A doll house Essay

Henrik Ibsen play â€Å"A Doll House,† written in 1879, focuses on a story of a disparaging role of women in Victorian society through his doll motif, played out in Nora’s sudden distaste for her home. Throughout the play there are many examples of Nora’s husband Torvald treating Nora in an insulting manner because she’s a woman. Torvald calls her little pet names, and states that she’s frail. Nora does things according to what Torvald wants. Everything is done by his standards. He also doesn’t allow her to have much freedom. He doesn’t let decisions to be made by Nora. Torvald makes comments that suggest Nora could never understand anything, just because she is a woman. These examples show that feminism is a theme throughout the story. Torvald treats Nora almost like a child. He never actually talks to her like an adult. Almost as if Torvald thought that Nora wasn’t intelligent, or mature enough to have a conversation that had to deal with serious matters. He also has a lot of pet names for Nora. Whenever Torvald speaks to   Nora he usually calls her â€Å"my little squirrel†, and â€Å"little lark† as you would call a child. Torvald   also calls her a spendthrift whenever she asks for money. He never really calls her Nora, unless it is when he is serious, however any other time, he will call her by one of his pet names. Torvald also never speaks to Nora about anything important. He only talks to her about spending money, and about things of leisure, like the ball. Nora, in Ibsen’s â€Å"A Doll’s House†, is a modern woman limited by a traditional society which denies women power and autonomy. The central mystery and challenge of â€Å"A Doll’s House† is obviously the character of Nora. The story starts on Christmas Eve. Nora makes preparation for Christmas. While she eats macaroons, Dr. Rank and Mrs. Linde enters. Rank goes to speak with Torvald while Linde speaks with Nora. Linde explains that her husband has died and that she needs to find a job. Nora agrees to ask her husband to give Linde a job at the bank. Nora tells her about borrowing money to pay for the trip they took to Italy. She explains that Torvald doesn’t know that she paid for it. Rank leaves the study and begins to speak with Nora and Linde. He complains about the moral corruption in society. Krogstad arrives and goes to the study to talk to Torvald about keeping his job. A few minutes later, he leaves and Rank comments that Krogstad is one of the most morally corrupt people in the world. Rank and Linde leave, and Krogstad re-enters. He tells Nora to ask her husband to keep Krogstad at the bank, or else. If she doesn’t, he will reveal Nora’s crime of forgery to him. Krogstad leaves and when Torvald re-enters, Nora asks him not to fire Krogstad. Torvald says that he must fire him because of his dishonesty and because he gave Krogstad’s job to Linde. The nurse, Anne-Marie, enters and gives Nora her ball gown. Anne-Marie explains that she had to leave her children to take the job taking care of Nora. Linde returns and begins to help Nora with stitching up her dress. They talk for a while about Dr. Rank. Torvald enters and Linde leaves to the nursery. Nora asks Torvald again not to fire Krogstad and he refuses. He gives Krogstad’s pink slip to the maid to be mailed to Krogstad. Rank re-enters and tells Nora about his worsening illness. They talk and flirt for a while. Rank tells Nora that he loves her. Nora said that she never loved Rank and only had fun with him. Rank leaves to the study and Krogstad enters. He is angry about his dismissal and leaves a letter to Torvald explaining Nora’s entire crime in the letter box. Nora is frightened, and tells Linde about the matter and Linde assures her that she will talk to Krogstad and set things straight. Linde leaves after Krogstad and Rank and Torvald enters form the study. They help Nora practice the tarantella. After practice, Rank and Torvald exits and Linde enters and tells Nora that Krogstad left town, but she left a note for him. Nora tells her that she’s waiting for a miracle to happen. That night, during the dance, Linde talks to Krogstad in Helmer’s apartment. She explains to him that she left him for money, but that she still loves him. They get back together and Krogstad decides to forget about the matter of Nora borrowing money. However, Linde asks Krogstad not to ask for his letter back since she thinks Torvald needs to know of it. Both leave and Torvald and Nora enter from the dance. Torvald checks his letter box and finds some letters and two business cards form Dr. Rank with black crosses on them. Nora explains that they meant that Rank is announcing his death. After the bad news, Torvald enters his study and Nora prepares to leave. However, before she can get out the door, she is stopped by Torvald who read Krogstad’s letter. He is angry and disavows his love for Nora. The maid comes with a letter, Torvald reads the letter that is from Krogstad. It says that he forgives Nora of her crime and will not reveal it. Torvald burns the letter along with the IOU that came with it. He is happy and tells Nora that everything will return to normal. Nora changes and returns, she tells him that they don’t understand each other and she leaves him. Joan Templeton wrote a critical piece of â€Å"The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen.