Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Nora's character traits in A Doll's House
A dolls house nora's character questions independence
The theme of a doll house
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Nora's character traits in A Doll's House
George. G. Grigsby
English 300, M-Th 10:20-12:25
Professor Brad Scott 29 July 2015
A Doll House. The doll house is a play that show female power. Nora is emerging from the protection of her married life to confront the conditions of the outside world. Although she has been content in being a protected and cared-for housewife during the past eight years, and has once averted a crisis by finding a way to borrow money for the sake of Torvald's health, Nora has never learned to overtly challenge her environment.
Christine, on the other hand, has independently faced life's challenge, although she too sought protection by marrying for the sake of financial convenience. Her harsh experience as a widow who was forced to earn her own livelihood stands in sharp contrast to the insulated and frivolous life which Nora leads. Having learned, through suffering, the value of truthful human relationships, Christine is the first person to recognize that Nora's marriage is based on deception.
The device
…show more content…
A "real wedlock" can only be attained when a couple, deeply committed to respect each other's personal worth, work naturally and thoughtfully to fulfill ideals which their separate individualities require. Torvald, by striving for goals which have been thrust upon him in the course of an education based on social morality and verbal commitment to goals empty of feeling or commitment, deprives Nora of her sense of identity. To discover the essence of personal truth is, then, the "wonderful thing" which Nora Helmer, unable to find in her marriage, must seek through her own resources. This play is one of the few earlier plays that give women power and not make her into a emotional
Nora has been a doll all of her life, fortunately, she has an awakening that kindles her passion for freedom. Torvald restricts her freedom. Torvald adorns Nora to his wishes and desires and basically strips Nora of her identity. Nora wants a happy marriage; hence, she appeases Torvald. When she is being blackmailed, she believes that Torvald will be her savior. However, Torvald’s selfish reaction to the news is Nora’s auspicious awakening. She knows that her marriage is a sham and that she does not know who she is. Nora leaves Torvald so that she can have the liberty to gain knowledge of the world and herself. Nora’s awakening has provided her with the freedom to fulfill her life.
Though unknown to the outside world, many seemingly perfect relationships are dark moral places to investigate. We constantly see idealistic relationships that appear flawless at first glance; however, we are too taken aback when we discover such relationships are based on deception. In A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen contends through Nora that truth plays a crucial role in idealistic living; and when idealistic lifestyles are built on deceit an individual will eventually undergo an epiphany resulting in a radical understanding of reality, potentially leading to the destruction of relationships. This idea is exercised in the play when Ibsen immerses us directly in the center of a romantic and idealized relationship between an older man, Torvald Helmer, and his childlike trophy wife Nora. While Nora is young, beautiful, childlike, immature and naïve, her husband Torvald is a stern, serious and controlling business man. Throughout the play, we discover how faulty and deceptive based the relationship between Torvald and Nora is, and so does Nora. Act one involves an introduction of the relationship between the two, and we are first introduced to the idea of how baseless the relationship really is on truth. The second act develops Nora’s recognition of the faulty marriage and further problems begin to complicate as well as develop Nora’s understanding; finally, the third act is when Nora experiences the epiphany that her relationship with Torvald is truly faulty and is based on nothing true at all. Although the idea that was significantly radical in Ibsen’s time, it is significant and seems to become more evident as a truth in our society today. Openness and truth is necessary for a truly idealistic lifestyle.
Those of you who have just read A Doll's House for the first time will, I suspect, have little trouble forming an initial sense of what it is about, and, if past experience is any guide, many of you will quickly reach a consensus that the major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men.
In every society power is the bringer of fortune and influence. In his play A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen portrays, through the character of Nora, the power women are gaining in patriarchal societies. Nora, who symbolizes all women, exercises her power throughout the entire play. She cleverly manipulates the men around her while, to them, she seems to be staying in her subordinate role. In all three acts of the play Nora controls many situations and yields the most power.
“A Doll’s House” gives the reader a firsthand view at how gender roles affected the characters actions and interactions throughout the play. The play helps to portray the different struggles women faced during the 19th century with gender roles, and how the roles affected their relationships with men as well as society. It also helps to show the luxury of being a male during this time and how their higher status socially over women affected their relationships with women and others during this time period. Torvald Helmer starts off the story with a new job as a bank manager. He has a wife, Nora, who does not have a job in the workforce since that was the man's role.
