Free Essays on A Doll's House: Marital Lessons

1298 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of the nineteenth-century female in literature

Marital Lessons from A Doll's House

Divorce has become widely accepted throughout the world. In today's world, the violent shredding of a family is shrugged off like the daily weather. The Norwegian play A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, is a prime example of a marriage that didn't work. The marriage of Torvald and Nora Helmer had many problems because the husband and wife couldn't discover the secrets of marital bliss. To keep a marriage alive and growing it must hold true to four qualities: love, communication, trust and loyalty, and perseverance. With the incorporation of these qualities any marriage would work.

Without love a relationship would probably not even begin. Two people meet, a friendship forms, and soon a romance blossoms. Though the basis for Nora and Torvald's relationship appeared to be centered around love, the needed balance was not obtained. Torvald didn't really love Nora; to him she was just another child to mind. He said, 'And I wouldn't want you to be any different from what you are-just my sweet little song bird. But now I come to think of it, you look rather-rather-how shall I put it? -rather as if you've been up to mischief today' ( 151). Calling his wife names such as 'skylark,' 'squirrel,' and 'spendthrift,' Torvald does not love his wife with the respect and sensitivity a man should. The main area where Torvald showed his lack of love for Nora was in the way he managed his house. Torvald was the owner of what he believed to be a perfect doll house. This doll house was first controlled by Nora's domineering father, and once Nora entered marriage, the titles and deeds to this doll house were handed over to Torvald. Torvald manipulated Nora, and then the children through her according to his wants, sure that he could never lose control over his precious doll house. This lack of love and imperious attitude would eventually ruin their marriage. Nora was the only one of the two partners who showed love for the other in this play. Going against all the odds a woman faced in the late nineteenth century, Nora went behind her husband's back, borrowed a large sum of money, forged her father's signature, and went on to pay it off with hopes of Torvald never hearing of it. She refused to be a doll, and would alternate personalities between 'Torvald's little skylark,' and 'Nora the intelligent and strong woman.

Show More
Related

  • Salem Witch Trials

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    One day, the daughters of the priest started to act strange. Actually, they weren’t acting a little strange, they were throwing fits everywhere. They screamed, fell, twisted their body to uncomfortable positions, and they hurt themselves. In 1692, the only reasonable explanation was that specters were hurting them. Specters can be initiated by witches, and that means that there are witches in this village. Before long, more girls from the age of 6-20 were being attacked by specters. People were worried. At last, they concluded that there are witches in their society, and they were strong-willed to find the witches.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trials Dbq

    541 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first arrival of the Puritans was in the 1600s. They came within a large number of English immigrants arriving in New England. Puritans traveled this far way across the Atlantic Ocean to practice Christianity in pure ways. The land in New England was hard and rocky, but they were committed to living here and had help from God, as spoken in the Bible. The Bible stated that the Puritans believed, but another subject that was spoken from the Bible was the Devil. They said he could enter a person’s body and turn that person into a witch. If your under his power, then you would make all kinds of trouble, like cause a cow to run away. Soon later in the late 1600’s witchcraft was a popular, serious, crime and many

    Read More

  • A Summary of the Salem Witch Trials

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are some events in history that put the human race to shame; however, these occasions can change our future forever. Society cannot deny that social injustices occur almost every day, maybe even more than once. One large blemish in our history, the Salem Witch Trials, alienated a certain group in our society. These trials were an unfortunate combination of economic conditions, a flock’s strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies.

    Read More

  • Essay On Feminism In A Doll's House

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nora is perceived as a helpless women, who goes out and wastes money that was earned by her husband. To Torvald, Nora is merely a plaything, which could be what the title of the play, "A Doll House", was hinting at. He found her helplessness to be attractive, because he was the one that was in control. For instance, when they received the Bond from Krogstad, Torvolld said, "I wouldn't be a man if this feminine helplessness didn't make you twice as attractive to me" followed by "It's as if she belongs to him in two ways now: in a sense he's given her fresh ...

    Read More

  • Socioeconomic Issues In The Salem Witch Trials

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Salem witch trials of 1692 were one of the bloodiest witch-hunts in America colonial history. The event started in the house of the new minister of Salem, Samuel Parris, when his daughter, Betty, suffered from mysterious symptoms, and later she accused her slave, Tibuta, for using witchcraft on her. Later, two other women, Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, were accused of using witchcraft on other girls; right after the accusations, they were arrested (Lecture 9/13/2016). As a result, the hunt of witches began which led to hundreds of arrests, and nineteen accused were hanged (Text 190). Although three hundred years have passed, the true cause of the episode remains a mystery. Many scholars have conducted numerous studies of the trails, however,

    Read More

  • Free Essays on A Doll's House: Manipulation

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    Torvald is the typical husband of the time of the play.  He tries to control his wife and expect her to submit to him.  He manipulates her through many different ways.  First, he calls her pet names such as "little lark" (3) and "squirrel" (4) and speaks to her in a condescending tone, as if she is a child.  He then tries to control her habits so he will not let her eat sweets or spend too much money.  In fact, all the money she gets comes from him.  He demands that she is subservient and treats her as almost a dog later on in the play.  At the end, when Nora's secret is out, he lashes out at her and kicks her out of the house.  When he wants her back after he realizes that he will no longer get into trouble for what she did, she does not want to come back, he finally realizes that she does not love him anymore and that his manipulation of her is over.  This leaves him in a pickle because he now has to take care of his children without Nora, hardly a good position for him.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Broken Relationship In A Doll's House

