The Role Of Dolls In A Doll's House

Dolls are an accurate representation of something usually young children play with. In the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora Helmer is setting up for Christmas Eve. Torvald’s husband is excited to see his wife. He welcomes her wholeheartedly and lovingly, however then gets upset and criticizes her for spending a lot of money on Christmas presents. Their conversation revealed that the Helmers have been very observant with their money for a long time. Surprisingly, Torvald has gotten another position at the bank, which lets the Helmer family enjoy their life somewhat peacefully after a very long time. Their life seems to be improving as they are able to spend money without thinking about it too much. Nora’s long time friend Mrs.Linde

Even when Torvald would show authority over her, she would constantly show herself as beneath him. “His wife, though supreme arbiter of household affairs, was subservient to him, a devoted (and submissive) wife and mother of often all too many children” (Altick 53). This portrayed the role of woman and the struggles they dealt with throughout the time their husband was out working. Women were often told to be a devoted housewife, however some women (for example Nora) are far more capable of working jobs of higher positions just like Torvald and should not be restricted from doing so. It was unusual to see women do anything but to work indoors packing lunches and taking care of their children. According to the article “Gender Roles in the 19th Century,” Kathryn Hughes discussed the challenges women faced as they were left alone with their children. “Men increasingly commuted to their place of work – the factory, shop or office. Wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties.” In other words, men were distant from their wife and children as they worked long hours and provided for their family. Women were to reproduce and stay indoors whereas men did all the outside work. Gender roles played a huge part in their lives as they were to stick with the norms and do what society thought was acceptable. This also showed the way Torvald was overprotective of Nora. He would call her names like “little bird” and his “skylark” and would ask her questions like “When did my squirrel come home?” (Ibsen 12). This signifies that Nora is not a human being but an object. Another important thing to note is Torvald would always compare her to smaller objects nothing too extreme. It also showed how Torvald was making her seem very little compared to him and she was not