The Real Ken and Barbie

770 Words2 Pages

In the play, "A Doll House", written by Henrik Ibsen, the plot and themes all suggest that the title implies a metaphor rather than an imaginary toy. The benefits of the reader is an example of how a lovely young woman can go from this flawless, Betty Crocker made life, to having everything turned upside down, not having any resemblance to prior situations. This play models more of a real life situation, not a pre ordained Cinderella fairy tale, and throughout the sequence, the main character, Nora, gets deeper and deeper into trials of tribulation. The meat and potatoes of this play revolves around a small amount, say 4800 crowns, that our damsel borrowed from an awfully suspicious humanitarian who is more than willing to accommodate young Nora. Nora, confused by the oncoming death of her father and her husband's declining health, hastily forges the document. Later on we see that the individual who brokered the deal needs her sympathy or else this document will come under public scrutiny. Then, the "I didn't see that coming", ending shows Nora willing to throw everything down the proverbial crapper all in the name of self discovery. In the beginning, we could see the well defined structure of this "Doll's House", with a young delectable woman getting hopped up on macaroons. She is very pleasing to the eye, a catch some would say, and has the heart of a newly successful bank manager. Nora's motto is "money", and "gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. Poor Torvald, who is her husband, explains to the anxious spender that gimmie got shot. "Now that you've got a big salary and are going to make piles and piles of money." (211). She wants to buy more for Christmas. This seems to be the happiest Nora is for the duration of th... ... middle of paper ... ...goes ballistic. For some reason, Nora has this epiphany and decides that killing herself is not going to fly. She tells Torvald to leave her alone; he is now a stranger after 8 years of marriage. She now needs to find herself, and no one else can help her. She ups and leaves everything, even her kids, just to have a pilgrimage to her new identity. Nora will never be the same. Her world has now jumped off its axis and on a destination of "just close your eyes." After reading this masterfully executed drama, I questioned the entire human hierarchy. How it started that Nora, a woman dependent on her husband's status and wealth, now is independent of the entire game from which she plays. It's like a vegetarian decided to start eating meat at a PETA rally. Could this have begun the Women's Movement? Perhaps, but it was a well thought out valve of self expression.

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