† Templeton states â€Å"Whatever propaganda feminists may have made of A Doll House, Ibsen, it is argued, never meant to write a play about the highly topical subject of women’s rights; Nora’s conflict represents something other than, or something more than, woman’s. In an article commemorating the half century of Ibsen’s death, R. M. Adams explains, â€Å"A Doll House represents a woman imbued with the idea of becoming a person, but it proposes nothing categorical about women becoming people; in fact, its real theme has nothing to do with the sexes† (416). Over twenty years later, after feminism had resurfaced as an international movement, Einar Haugen, the doyen of American Scandinavian studies, insisted that â€Å"Ibsen’s Nora is not just a woman arguing for female liberation; she is much more. She embodies the comedy as well as the tragedy of modern life.†Ã¢â‚¬  (28). Joan Templeton had cited â€Å"All female, or no woman at all, Nora loses either way. Frivolous, deceitful, or unwomanly, she qualifies neither as a heroine nor as a spokeswoman for feminism. Her famous exit embodies only â€Å"the latest and shallowest notion of emancipated womanhood, abandoning her family to go out into the world in search of ‘her true identity;† (Freedman 4)† (30). Nora Helmer makes the right decision to free herself form the social and traditional commitments and obligations of the Victorian Era and becomes an independent individual. She lived in a world of pre-determined social and societal constraints that made her deprived of her own freedom and happiness. The society in which she lived wanted people to live according to the rigidly set norms and standards of the Victorian Society. Subjugation and oppression was the theme of the Victorian Society. Men and women were supposed to play the role that was assigned to them. Nora found herself in such a world of suppression. She was supposed to live a quiet life in a world that was dominated by her husband Torvald and the alike. She was however, totally dissatisfied with the life of subjugation. She could no longer surrender to the constraints of the society. The made her brake from the captivity and enters a new world of freedom. Nora Makes the right decision to free herself from the social and traditional commitments and obligations and become an independent individual. Nora is indeed a classical hero during her time of Victorian Society. She was hiding her character and personality throughout the play under the pretense of the ideal 19th century wife who completely abides to her husband. The character of Nora is quite tough to interpret, as she is made out of a combination of different traits, childish, and even selfish. Even though she is found to be playful and silly, she appears different in other places being practical and astute. She is indeed a hero as she was successful in showing that she is a supporting wife, and mother. Nora was expected to be content with the life she had, though it wasn’t in any way fair or equal. When she expresses her hope that Torvald would have taken the blame for her crime upon himself, Torvald says that â€Å"there’s no one who give up honor for love.† (875) and Nora replies that â€Å"millions of women have done just that.†(875). When Nora shut the door behind her, she wasn’t just a woman leaving her family. She was a woman seeking independence from the strictures of society and the rule of men which was placed upon her because of gender. A Doll House Essay Reflective Statement In Ibsen’s A Doll House, the setting is a critical part of understanding the issues presented in the piece. If it had not been set in 19th century Norway, many of the references would not have been possible. The setting of each of the acts the house changes, showing an allusion of a perfect doll house in the first act that is slowly diminishing threw out the last two. As a external way of showing the cultural and emotional conflicts with in the house. Plus, the significance of the cultural statement, about the unfairness of women’s roles, would have been lost. From this, we can conclude that it was relatively easy to understand Ibsen’s view on the social and cultural issues regarding women- a blatant inequality between the