In “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield, the lamp is an important image that repeats throughout the story. “The Doll’s House” explores the separation of social classes between the rich and poor families seen throughout. This is symbolized by the contrast of the lamp’s importance to that of the rest of the doll’s house. The lamp is overlooked by most of the characters who observe the house. This act is comparable to the town’s high-class families, who discriminate against the Kelvey family due to their lower social class. Secondly, the lamp symbolizes the personality of the main character, Kezia. Unlike other characters, who prefer the more extravagant objects in the house, Kezia’s favourite part of the doll’s house is the lamp itself. …show more content…
Additionally, Kezia’s disposition is also symbolized by the traits that the lamp itself possesses. The warmth of the lamp correlates to Kezia’s acceptance of others, regardless of their social status. Finally, the lamp symbolizes the theme of belonging that is present in the story. By being invited to see the doll’s house and its furnishings, including the lamp, children in the story feel as though they are valued within a group of their peers. The lamp is a significant, recurring image in “The Doll’s House” as it symbolizes the separation between the rich and poor social classes, the compassionate personality of the main character, Kezia, and the theme of belonging that is seen in the story. The lamp in “The Doll’s House” is essential to the story as it symbolizes the social hierarchy seen amongst the characters. Throughout the narrative, the various social classes are exemplified through the unpleasant treatment of the Kelvey family by other families in the town. The Kelvey family is discriminated …show more content…
Kezia’s kindness is seen when she defies the social norms and allows the Kelvey children to see the doll’s house. These abnormal personality traits and behaviours are distinguished from that of the other characters through the symbolism of her favourite feature of the doll’s house, the lamp. The story describes Kezia’s feelings towards the lamp when it says, “But what Kezia liked more than anything, what she liked frightfully, was the lamp.” (Mansfield 136). Therefore, in addition to Kezia being unlike the rest of the children due to her kindness towards the Kelvey family, she is also unique in that her favourite part of the doll’s house is the lamp itself. This is seen when the story establishes Kezia’s enthusiasm towards the lamp by stating, “Kezia thought Isabel wasn’t making enough of the little lamp.” (Mansfield 138). As previously mentioned, the other children, including Kezia’s sister, Isabel, neglect the lamp. This disregard of the lamp represents the social hierarchy and the poor treatment of the lower class seen in the story. Kezia’s acknowledgement of the lamp symbolizes the contrast between the compassion that she demonstrates towards the Kelveys, and the intolerant behaviour seen from the other children, who do not acknowledge the lamp. The lamp is therefore vital in distinguishing Ketzia’s kind and sympathetic behaviour from the insensitive
The play “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen starts in the Helmer’s home on Christmas Eve. At the beginning of the play, the audience is introduced to Nora Helmer, the woman of the household. Nora is completely delighted with her life, and feels favorable for the way her life is coming along. She looks forward to the New Year when her husband starts his new job as a bank manager, where he will “have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money” (Ibsen 1350). Torvald Helmer, her husband, teases her and treats her like a child who is incapable. Nora responds to her husband’s actions with pure affection and does not seem to mind her controlled doll-like life. In the play Ibsen creates the setting in the late 1800s where women took care of the household, family, and children. Men saw women as delicate, innocent, unknowledgeable, and uneducated in the business world. Symbolism plays a large role in comprehending the play. The Christmas tree, the Tarantella, and the New Year are symbols that unveil the life of the characters and what they stand for.
In 1879, Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House (The). Symbolism, the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities, was developed within this time period (Google).Throughout the play, Ibsen reveals each character with an internal personality totally different from their external personality. This allows the readers to really open up and understand each character and the relationships that they hold with their self and the other characters as well. Ibsen tends to use several symbols in his play including the main character herself, the dance she performs, the Christmas tree, and the macaroons her husband doesn’t allow her to have. Nora is unhappy with her life, as though her expressions and actions show otherwise. She grows to realize her problem and settles with the idea that she never will be. Several symbols are made to stand out but four more particularly than others.
