The Awakening of Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House
The status of women in the 1800's, when A Doll's House was written, was that of a second-class citizen. Women did not have the right to vote, own property, or make legal transactions. The role of women was restricted to that of a housewife. In A Doll's House, Ibsen does a wonderful job of presenting the character of Nora as person who goes though an awakening about her life. In the beginning, she concerns herself only with being a perfect wife and mother according to the social norms of the time. Later, she realizes that she cannot continue just being her husband's shadow. Eventually, she decides that she has duties to herself that are above of those of being a wife. She confronts the fact that she's not complete being the way that her husband, society and the church want for her to be.
Ibsen exposes the fact that Nora's self image has been molded by the men of her life. First, she is a doll-child ... then a doll-bride. She's a little play toy for the men - a beautiful possession to show off to their friends. This presents the reality of women in the 1800's. Women were often treated as objects by men.
Little girls were raised to be good mothers and wives. They were taught their role was to make their families happy even if they were not happy themselves. In the play, Nora mentions the way she was treated when she was living at home in her father's house. She is raised no to have her own identity.
Nora: Yes, it's true now, Torvald. When I lived at home with Papa, he told me all his opinions, so I had the same ones too; or if they were different I hid them, since he wouldn't have care for that. He used to call...
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... is representative of the awakening of society to the changing view of the role of woman. A Doll's House magnificently illustrates the need for and a prediction of this change.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Clurman, Harold. 1977. Ibsen. New York: Macmillan.
Heiberg, Hans. 1967. Ibsen. A Portrait of the Artist. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House." Perrine's Literature. Forth Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. pp. 967-1023
Northam, John. 1965. "Ibsen's Search for the Hero." Ibsen. A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Shaw, Bernard. "A Doll's House Again." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1979.
Sturman, Marianne Isben's Plays I, A Doll's House Cliffs Notes, 1965.
Thomas, David. Henrik Ibsen. New York: Grove, 1984
(2011, October 17). Research Examines Approaches to Treating Substance Abuse Among African-Americans. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=14425
What does it mean to be a hero? According to Webster, a hero is someone "of great strength [and] courage" who is "admired" for his or her "courage and nobility."1 Stretching this definition a bit further, I would argue that a hero is someone who uses this strength, courage, and nobility to help or save others. Nora Helmer, in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, leaves her husband and family at the end of the play-a move that can be viewed as either very selfish or very heroic. Because Nora uses her strength and courage in effort to save others and herself from the false "doll's house" life they are living in, her final act of leaving home is truly heroic. Nora saves her children from being raised by a mother who doesn't know the first thing about being a mother and she saves Torvald by no longer enabling him to live the false life he has built for himself. Finally, she saves herself by taking herself out of the "doll's house" and into the real world to discover who she is and what she believes.
Davies, H. Neville. 1982. "Not just a bang and a whimper: the inconclusiveness of Ibsen's A Doll's House." Critical Quarterly 24:33-34.
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.
children, her husband and what life she had behind, as she slams the door to the family home. A significant transition of power has occurred and this is one of the major themes that Ibsen raises in his dramatic text ‘A Doll’s House.’ However, in examining the underlying. issue of power presented by the text, one cannot simply look at the plight of Nora’s character, three major aspects of this theme need. also to be considered for.
Abortion is one of the most controversial topics for centuries. In medical terms abortion means terminating the human pregnancy buy expulsion from the uterus before birth. Abortion is just another name of killing an unborn child who still has a life ahead. For several years a mother has to take the decision of killing her own unborn baby for many said and unsaid reasons. The unborn child is not even safe in the safest place of the world its mother’s womb. Although today in many countries abortion is legalized but according to me it should be illegalized.
To begin, a child does not have a choice whether it would like to be born or not. It was the person’s decision to have unprotected intercourse with his or her partner. Abortion may seem to be the only option people have when they become pregnant. When having intercourse, it should not be something that is taken lightly. The couples, who are sexually active, should know all the pre...
Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll’s House.” Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 9th Ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 792-841. Print.
This is where a tube attached to a vacuum is inserted into the uterus and sucks out the embryo and all other material. The second type takes place after the 15th week and is called saline infusion. Here, the doctors replace a little fluid with a salt solution. This causes the uterus to contract. The fetus is then expelled. The third type is a hysterotomy.
The abortion debate seems like an unresolable conflict of rights. The right of women to control their own bodies, and the right of children to be born. In the United States abortion became legal in 1973. Recently, courts have upheld the right of a woman to have an abortion, and as a result, has caused many heated debates. The opposing abortion groups are refered to as “pro-life” and “pro-choise.”
Abortion must remain an option for women because there many women in the United states not financially, emotionally, or physically ready to have a baby. Why should the government force women to bring children into the world? Millions of unintended pregnancies in the United States each year end in abortion. It is a way of taking responsibility for unwanted pregnancies, as pregnancy takes a toll on women. If a woman is not financially, emotionally or physically ready for a child, she should have the option to abort. Giving women an option to abort is a freedom that women should continue to have.
Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in America today. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy before birth. There are approximately 1.5 million abortions every year in this country. Abortion was made legal in the 1970s. However, pro-life activists argue that it is murder. Should the government have the legal power to take away a woman's right to make decisions regarding her own body?
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. In Four Major Plays. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.