A House in Ruins
In Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House", the subject most important to the story is marriage. "Until death do us part" well, not always. Everywhere one looks, divorce is plaguing society. The treasured marriage vows have become nothing but a promise made to be broken. A Doll's House is a prime example of a relationship that didn't work. To keep a marriage alive and well it must hold onto certain qualities: love, communication, trust and loyalty. With these qualities, any marriage is bound to work.
Without love a relationship would never even begin. The basis for Nora and Torvald's relationship appears to be centered around love, but this was not exactly obtained. Torvald doesn't really love Nora in a mature way; he just looks at her as another child. He has many nicknames for his wife including "lark" and "squirrel" which are small animals and used as symbols of foreshadowing. By using these symbols, Torvald looks at his wife as being smaller than himself and therefore easy to control. He always refers to Nora as my something. "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" and "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?" (438) He emphasizes the my' which makes him think that he owns his wife and he is in control of her. Calling his wife names such as skylark', squirrel', and spendthrift', Torvald does not love his wife with the respect and sensitivity a man should. He gives Nora an allowance but thinks she spends it frivolously. "What are little people called that are always wasting money? It's a sweet little spendthrift. One would hardly believe how expensive such little persons are" (439) Here, Nora is referred to as a small subordinate creature once again. Torvald is so concerned about...
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... for his wife.
Nora and Torvald's marriage fails because they lack in all of the qualifications for a successful marriage and because of Torvald's control over his family. Before Nora leaves, she tells Torvald,
"But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald." (491)
Nora wants change. Marriage is a two-way street and in order to ensure a wonderful and happy life together, any sort of doll house must be torn down.
Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House." Literature the Human Experience. Shorter 8th Ed. Eds. Richard Abcarian and Marvin Klotz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2004. 437-495.
Throughout the play we never get to know who the real Nora is and what her true personality consists of. Nora also realizes that she does not know who she is, and decides to leave her life. She comments that she needs to discover who she is separate from her husband, children and more importantly society. Nora feels she is not respected, and she is a “doll” to her husband.
In the play “A Doll’s House”, marriage is merely a social formality. Torvald and Nora, husband and wife, share merely a few intimate moments throughout the entire novel and their relationship is devoid of any affection at all. The setting of the play “A Doll’s House” is 19th century Norway and the norms and beliefs of this era play a huge role in defining the role of Torvald as a husband, and Nora as a wife. The husband in this era is supposed to be the sole guardian of the house, responsible for taking care of the families financial requirements and ensuring a high standing for the family in society. Torvald believes that Nora is confined to looking after their children and basically taking care of the physical aspects of their household, and Nora feels so oppressed by her husband that she helps him in a time of dire need without even telling him. This incident occurs in the scene where Torvald falls dangerously sick and is too foolish to spend money on foreign treatment that could save his life, Nora sensing the grave danger goes behind Torvald’s back and collects money to save Torvalds life by committing the crime of forgery.
In describing the most important qualities of an ideal marriage, one would likely place an abundance of love, mutual support, trust, and honesty somewhere near the top of the list. Even in the best of unions, successfully cultivating these qualities requires mindfulness, yet malicious meddling by outside parties can erode these foundations. In “Othello,” William Shakespeare conjures up the destruction of a blissful marriage at the whims of the diabolical Iago. Similarly, in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” a picture-perfect couple is torn apart by the ill-intentioned revelations of a desperate man, Nils Krogstad. Though both detail lives and love unravelling at the hands of disgruntled employees, the similarities end there. The relationships between the husbands and wives are vastly different, as are the motivations and actions of the two saboteurs.
Throughout her life Nora had spent her time pleasing the men around her, first her father and then Torvald. As the reality erupted that her marriage to Torvald was loveless and not salvageable, she ignored Torvald's demand that she not leave him. He even made attempts to sway her decision by insinuating they could go on in the house as brother and sister. Her need to be a valued human in society had prevailed over the dependent, frail, creature that once belonged to Torvald. She set out to find her independence in spite of the limitations that society had placed on women. Her displeasure had burned a path beyond her little, secure world and the burden of being a plaything was lifted.
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.
