The Role Of A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, written in 1879, makes many bold statements about nineteenth century society. Ibsen uses his play to write about traditional marital roles, women’s independence, and crime. Each individual characters started out as one person and evolved into someone different by the end of the play, be it either good or bad. Torvald and Nora Helmer are the main characters in the play. Torvald is the domineering head of household while Nora is meek and submissive, or so she would have Torvald believe. Torvald refers to Nora as a “spendthrift”, a “sulky squirrel”, a “sweet little lark” and a “little prodigal”, all of which he means as sweet terms of affection but instead he comes off as condescending. Torval treats Nora like a child yet he expects his wife to cater to his every demand, and he thrives off the power he

Linde and Krogstad are the two characters who had suffered the most throughout their lives. Mrs. Linde, a widow and former friend of Nora, was searching for work. Krogstad, a lawyer, was about to be fired from his job at the bank, by Torvald. He was going to be replaced by Mrs. Linde. As the play unfolds, it is revealed that Mrs. Linde and Torvald were past lovers. Krogstad, due to his past indiscretions, loses his job at Torvald’s bank, and Mrs. Linde replaces him. When Krogstad discovers this, he is upset, and rightly so. Losing a job to a woman would have been very degrading for a man, especially one that was raising his children alone. After a long discussion, and through the power of forgiveness, they manage to come together and, we assume, turn their lives around. In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen successfully writes about the shocking transformations of the play’s characters. At the beginning of the play, each character behaves just as society would expect them to, based on their situations. At the end, each character has transformed into someone completely unexpected; someone that goes against societal norms of that