Thus, Nora was reared to be submissive to her husband, caretaker of their children, and to maintain a spirit of grace and beauty throughout. Consequently, education, equality, and involvement in financial matters were unnecessary for a married woman to partake of. Although, when one gets a taste of freedom and independence it burns within their soul until the fire is quenched. The revelation of Nora’s unhappiness for more than eight years was a bitter shock to Torvald unfortunately too late for him to change and learn to love the person and not the idea of her. Still, one cannot love a person they do not know. Relationships that are built on deceit and manipulation will never stand the test of time, honesty friendship, and equality are the ingredients to a successful
In the case of `A Doll's House', the marriage of Nora and Torvald is clearly representative of the struggle between individualism and the expectations of society. At the beginning of the play Nora is almost completely immersed in the roles that are set out for her by society - that of a dutiful wife and mother. In her dialogue with Mrs Linde, Nora illustrates how a woman was valued according to how well she fulfilled those two roles. Her sympathy is evident ...
In both plays, the female protagonist is in a strained marriage, and takes drastic measures to leave that relationship. Nora has been married to Torvald for eight years, and has three children with him. However, she hides things from him and lies to him, i.e., her sweet tooth for macaroons, which he has forbidden, and, more importantly, the large loan from Krogstad. Nora hides, lies, and pleases – she plays the trophy wife for Torvald, but does as she wishes anyway. She does not do so in a cruel-hearted way, but she does so nonetheless. As the play goes on, she realizes that their marriage has been loveless, more “for show” than anything else, and has been based on trivial conversations and matters. She says to Torvald, “Eight whole years, no, more, even since we first knew each other – and never have we exchanged one serious word about serious things… [You] never loved me. You only thought how nice it was to be in love with me” (Ibsen 79-80). Nora was the “doll wife” in Tor...
A Doll’s House illustrates two types of women. Christine is without a husband and independent at the start of the play whereas Nora is married to Torvald and dependent on him and his position at the bank. Both begin at different ends of the spectrum. In the course of the play their paths cross and by the end of the play each woman is where the other started. It appears that a woman has two choices in society; to be married and dependent on a man or unmarried and struggle in the world because she does not have a man.
Those of you who have just read A Doll's House for the first time will, I suspect, have little trouble forming an initial sense of what it is about, and, if past experience is any guide, many of you will quickly reach a consensus that the major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men.
Christine shows Nora that it is possible to survive without having a husband, and she also helps Nora notice things about her marriage. Christine worked hard for her family as she stated” the last three years have seem like one long working-day, with no rest” (677). She shows Nora that it might be hard to survive alone but it can be done. She sets a future example of what Nora could do in
During the last scene of A Doll's House where Nora is talking to Torvald about their marriage I would use expressionism. On the stage I would have either dolls or a two doll houses in the room, and when she is talking about how her dad played with her as a doll as well as her husband I would have her destroy the dolls or the doll houses. While I understand that she wants to have a sit down and talk seriously with her husband I also feel like she needs to express her true anger at being treated like a doll all her life. When she tells Torvald that she is leaving I would have Torvald more anger at Nora. Torvald doesn't see her as an equal and he values how people see him. I feel like he would be more upset at Nora for ruining what he thinks is
Nora’s life struggle began at a young age. Her father treated her like an inhuman object, and now her husband has done the same thing. After many years of maintaining her “perfect” life, Nora could no longer live like this. She finally stands up for herself and makes a choice to leave her family. This decision is completely reasonable. It is unimaginable to think anyone could treat another person so crudely. No person should be molded into being someone they are not. It is unfair to treat a loved one like an object instead of an equal human being. Unfortunately there are many women today who find themselves in the same position in Nora. Many of which do not have the strength to confront, and to pry themselves from grips of their abusers. It is possible that the greatest miracle will be Nora, out on her own, finding her true self.
A Doll House was a play written well ahead of its time. This play was written in a time when it was considered an outrage for a woman such as Nora not only to display a mind of her own, but also to leave her husband in order to obtain her freedom. This play relates to the Art Nouveau and Edwardian period because just as the furniture and clothing were considered decorative pieces, so were women. Women were expected only to tend to the husband's and children's needs. Women were not supposed to do anything without first consulting the husband and certainly never do anything without his prior knowledge and approval. Women were expected to be at home and always looking presentable for their husbands.
During the time in which Henrik Isben's play, A Doll?s House, took place society frowned upon women asserting themselves. Women were supposed to play a role in which they supported their husbands, took care of their children, and made sure everything was perfect around the house. Nora is portrayed as a doll throughout the play until she realizes the truth about the world she lives in, and cuts herself free.