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life’s blood, and everything for your sake” (Ibsen 71). This statement shows just how much a husband loves his wife, so much he is willing to relinquish all that he has. In “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, the reader is shown how just one action causes the main protagonist, Nora Helmer and her loving husband Torvald, to go from loving each other to eventually splitting up. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader is shown how Nora’s illicit action cause their feelings towards her and her husband to change, why they changed, and how it affected the story.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Two Ibsen Works

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout both plays, each main character exhibits a decay from the norm in their social persona. In Dollhouse, Nora who at first seems a silly, childish woman, is revealed to be intelligent and motivated though the play, and, by the play's conclusion, can be seen to be a strong-willed, independent thinker. She develops an awareness for the truth about her life as Torvald's devotion to an image at the expense of the creation of true happiness becomes more and more evident to her. When Nora calls him petty and swears about the house, and when Krogstad calls him by his first name it angers Torvald notably, and this anger at what he sees to be insubordination and improper etiquette heightens her awareness of the falsities being put in place by Mr. Helmer. When it is revealed to Torvald that their life-saving trip to Italy was funded by his wife borrowing money underneath his very nose and across his authority, he becomes very angry, as he very well should if everything is to abide by the social standard of the time By the end of the play, we see that Torvald's obsession with controlling his home's appearance and his repeated suppression and denial of reality have harmed his family and his happiness irreparably and escalates Nora's need for rebellion, which inevitably results in her walking out on her husband and children to find her own independence at the conclusion of the play.

    Read More

  • A Doll House Essay On Marriage

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the play A Doll's House, the idea of marriage during their time period is very different from the idea of marriage that people have in this time period. In this play, the husband Torvald controls every single thing that the wife, Nora, does. He controls many things in her life, even things like telling her what she can and cannot eat. During the play it seems as if Nora is a type of doll that is controlled by Torvald. Throughout the entire plot, Nora acts as if she is completely dependent on Torvald, even though sometimes she doesn’t need him or his help at all.”You're only playing your little teasing bird game with me; aren't you, Nora? Don't want to? I'm your husband, aren't I (Isben 447)”? Torvald feels that Nora’s main job as a wife is to satisfy him physically more than mentally. Marriages more in this century, are more the husband and wife depending on each other for both physically and mentally attributes, unlike what is happening in this play.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: A Doll's House

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lastly, the amount of deception and dishonesty between Nora and Torvald would have broken the marriage even without Krogstad’s extortion plot. Both Nora and Torvald are living in a world of lies, and both of them are not honest with each other and themselves. In the beginning of the play, Torvald and Nora are portrayed to be a perfect couple with a perfect life. Nora is seen returning home after a day of shopping and is greeted lovingly by her husband. Even though they seemed to have had some financial troubles in the past, Torvald just received a new job as a bank manager and everything seemed to be alright, but behind the scenes nothing was alright.

    Read More

  • Failure of a Marriage Depicted in Ibsen's A Doll's House

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    Without love a relationship would never even begin. The basis for Nora and Torvald's relationship appears to be centered around love, but this was not exactly obtained. Torvald doesn't really love Nora in a mature way; he just looks at her as another child. He has many nicknames for his wife including "lark" and "squirrel" which are small animals and used as symbols of foreshadowing. By using these symbols, Torvald looks at his wife as being smaller than himself and therefore easy to control. He always refers to Nora as my something. "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" and "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?" (438) He emphasizes the ‘my' which makes him think that he owns his wife and he is in control of her. Calling his wife names such as ‘skylark', ‘squirrel', and ‘spendthrift', Torvald does not love his wife with the respect and sensitivity a man should. He gives Nora an allowance but thinks she spends it frivolously. "What are little people called that are always wasting money? It's a sweet little spendthrift. One would hardly believe how expensive such little persons are" (439) Here, Nora is referred to as a small subordinate creature once again. Torvald is so concerned about...

    Read More

  • Free Essays on A Doll's House: Money Matters

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828 to a wealthy family, however, when he was just eight years old his family went bankrupt, and they lost their status in society. Ibsen knew how the issue of money could destroy a person’s reputation in no time at all. Perhaps that is how he makes the characters in his play, A Doll's House , so believable. Nora and Mrs. Linde, the two main female characters in the play, have had the issues of money and forgery ruin their lives. Nora forged her dead father’s signature to get a loan. The play revolves around her struggle with her fear of being found out. Both women’s values change as the story moves along. At first, it appears that Nora values money and the status that it brings. Mrs. Linde values her own happiness, and eventually Nora realizes that the only way she will be able to live with what she has done is to do the same.

    Read More

  • Gender In A Doll’s House And The Importance Of Being Earnest

    2000 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nora engages in a mutually dependent game with Torvald in that she gains power in the relationship by being perceived as weak, yet paradoxically she has no real power or independence because she is a slave to the social construction of her gender. Her epiphany at the end at the play realises her and her marriage as a product of society, Nora comes to understand that she has been living with a constr...

    Read More

  • The Struggle for Identity in A Doll’s House

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nora and Torvald's relationship, on the outside appears to be a happy. Nora is treated like a child in this relationship, but as the play progresses she begins to realize how phony her marriage is. Torvald sees Nora's only role as being the subservient and loving wife. He refers to Nora as "my little squirrel" (p.1565), "my little lark" (p.1565), or "spendthrift"(1565). To him, she is only a possession. Torvald calls Nora by pet-names and speaks down to her because he thinks that she is not intelligent and that she can not think on her own.

    Read More

  • Free Essays on A Doll's House: An Essay

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Doll House was one of Henrik Ibsen's most controversial plays. He wrote this realistic play in 1879. Ibsen's writing style of realism was clearly shown in this play. This play was controversial at the time it was written, shocking conservative readers. But, at the same time, the play served as a rallying point for supporters of a drama with different ideas.

    Read More

More about Free Essays on A Doll's House: Marital Lessons

Open Document