In “A Doll’s House”, when Torvald learns of her secret affairs concerning Nora forging her father’s signature to get a loan to save Torvald’s life, he began to treat her horribly, insulting her in every way that is possible. In that moment, Nora realized that she could no longer live a life as Torvald’s wife anymore. He wanted to live a life in which no one in the society would know what had happened. They would act like they were a happily married couple in public, but in private they would act as though they were brother and sisters. Torvald cared about his image rather than
Torvald is the typical husband of the time of the play. He tries to control his wife and expect her to submit to him. He manipulates her through many different ways. First, he calls her pet names such as "little lark" (3) and "squirrel" (4) and speaks to her in a condescending tone, as if she is a child. He then tries to control her habits so he will not let her eat sweets or spend too much money. In fact, all the money she gets comes from him. He demands that she is subservient and treats her as almost a dog later on in the play. At the end, when Nora's secret is out, he lashes out at her and kicks her out of the house. When he wants her back after he realizes that he will no longer get into trouble for what she did, she does not want to come back, he finally realizes that she does not love him anymore and that his manipulation of her is over. This leaves him in a pickle because he now has to take care of his children without Nora, hardly a good position for him.
From the time A Doll's House was performed for first time (1879) till now, there have been all sorts of interpretation and critics about its message. According to Mr. Mayer's files critics considered that the A Doll's House message was that "a marriage was not sacrosanct, that a man's authority in his home should not go unchallenged". Another similar critics' interpretat...
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 1564-1612.
Ibsen’s spotlight on everyday matters of a married couple delivers a test of fortitude; marriage, love, life and how this dance is perform daily. Torvald’s happiness is dependent on order; “Home-life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt,” (Act I 4) these spoken words focus on borrowing and debt, but are easily replaced with “chaos and willfulness” without change to the meaning. While Torvald carries his own set of secrets such as what the ideal home, wife, and mother means; Nora fulfills his minds play of a doll, placing her where he wishes and manipulates her with playful words of “my squirrel”, “my little lark”, and “my little spendthrift.” These spirited gibes are meant to keep her in place, as the obedient wife. Unknowingly at first Nora plays her roll well; bouncing playfully along with Torvald’s pet names given that she has an agenda of her own, little
Torvald Helmer is the stereotypical Nineteenth-century husband, as he is a controlling, condescending patriarch. By referring to his wife with diminutive names, Torvald propagates the "women are lesser that men" stereotype and keeps his wife in a position of subservience. In line 11 of the first act, we come across the first instance of Torvald's bird references to Nora with "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" This reference is the first of many in which Torvald refers to Nora as a lark. Often this referencing is preceded by diminutive terms such as "little" and "sweet, little." Torvald also refers to Nora as a squirrel, a spendthrift, a songbird, and a goose, these terms also preceded with a diminutive. The significance of th...
Torvald is the only one in the family who works and provides for his family who needs to survive in their lifestyle. Because of this, Nora must always go and ask for money from Torvald, hoping for his acceptance of her using his income. Nora also had no possessions to her name because when a woman got married, all her possessions were considered under the control of her new husband.... ... middle of paper ...
Nora had to leave or she would never flourish and be liberated as an independent woman. This is found toward the end of the play. When Torvald forgives his upset wife for forging her ...
A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen, is attempting to pursue the message that a true happy marriage is a marriage of equal parts between both people. In the beginning of the play, both the Helmers seem happy to be together. Over the course of A Doll’s House, the imbalance and unhappiness of the relationship become more obvious (Shmoop). By the end of the play, Nora Helmer, the wife of Torvald Helmer wants to focus on just herself and realizes that she was never actually in love with her husband, Torvald. Torvald, the husband, is completely blindsided by everything that Nora is feeling and is heartbroken when she leaves him. By the end of the play, the marriage between the Helmers ends.
Although Ibsen portrays A Doll House as a Realistic play due to the societal problems, which include women, illnesses, and laws; he attempts to address society and cause change within the Norwegian society without openly talking about these issues. The actions of characters, such as Nora, represent the fact that an individual can make progress in societal reform. Therefore, Ibsen’s identification and attempt to change society symbolizes a Realistic desire of finding solutions to problems. The ultimate goal of Realism is to better everyday life for the majority of people, while trying to deepen the understanding of society’s problems.