Living in a society where women were viewed as codependent on men, Henrik Isben’s character Nora Helman challenged this mentality. This story challenged the social and marital norms of men and women with a controversial conclusion. Some were critical of Isben’s ending so he wrote a different outcome that would have pleased audiences more but not have had such a powerful message. In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, despite censorship and audience resistance, the original ending written by Ibsen is undoubtedly the best ending. In A Doll’s House, Nora experiences an epiphany that triggers development in her character. In the beginning of the story, Nora is not only content in her life, but also happy – or so she makes herself out to be. She acts happy, …show more content…
Readers learn that the relationship between Torvald and Nora to be more of a father-daughter one as opposed to them being husband and wife. Their marriage is deemed unhealthy for that reason; Torvald treats Nora as his daughter, not his wife. In the time period of this work, the idea that a woman is nothing more than a child in an adult’s body was typical and traditional. They were expected to be “without mind, but with much heart, devoid of logic, but sensitive and intrusive” (Valency, 253). This is what made Ibsen’s ending extremely controversial. Nora is “given” a mind and uses logic to realize what has become of her past and present lifestyles. She does the opposite of what was expected from female characters in this time. The ending challenged what rights women had at a time where it was thought they were nothing more than a man’s wife, or a father’s daughter – always under the control of men and unable to make right decisions on their own. Ibsen was strong enough to keep this ending, the better of them, for the text instead of succumbing and changing the conclusion just to be accepted and approved by …show more content…
One of the edits to the story was to have Nora commit suicide. Towards the end of Act III, Nora envisions her death when Torvald has gone to read the letter expressing what Nora has done. Suicide is sometimes viewed as the ultimate weakness, or being too strong for too long. If this would have been incorporated into the story, the meaning and impact would have been far less. Nora would have been seen as taking the easy way out, and Torvald would have gotten sympathy as a victim. Ibsen published an alternate ending to A Doll’s House that gave audiences a peak of just how controlling Torvald was. Instead of Nora walking out on her husband and children, Torvald dragged Nora back to the children’s room to look at them one last time. Nora ends up collapsing in tears in the doorway of their room and stays with Torvald. This ending gives Torvald the triumph over Nora because he knew if he used the children to make her feel guilty for even considering leaving that she would stay. Both of these edits to the plot line are not as influential as the original ending. If this ending would have been applied by Ibsen, the story would not have been about women’s right, but just a story for entertainment purposes (Braddock,
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.
Throughout the change from a carefree doll into an independent woman who is finally finding herself, we see that Nora is acting the way she does due to society. She has lost herself due to being a wife and a mother. Society is typically male dominant and because of the roles she has to fulfill, she lost herself.
Due to pressure in Germany to allow the play to be acted, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending in which Nora decides to stay with her family. During the argument when Torvald mentions the children, “…to desert your home, your husband, and your children” Nora breaks down and decides to stay
‘A Doll’s House’ is written by Henrik Ibsen, is centred around the protagonist Nora Helmer, who has several important changes throughout the play. However after reading the book twice and analysing the acts in detail you focus not on how Nora changes, but why this drastic change in her character comes about. From the beginning of the play we see that Nora is not in touch with reality and lives in a world she has made up. However throughout we see that several events let the harsh reality of her life creep into her conscience. This has exposed the question to what extent is Nora’s process of realisation self-inflicted, or of the fact that she is driven into this change by those around her, which is most notably her husband, Torvald. We do see
When Nora slammed the door shut in her doll's house in 1879, her message sent shockwaves around the world that persist to this day. "I must stand quite alone", Nora declared after finding out that her ideal of life was just a imagination of her and that all her life had been build up by others people's, specifically her husband and her dad ideas, opinions and tastes.
This becomes one of the main driving forces of Ibsen’s play. (Quote from Torvald and the money). It immediately distinguishes the differences in gender roles and morals in Norway during the late 1800’s. While Nora is willing to give the porter twice what is owed, we assume she is full of holiday spirit; Torvald has a much more sensible outlook on financial concerns. While he jokingly calls her his little spendthrift, he asserts that her lack of understanding is a result of her gender “Nora, my Nora, that is just like a woman” (Ibsen). Torvald believes that her place in the home is simply ornamental, a trophy that serves as decoration for his home. Torvald is constantly referring to her through the use of pet names such as (quote pet names from book) and only ever refers to her by name when he is scolding her. Not only does Torvald see her as his doll, but also as her child (quote near end of story). By keeping Nora dependent and obedient to him, he plays the role of Nora’s second father. Nora eventually sees that her daughter is being treated in the same manner that she was her entire life, as a
...e traditional role of women in a patriarchal society when she forges a signature to secure a bank loan. Initially this rebellious act illustrates her as childish and deceptive person, who is concerned about the Helmer’s reputation. However by the end of the play, Nora Helmer become independent as she weaves her way through her husband’s overbear rules durable by making her own rules to make, which eventually causes her to leave. Her reasons for leaving are that she had lived her whole life as a doll and she needed to find her true self. Henrik Ibsen’s underlying purpose in characterizing Nora Helmer as dynamic was to illustrate her struggles in living a typical Norwegian marriage. Ibsen was trying to convey how a couple in a Norwegian marriage was not union and did not split power among the couple equally. The males of the marriage had superiority over their wives.
