“Little squirrel”, “ little Sky-lark”, “little sweet-tooth” and “My poor little Nora”. Words that Torvald, the dominant, superior male character in “A Doll’s House”, utilizes to describe his seemingly “inferior” wife, Nora. Words that possess the power to hold total dominance and control on a seemingly “dependent” individual, Nora. Words that reinforce a woman’s traditional gender role as a diminutive and powerless figure in the household. And most importantly, words that completely strip away Nora’s sense of individuality and self-belief. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, “A Doll’s House”, Ibsen effectively utilizes the dialogue and actions of the characters in order to criticize the constricting role of 19th century society on human equality and to illustrate the play’s central theme of individualism. In “A Doll’s House”, Ibsen strives to convey a message about about an individual’s struggle for an authentic identity when faced with tyrannical social conventions. Through the main characters, particularly through Nora and Mrs. Linde, the audience is able to grasp and understand this central message through the specific actions and dialogues that the characters commit, which hold a great significance to the theme of individualism.
It is imperative to note that Ibsen’s play was not based on a feministic perspective, but on an individualistic perspective. Henrik Ibsen intended the play to portray “the need of every individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is and to strive to become that person.” (Meyer, 446). In “A Doll’s House”, the characters’ actions drive the play forward and emphasize the individualistic theme that Ibsen conveys.
Ibsen places Nora in a constricting society where she has no way out. She must pic...
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...logue. They have never had one serious conversation, suggesting the shallowness of their marriage. At the end of act three, she realizes that after years, “this is the first time” they “have had a serious talk together”. She realizes that Torvald “never loved” her but “only thought how nice it was to be in love” with her. The dialogue through the end of the third act demonstrate her understanding of a need of individuality. She states that: “I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are…” She realizes that “she must think things out for myself and try to understand them.” and that it was was up to her to “make up my mind which is right-society or I.”. The dialogue in this act portrays the theme of individualism as Nora is finally able to grasp the shortcomings and restraints of traditionalist society and transform to be self-serving.
In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House, Ibsen tells a story of a wife and mother who not only has been wronged by society, but by her beloved father and husband because of her gender. Nora left her father’s house as a naïve daughter only to be passed to the hands of her husband forcing her to be naïve wife and mother, or so her husband thinks. When Nora’s husband, Torvald becomes deathly ill, she takes matters into her own hands and illegally is granted a loan that will give her the means to save her husband’s life. Her well guarded secret is later is used against her, to exort Torvald, who was clueless that his wife was or could be anything more than he made her. However, Nora has many unrecognized dimensions “Besides being lovable, Nora is selfish, frivolous, seductive, unprincipled, and deceitful” (Rosenberg and Templeton 894). Nora is a dynamic character because her father and her husband treat her as a child and do not allow her to have her own thoughts and opinions, as the play progresses she breaks free from the chains of her gender expectation to explore the world around her.
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, a drama written in the midst of an 1879, middle-class, suburban Europe, he boldly depicts a female protagonist. In a culture with concern for fulfilling, or more so portraying a socially acceptable image, Nora faces the restraints of being a doll in her own house and a little helpless bird. She has been said to be the most complex character of drama, and rightfully so, the pressure of strict Victorian values is the spark that ignites the play's central conflicts. Controversy is soon to arise when any social-norm is challenged, which Nora will eventually do. She evolves throughout the play, from submissive housewife to liberated woman. It seems as though what took women in America almost a century to accomplish, Nora does in a three-day drama. Ibsen challenges the stereotypical roles of men and women in a societally-pleasing marriage. He leads his readers through the journey of a woman with emerging strength and self-respect. Nora plays the typical housewife, but reveals many more dimensions that a typical woman would never portray in such a setting.
Nora Helmer was a fragile character that relied on her husband for her own identity. This dependence has kept her from having her own personality in so many different ways. Throughout the story Nora portrays the perfect housewife who stays at home to take care of her family and please her husband. From early childhood Nora has always held the opinions of either her father or Torvald, only hoping to please them. Nora’s upbringing was so easy that she only needed to make a cute noise and someone would come running over to serve her. It’s no wonder that when she got married that Torvald followed the same routine. Ibsen even states that, “she was merely a doll, a plaything, passed from papa’s hands onto Torvald’s” (1610). I believe that these actions made her look extremely infantile, showing that she had no thoughts of her v...
However, not all of the opening act focuses on Nora’s.... ... middle of paper ... ... Torvald.
A Doll?s House presents a revolutionary change for Norway in the 1880?s. During this time period women were seen as second or even third class citizens, and though numerically this is not true, a minority . Ibsen presents his character Nora as a plaything, sorely manipulated by the men in her life. As the play pro...
