A Doll's House Essay: Money Matters
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.
From the start of the play, we see that Nora’s entire focus is on money. “Won’t it be lovely to have stacks of money and not a care in the world” (703), Nora asks Mrs. Linde. Almost every conversation she has in the play is related to money in some way or another. When Torvald, her husband, asks her what she wants for Christmas, she tells him, “You could give me money, Torvald. . . . Then I could hang the bills in pretty glit paper on the Christmas tree. Wouldn’t that be fun” (699)? Her carefree way of handling money exasperates her husband. He wants to make her happy, but he isn’t able to give her what he doesn’t have. He doesn’t know about the loan, at first, and, to him and the audience, it appears that she is just throwing her money away hopelessly.
Mrs. Linde, on the other hand, knows what it is like to not have money to spare. She values money, but for an entire different purpose. The looks at it for what it is worth, and how it can help her survive. Her entire life she has had to work hard for anything that she wanted or needed. “Well, anyway,” she responded to Nora’s remark on having stacks of money, “it would be lovely enough to have enough for necessities” (703). To survive, she “had to scrape up living with a little shop and a little teaching and whatever else [she] could find” (704).
In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was enacted, it has three primary objectives; eradicating the “pyramiding” of reserves in New York City and substitute it with a polycentric system of twelve reserve banks, which will help the banks with a more seasonal elastic supply of credit and minimize the tendency for banking panics (Calomiris, 1993). The discount rate that is set by the Federal Reserve System is used for interest rates charged to the commercial banks and other banks for overnight loans (discount window) borrowed from the Federal Reserve (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2013). By discounting the loan rate, the banks would have lower liquidity problems because banks are able to borrow at a lower rate, which then reduces the pressure in the reserve markets and keeping the financial markets constant. To help the depository institutions, primary credit, the Federal Reserve Bank developed three rates of discount window, namely primary credit, secondary credit and seasonal credit.
The Federal Reserve or the FED is the central banking system in the United States. It was created in 1913 under president Wilson, with the purpose of controlling the stability of the financial system. The monetary policy is the course of action that the FED takes to ensure a stable economy in the United States.
The first goal of the Fed’s dual mandate is for the United States to have maximum employment and good economic growth. They just want to make sure the country stays out of a recession and the unemployment rate is kept low. The second goal is price stability or simply stopping inflation. Without keeping inflation stable the U.S dollar will lose it value in the world economy and cause all sorts of new problems for the country. (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) The Federal Reserve makes a lot of decisions based off of what the outcome
Popularized studies of Federal Reserve performance in recent decades convey the image of the Fed seated in its Greek temple on Constitution Avenue, with Chairmen Volcker and Greenspan elevated to the realm of the gods. From centers of economic power around the nation - Wall Street, Capitol Hill, the White House, and corporate boardrooms - the classical Greek chorus intones its defense of Federal Reserve independence.
A Doll House, a play written by Henrik Ibsen, published in the year 1879, stirred up much controversy within its time period because it questioned the views of society's social rules and norms. "Throughout most of history... Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions... The resulting stereotype that 'a woman's place is in the home' has largely determined the ways in which women have expressed themselves" ("Women's History in America"). Ibsen places many hints throughout his play about the roles of women and how they were treated in his time. Nora is perceived as a typical housewife; maintaining the house and raising her children. However, Nora had actually hired a maid to do all of those typical housewife duties for her. Nora was naive, and ambitious. She hid many secrets from her husband. The way women were viewed in this time period formed a kind of barrier that Nora could not overcome. Women should not be discriminated against just because of their gender and within reason they should be able to do what their heart entails.
In Act I, it seems evident that Nora does not understand the actual value of money but she has an infatuation with luxuries such as expensive Christmas gifts and she justifies this by buying less expensive clothes, which she has confided in Mrs. Linde, her friend. Helmer, immediately labels his wife as a “little spendthrift” (Ibsen, 660). She seems to think that money can be easily borrowed and paid back.
Most of us live a life where we do what we want and when we want without anyone telling us how to live our lives. This wasn’t the case in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, where he illustrates to us how one woman lives a life through her father and husband. Throughout the play we see how a once childish like woman gains her independence and a life of her own. Ibsen shows us a very realistic play that demonstrates how on the outside Nora and Torvald seem to have it all. While in reality their life together is simply empty until Nora stands up for herself and starts to build her own life.
