Animal Imagery in A Doll's House
Animal imagery in Henrick Ibsen's play, A Doll's House is a critical part of the character development of Nora, the protagonist.
Ibsen uses creative, but effective, animal imagery to develop Nora's character throughout the play. He has Torvald call his wife "his little lark"(Isben) or "sulky squirrel"(Isben) or other animal names throughout the play. He uses a lot of 'bird' imagery-calling her many different bird names. The name Torvald uses directly relates to how he feels about her at the time. The animals Ibsen chooses to use are related to how Nora is acting, or how she needs to be portrayed.
For instance: Not even a dozen lines into Act I, Torvald asks (referring to Nora), "Is that my little lark twittering out there"(Isben) and "Is that my squirrel rummaging around?"(Isben) A lark is a songbird; a happy, carefree bird. It is can also be used as a verb that means to engage in spirited fun or merry pranks. A squirrel is quite the opposite: it is a small, furry rodent. If you are to squirrel away something, you were hiding or storing it, kind of like what Nora was doing with her bag of macaroons. Torvald calls her these names to fit the situation.
Nora was definitely a care free woman, just like a lark, and Torvald refers to her as such: "my little lark"(Isben). When he says that, Nora is moving around the room and humming with a carefree spirit that would characterize a lark. Whenever she has this spirit, Torvald refers to her as his "little lark."(Isben)
On the other hand, Nora must be some sort of scrounge, because Torvald also refers to her as his "little squirrel."(Isben) He asks if "that is my squirrel rummaging around"(Isben). It seems that maybe Ibsen was usi...
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...al in the character development for both characters, showing really how both sides perceive the other.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Baruch, Elaine Hoffman. "Ibsen's Doll House: A Myth for Our Time." The Yale Review 69 (1980): 374-387.
Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
Ibsen, Henrick. A Doll House. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 1564-1612.
Northram, John. "Ibsen's Search for the Hero." Ibsen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Rolf Fjelde. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. 107-113.
Salomé, Lou. Ibsen's Heroines. Ed. and trans. Siegfried Mandel. Redding Ridge: Black Swan, 1985.
Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen. PMLA 104.1(1989): 28-40.
Two equations were used in this experiment to determine the initial temperature of the hot water. The first equation
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Ibsen, Henrik. The Project Gutenberg EBook of a Doll's House. [EBook #2542]. The Project Gutenberg, 13 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .
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way for us to communicate with one another and just simply having everything we need all in
Some of the teens are pressured into joining a mob if their association will add to the mob’s criminal actions. Some of them get connected in order to threaten other people in the society who are not engaged in gang operations (Klein & Maxson, 2006). Once they find a specific group that is will to be a part of their unlawful deeds then they connect and work with
In A Doll's House, Torvald Helmer's attitude toward his wife Nora can be seen in the ways in which he refers to her. 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 this nicknaming is to show Torvald's attitude toward Nora. Torvald sees Nora as small, sweet, unobtrusive and therefore easily controlled. This position is one he would like Nora to continue to occupy. In line 257, Torvald refers to Nora as "my richest treasure" denoting his attitude toward her as his possession.
In act one we see the way Nora behaves and the way Torvald treat Nora. In front of her husband Nora seams submissive and she also acts childish. When Nora goes to show him the things she had purchased for the children he hears her coming and he tells Nora “Is that my little lark twittering out there. Is that my squirrel rummaging around?” (Ibsen 794). Nora does not mind that Torvald has these pets name for her and she even calls herself these pets’ names. Nora tells her husband “Hm, if you only knew what expenses we lark and squirrels have, Torvald” (Ibsen 796). I believe that by Nora doing this she is giving Torvald the consent to continue calling her by pet names. In my opinion this is not a normal behavior for a marriage couple. But it seems like Nora did not care that Torvald treated her like a child or called her pet names, what was important to her was the money that Torvald was giving her.