply because they are female. Nora Helmer, whom
is considered innocent, is an example of women that live in a symbolic “doll house”.
On the other hand, towards the end of the play, Nora shows the independence and
drive to be a real woman, which is another characteristic that many women display. Nora’s transformation is a representation of how modern-day women gained the
freedom and rights they have today. In order to successfully examine the character of
Nora Helmer, I am going to relate her situation to the struggles of many women during her time. The main

duty of a woman was to complement her husband, and this concept is captured well by creating a character, Nora. Nora’s introduction, motivation, personality, struggles, and ultimate lesson, shows how her character changes and unfolds in different parts of the play. Nora Helmer is introduced to the audience as the wife of banker, Torvald Helmer. At the beginning of the play, Nora is seen being concerned with Christmas tree being hidden from the children. She asks Helene, to hide the Christmas tree carefully so that the children don’t get to see it until it had been decorated. The audience is also shown her financial status by her telling the Porter, to keep the change after giving the Porter a Krone (Ibsen 892). She displays normal relations. On the other hand, her weakness is evident in her interaction with Torvald in reference to money spending, “Pooh, we can borrow until then”(Ibsen, 892).
The author is trying to make Nora’s character believable.

Initially, Nora’s personality is labeled as immature yet also most times obedient in Torvald’s presence; she is always sweet-talking him for favors instead of communicating as an equal couple. This looks like Nora is using this as a mechanism to cope and try to forget her past misbehaviors. Another side of looking at this is looking at Nora as a sensitive woman, but sensible at the same time, and completely has no idea of how much she’s worth until the climax of the play. This is confirmed by how her husband, Torvald always calls her a “little skylark”, or a “little squirrel” and she is quiet and does not do anything about it which seems like she is content with it. Today, I am sure most women will be offended by such comments and the fact that Nora takes this kind of treatment, makes me think that she either has a low self esteem, or she is just ignoring he whole situation.
The most interesting part is that the other side of Nora’s personality shows that Nora is more mature than what the audience thinks. In Nora’s conversation with Nils
Krogstad, the audience is introduced to Nora’s dark past, which revolved around the fact that she forged her dead father’s name (912). This change to me looks like a parting from the mindset of a bullied and disrespected housewife, and a beginning of an individual, or maybe the real Nora making a guest appearance to show that people sometimes tend to adapt to a situation and environment in order to survive. And even though Nora
seemed silent and contented, she might have been acting it out, to buy herself time.

In
addition to becoming aware of Nora’s criminal activity, the audience also sees a new woman emerge. In her husband’s evident argument, “You little fool, do you know what you have done” (945). It feels like I should credit Nora’s makeover to her
husband’s behavior. Nora realizes that she has to change after her
husband yells at her, and she comes to terms with the fact that he is the humiliation in her life.
Nora shows us another side of her life, which is a desperate one. When Nils Krogstad threatened her that he was going to tell her husband about dark secret, Nora’s behaviors changed. This is when she begins to doubt what kind of person she really is and to question her integrity, and this is something Nora has never tried to do before. These in actual sense are signs of a paranoid person who wishes she had all the correct answers. This side of Nora is her dark-side where all her actions are motivated by fear. Nora feared what her husband, was going to do to her, she feared the fact that she might end up in jail, and also destroying her family’s legacy, so much, that at some point she thought about committing suicide (929). It does not seem like the author fully described Nora to the audience very well, but I think she is a thin lady, maybe has longer dark hair, and maybe pretty brown eyes. And I think when most people think of a doll, what comes to their mind is probably elegance, and so much attractiveness. Given Nora’s mental state, she started off a happy woman who became very scared, kind of suicidal, and turned so angry. Nora’s ambitions changed from being a good exemplary wife, to a person very determined to find her true identity. Nora has gone through so many phases of her dear life and it is so amazing how she managed to hide her thoughts inside and make the audience think she was self-absorbed and not a very smart person. The many negative things that Torvald said to her weakened her feelings of love and she seems like she is ready for anything that was going to happen.
In conclusion, today’s society is considered male-dominated just like it was in the Eighteenth century. The only difference is that women today have more rights and are independent in many ways. Henrik Ibsen made Nora’s character in A Doll House as a good example for all women. This does not mean that women should leave their children and husbands. And it also does not mean that women should commit crimes like forgery. My point is that women should be willing to sacrifice for their loved ones. And I agree that Nora loved her husband sincerely, and would do anything to support Torvald. Therefore, A Doll House should be a good lesson for males, to treat their wives with respect and dignity at all times and for females to be real, and realize what is appropriate for them in the first place.