The Federal Reserve System is a central banking of the US Government, most commonly known as the Fed. A central bank serves as the banker to both the banking community and the government. It issues the national currency, conducts monetary policy, and plays a major role in the supervision and regulation of banks and bank holding companies. Congress created the Fed in 1913. It was designed to ensure political independence and sensitivity to the many different economic concerns. The chairman and the six other members of the Board of Governors who oversea the Fed are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. There are twelve District Reserve Banks, subsequently located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, in Richmond, VA. In Atlanta, GA., Cleveland, OH. St. Louis and Kansas City, MO., Chicago, Minneapolis MI., Dallas, TX. And San Francisco. Each bank is responsible to a 9 member Board of Directors, which is set in a three-class system. The three classes are defined as A, B, and member banks elect C. Class A and the Board of Governors appoints B Directors and Class C. The Board of Directors is responsible for the administration of its banks and the appointment of the banks president and vice-president. This process is set from the base...
The play A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, recounts a story of a woman who is struggling to exist within the life she has accustomed herself to. The main character Nora is depicted as a woman that has accepted the way things were being held in her household without questioning the fairness or morals of the situation. Ibsen addresses the roles of woman in society and shines a new light on the concept of feminism in the time period. Nora represents the new light on feminism that was not quite popular during the time period in which Ibsen wrote the play. Nora’s character illustrates a concept that was foreign to most women during the time, and allowed for women to realize that they should be living to their full potential. Ibsen portrays Nora as childlike, tolerant, and loyal throughout the play, defining her true essence and eventually leading her to make a decision that would change the course of her life.
Henrik Ibsen created a world where marriages and rules of society are questioned, and where deceit is at every turn. In A Doll’s House, the reader meets Nora, a housewife and mother trapped in her way of life because the unspoken rules of society. Nora and the people around her decieve each other throughout the entire play, leading up to a shocking event that will change Nora and her family lives forever. Ibsen uses the theme deceit to tell a story filled with lies and betrayal.
Nora is the beloved, adored wife of Torvald Helmer. He is well respected, and has just received a promotion to the bank manager. Torvald also obtains high moral standards but he is very controlling and materialistic. During the first scene the couple is discussing the issue of borrowing money. Torvald says to Nora "…you know what I think about that. No debts! Never borrow! Something of freedom’s lost-and something of beauty, too- from a home that’s founded on borrowings and debt. We’ve made a brave stand up to now, the two of us, and we’ll go right on like that the little way we have to."
The first thing that the reader will notice regarding gender is the title of the play “A Doll’s House”. This reveals to the reader, Nora’s and possible Torvald’s status within the play. Nora is unable to be herself as she is not seen as an equal in her marriage. Instead, she is something to be admired and flaunted. This need for her to be something that Torvald can show off. Both Nora and Torvald are living lives based on illusion. Torvald has made Nora his perfect little doll so that he can look good. She thinks that he is a person with incredible strength, she becomes disillusioned with him at the end of the play when he exposes himself as just a man. This paper will look at the way that society’s expectations of gender roles are perceived
Ibsen points out flaws within society by writing this satirical and feminist play. A Doll House is largely about gender inequality, and written in order to open the eyes of the public to stop the imbalance in society. He uses Torvald, and, at one instance, Nora's father to represent the constraints, stresses, and belittlement men put on women. He parallels the trapped feeling most women had in society to Nora, who felt like a cornered dog and felt deceit was her only way out. Women should not have to "wear a mask," they should be free to express their true feelings and hopes without a man's undervaluing opinion. Ibsen felt this needed to be fixed in society; he felt there was no room for lies or deceit but rather that man and woman should live harmoniously together.
She becomes a man and tries to arrange money so Torvald could go to south even thought women in those times were not all to borrow money without their husbands consent. This shows that Nora desires to have more power than Torvald. It is ironic when Torvald calls Nora a “spendthrift”, when Nora is the one who tries to save up every penny so she could clear the debt. Even though, women at that time weren’t independent and would always have to ask their husband for money, Nora did not have to do it. This shows that even thought Nora is portrayed as a dependent woman; she still did some deeds unknowing, which makes it evident that Nora does not need Torvald to live her own life. Another way gender roles are shown in this play is when Nora’s friend sews dress for her. Nora asks her friend to do it in the room, as her husband hates dressmakers. This proves that Nora’s husband is unaware of Nora working day and night to support his
“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.” These words of Henrik Ibsen perfectly describes one of the most important theme discussed in this story i.e. Freedom. The meaning of freedom is defined from different aspects according to different cultures; freedom varies from one culture to another. Some define freedom as natural right, which a person is born with. Like the will to do what ever someone feels like, live where he wants, say what he thinks and have a free opinion about anything. Freedom can stretch through free speech to the choice of religion without ignoring or affecting other peoples’ rights. There is nothing more humiliating than taking a person’s natural rights away. By doing so you are depriving him from freedom.