A Doll House shows the protagonist, Nora, being treated by the men in her life as nothing more than a “doll” to dress
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...
A Doll 's house is one of the modern works that Henrik Ibsen wrote. He was called the father of modern drama .He was famous for writing plays that related to real life. A Doll 's House is a three-act play that discusses the marriage in the 19th century. It is a well-made play that used the first act as an exposition. The extract that will be analyzed in the following paragraphs is a dialogue between Nora and the nurse that takes care of her children. This extract shows how she was afraid not only of Krogstad blackmail, but also of Torvald 's point of view about those who committed any mistake. Torvald says that the mothers who tell lies should not bring up children as they are not honest . Nora is also lying to her family and to Torvald. So she is afraid because she thinks she maybe 'poisoning ' her own children. The analysis of this extract will be about of Nora 's character, the theme, and the language in A Doll 's House.
The author, Henrik Ibsen, who wrote other social commentary plays (like Ghosts, Enemy Of The People, and Pillars Of Society), made a departure in this plays ending by having the protagonist run away rather than staying to set an example and continuing to struggle for the better along side others. This scenario creates a sad, troubling and for Nora unjustified ending as she, the protagonist in A Doll's House, leaves Torvold, her husband. She destroys any hope that married couples can reconcile differences and learn to change and grow with one another. Nora's exit is a self- destructive assertion of her childlike and romantic view of life, that somehow, someway, things will work out even though there is no plan on her part as to how. By leaving, Nora, with no expectation of a support system, provides no significant transforming effect upon her family's lives and views. Nora has an egotistical and self-centered idea about life and this is further exposed when she decides to abandon her family. Everyone must compromise at some time in their lives. This leads to cooperation in family and in society and is the essence of survival and growth. Nora's need to be in control and her role playing manipulations, makes her an equally guilty party in the promotion and continuation of a stilted and stifling middle class lifestyle that was Norway in the mid 1800's.
Throughout A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen illustrates through an intriguing story how a once infantile-like woman gains independence and a life of her own. Ibsen creates a naturalistic drama that demonstrates how on the outside Nora and Torvald seam to have it all, but in reality their life together is empty. Instead of meaningful discussions, Torvald uses degrading pet names and meaningless talk to relate to Nora. Continuing to treat Nora like a pampered yet unimportant pet, Torvald thoroughly demonstrates how men of his era treat women as insignificant items to be possessed and shown off. While the Helmer household may have the appearance of being sociably acceptable, the marriage of Torvald and Nora was falling apart because of the lack of identity, love, and communication.
While it was important to highlight the oppression of women in marriage and Nora’s dramatic exit served a valuable purpose to Ibsen’s thesis, It may have also been very effective if the last scene ended less shockingly. Audiences would have dealt more calmly with an ending in which Nora did not completely desert her family. If the end were different it may have benefited the overall mission of the play in ways, such as, more people attending shows and gaining the message without disturbing their moral beliefs too much. Also, the avoidance of a cliff hanger, an attribute of dramas that does not get along with many in the light of such a controversial topic. An alternate ending composed so that Nora could find herself and return with her family may have increased the approval of, A Doll's House, and allow it to end on a more settling note.
The inferior role of Nora is extremely important to her character. Nora is oppressed by a variety of "tyrannical social conventions." Ibsen in his "A Doll's House" depicts the role of women as subordinate in order to emphasize their role in society. Nora is oppressed by the manipulation from Torvald. Torvald has a very typical relationship with society. He is a smug bank manager. With his job arrive many responsibilities. He often treats his wife as if she is one of these responsibilities. Torvald is very authoritative and puts his appearance, both social and physical, ahead of his wife that he supposedly loves. Torvald is a man that is worried about his reputation, and cares little about his wife's feelings.
In "A Doll's House", Ibsen portrays the bleak picture of a role held by women of all economic classes that is sacrificial. The female characters in the play back-up Nora's assertion that even though men are unable to sacrifice their integrity, "hundreds of thousands of woman have." Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad, her true but poor love, and marry a richer man in order to support her mother and two brothers. The nanny has to abandon her children to support herself by working for Nora. Though Nora is economically advantaged, in comparison to the other female characters, she leads a hard life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriages dominant member. Torvald condescends Nora and inadvertently forces Nora to hide the loan from him. Nora knows that Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, could aid in saving his life.