genders, both at home and in society. Regarding Mrs.Linde who comes into the play as a woman who has seen the outside world and worked for her living, Ibsen at the end shows her beginning a relationship with Krogstad to sho w even when a woman trails away from the protection of a man they always come back to their original place. It is difficult to understand the solution to these cultural issues, unless all women are supposed to walk out of their lives. If that were the case that would create more and if not equal cultural struggles and issues. This is similar to today, in that we are still trying to work on the inequality in society through efforts like affirmative action, with questionable success. That is why Ibsen’s use of techniques like setting and characterization are so important; these techniques are what Ibsen uses to convey his message to the audience. To show the struggle of each individual relationship in this work whether it be between Nora and Torvald Helmer, Mrs.Linde and Krogstad, or Dr. Rank and his undying love for Nora. A Doll House Essay Marriage, as an institution, facilitates the union of man and woman enabling them to raise a family. The wellbeing and happiness of the family depends equally on the man and the woman. But this equality is imperceptible in married relations, even in the modern society. The woman always compromises for the sake of her family and abandons her freedom. The play â€Å"A Doll House† by Henrik Ibsen depicts the situation of a married woman, Nora Helmer who has to repress her desires and behave according to the wish of her husband, Torvald. But as the play progresses conflicts began to arise between Nora and Torvald, owing to the changing nature of Torvald’s love for Nora. Throughout the play, Nora aims to act and behave in a manner which pleases her husband but at the end of the play, Nora decides to leave Torvald and lead her life in accordance to her wishes. The end of the play depicts a fit resolution to the main conflict in the play. End of the Play Nora is a skilled and wise woman but her husband regards her to be an asinine and childish woman. When Torvald was ill, Nora was the one who saved his life with the aid of money borrowed from Krogstad. But she refrained from revealing about the borrowed money to her husband so that his pride is not hurt. She also worked secretly to repay the debt. But she presents herself before her husband in a manner which pleases him. Her husband thinks that Nora is a silly woman and Nora continues to act like a one before him. Nora lives in her house like a doll whose strings are in the hands of her husband. But in the final scene of the play, Nora goes on to become an independent woman from a doll whose actions were controlled by her husband. Owing to Krogstad’s letters which reveal the details of the bond that Nora has signed while borrowing money from Krogstad and the forging of her father’s signature by Nora on that bond, Torvald suspects Nora’s loyalty towards her family. Torvald even goes to the extent of saying that their marriage has ended. He also prohibits Nora from raising her own children. Ibsen (2002) writes, â€Å"But I shall not allow you to bring up the children; I dare not trust them to you. † (pg 135). But when Torvald receives another letter from Krogstad, consisting of the bond, he is thrilled to be liberated from the bond. Now he praises Nora for her dedication and love that she had for her family, and also mentions that he has forgiven her for her mistakes Nora realizes that Torvald’s love for her is so conditional that it is easily influenced by the situations around them. Torvald is so concerned about his honor that he never thinks about the feelings of Nora. He fails to live up to the role of a husband who is responsible for protecting his wife’s honor. Nora expresses her discontent at Torvald’s self-centered behavior and decides to leave the house. Instead of being just a wife and mother, Nora desires to become a sensible human being. Ibsen (2002) writes, â€Å"I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being. Just as you are—or, at all events, that I must try and become one. † (pg. 145). Torvald tries to convince Nora to stay with him but Nora refuses to listen to him. She leaves the house and goes in pursuit of an independent life where she can live according to her own desires and wishes. The end of the play serves as an appropriate resolution to Nora’s conflict with Torvald. Nora refuses to lead a doll-like life in order to save her marriage from breaking up. By leaving the house, Nora removes herself from the hold of her husband who treated her like a doll. An independent and determined Nora emerges in the final scene of the play. References Ibsen, H. (2001). A Doll’s House. Plain Label Books. 2002.