“A Doll House.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel. Third edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 850-908. Print.
Weintraub, Stanley. ""Doll's House" Metaphor Foreshadowed in Victorian Fiction." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 13: 67-69. Web. 6 Jan. 2011.
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.
In A Doll’s House Nora expressed the desire to experience life outside of her husband’s shadow. Henrik Ibsen characterized her as a selfless and kindhearted woman, as she constantly put her family’s needs before her own. There is no doubt that Nora was a victim of subjugation, as her husband’s misogynistic views lead him to believe that she was not as knowledgeable as him when it came to economical decisions, which was a motivation for Nora to express her phylogenic ways. For example, Nora found enjoyment decorating for Christmas; however Torvald found it to be a financial burden and insisted that she no longer continue. Ibsen used symbolism as he employed the Christmas tree as a direct representation of the women during his time period, saying they were “stripped of [their] ornaments” (Ibsen 109)...
Imagery symbolically guides the process of self-emancipation for Nora, the protagonist of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Objects like the macaroons, the lamp, the Christmas tree, and costumes represent the movement towards freedom of a woman who was a victim of society. Ibsen painted Nora as a youthful and lovely creature who was brought through life treated as a plaything by both her father and then her husband, Torvald. She must break society's unwritten laws. Although the consequences of her actions are initially minor, they start her along the path towards crisis when she realizes her position and the injustice of it. Through Ibsen's use of symbolism, objects in the play echo her process of anguish to liberation.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Doll’s House”. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. SparkNotes.com. 20 Mar 2011. http://Sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/themes.html.
In conclusion, The Dolls House shows the shift in society at the time. Society was changing all around the world and that is shown through the characters in the play. Nora represents the women empowerment and the capability to make decision and to leave a man. Mrs. Linde shows the rights and difference in treatment for a widowed woman. Torvald shows us how women were seen and treated during this time frame. The whole play shows how characters changed with the outside society.
The final clue to The Doll’s House being a modern short story is the use of dramatic irony. Throughout the story, the different social classes of the girls are extremely vital to the plot. These classes are very evident to the reader but may be less apparent to the children in the story. This is an example of dramatic irony. Another example of dramatic irony in the text is when Else says, “I seen the lamp.” At this point I think the reader has made the connection between Else and Kezia and realizes what the lamp symbolizes. However, Lil or any other character in the story probably wouldn’t understand, so that makes it dramatic irony.
In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll House Ibsen describes the perfect family and the conflicts within. Ibsen examines the normal lives of the Helmer family through the eyes of the wife, Nora Helmer. She goes through a series of trials as she progresses through the play and with each trial she realizes something is missing in her life. Ibsen examines the struggles within the house.
"Realism and the Significance of A Doll's House." Wikispaces.com. Ed. Tangient LLC. Wikispaces, 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2011. .
“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 woman and others during this time period.
A doll may look like a beautiful figure, but within a doll’s house, the beauty is sealed within the inside of the house, which the beautiful doll is useless. Within the doll’s house, the doll is not fulfilling its potential for why it was created, to be attained to- it is merely a household decoration. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora is the doll, and her marriage is enclosed in the doll’s house. As a person, Nora is considered to be a beautiful creature who entertains her husband within the beautiful images of a docile wife. However, she is not who she seems to portray as. There is a dark secret within her. She’s a desperate creature longing to explore the outsides of her marriage outside of the doll’s house. In a society that is dominated by men, the expectations that Nora must handle, she must choose between the obligations that is determined by her role as a wife in opposition to the obligations of self, by focusing in her true identity. Divined with the context of her love, she commits forgery, and through the hardships and deception that she goes through, she realizes that her marriage is nothing more than an illusion, and she is nothing more than a doll within Torvald’s house.
The play “ A Doll’s House” has a very symbolic title. The title relates right in with the the...