Ibsen uses Nora and Torvald to illustrate the internal struggle individuals face when in an unhealthy relationship. Specifically to A Doll’s House plot, suppressing one’s desires and happiness in order to uphold social standing is disastrous for both individuals. By appointing one person to a specific role in a relationship, it offers no creativity or space for freedom of expression. The gender roles Nora faced stopped her from reaching her full level of happiness and her revelation was destined to happen eventually, even eight years into a
The enforcement of specific gender roles by societal standards in 19th century married life proved to be suffocating. Women were objects to perform those duties for which their gender was thought to have been created: to remain complacent, readily accept any chore and complete it “gracefully” (Ibsen 213). Contrarily, men were the absolute monarchs over their respective homes and all that dwelled within. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora is subjected to moral degradation through her familial role, the consistent patronization of her husband and her own assumed subordinance. Ibsen belittles the role of the housewife through means of stage direction, diminutive pet names and through Nora’s interaction with her morally ultimate husband, Torvald. Nora parades the façade of being naïve and frivolous, deteriorating her character from being a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the security of home and ironically her own sanity. A Doll’s House ‘s depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th century housewife and the societal pressures placed upon her displays a woman’s gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald’s progressive infantilization of Nora and the pressure on Nora to adhere to societal norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century societal standards and their oppressive nature result in the gradual degradation of her character that destroys all semblances of family and identity.Nora’s role in her family is initially portrayed as being background, often “laughing quietly and happily to herself” (Ibsen 148) because of her isolation in not only space, but also person. Ibsen’s character rarely ventures from the main set of the drawi...
The first act is an exposition. The first act is more or less shows the lifestyle of families in the 19th century and the domestic problems at that time. In my opinion, Nora has gone through a kind of personal awakening. She 's come to the conclusion that she 's not a fully realized person. She has to spend some time figuring out who she is as an individual or she will never be anything more than someone 's pretty little doll. This would be impossible under the smothering presence of Torvald. She must force herself to face the world
Nora Helmer was a delicate character and she relied on Torvald for her identity. This dependence that she had kept her from having her own personality. Yet when it is discovered that Nora only plays the part of the good typical housewife who stays at home to please her husband, it is then understandable that she is living not for herself but to please others. From early childhood Nora has always held the opinions of either her father or Torvald, hoping to please them. This mentality makes her act infantile, showing that she has no ambitions of her own. Because she had been pampered all of her life, first by her father and now by Torvald, Nora would only have to make a cute animal sound to get what she wanted from Torvald, “If your little squirrel were to ask you for something very, very, prettily” (Ibsen 34) she said.
In the play ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen, Nora’s childlike actions are brought about from the treatment of her father. The most evident example of this is when Nora refers to her father as ‘Daddy’ . This is a very childish way
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...
After asking his wife if she understands what she has done Nora answers “[Looking squarely at him, her face hardening] Yes. I am beginning to understand everything” (835). This statement might be the key phrase of Nora’s realization. The double- meaning implies Nora’s understanding of the actual situation as well as her awareness that her marriage, even though it conforms with social expectations, is far from perfect. She now doubts the depth of her love for Torvald and becomes calm with comprehension as she begins to recognize the truth about her marriage. While she expects compassion for her sacrifice, she is none given. Instead of sacrificing anything to help Nora out of her predicament, Torvald is only worried about himself and appearances. It becomes very clear, after the second letter from Krogstad arrives, that her well-being always comes second “I’m saved. Nora, I’m saved! You too, of course” (836). Throughout the conversation with Torvald, Nora finally realizes, she needs to rearrange her life and priorities to be happy. This implies independence and self-awareness. While Nora finally understands the situation, she is in and what she needs to do but Torvald defines her new attitudes as madness “You’re ill, Nora; you’re feverish; I almost think you’re out of your mind” (840). “However, the characterization has been tied to the fact that she is breaking taboos or challenging conventions” (Langås 160). Torvald is still stuck in his fantasy world of how a wife should talk and act per his standard and the society he stands for. “Nora still has no way of knowing that she is not endangering her children with her presence and in the end, she feels impelled to leave, and her decision is less an act of defiance against her husband and society than an attempt to save the lives of her children” (Brooks
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.
Nora is the main doll in the house, but she also refers to the children as dolls. Nora states that Torvald treats her as her own father did. Caring for her but never taking her serious. They treat her as a doll kept for her looks. Although the children aren’t the main idea of the doll in “A Doll House,” Nora sees them as dolls herself.
“A Doll’s House” is a play written by a Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. The play was published in 1879, and is a literary piece that triggered almost vigorous reactions from the audience. Moreover, the play was considered Ibsen’s masterpiece and he was determined to provoke a reaction from the public. His intention was to bring awareness to the problem of gender roles in the 19th century society: the role of women who were used as decorations of the household. The title this play, “A Doll’s House”, foreshadows the play’s protagonist, Nora Helmer, and her role in the household. The title of the play suggests that Nora is a doll in her own home.