Works in Translation Essay: A doll’s house
How does the society in “A Doll’s House” depict the female character’s roles.
In “A Doll’s House”, Torvald and Nora each have a unique role in their marriage. Torvald treats Nora as his little doll, or plaything, while Nora treats him as the man of the house who has the authority to do anything he wants. These ideas form because the society within the play does not allow much freedom for women. According to this society and culture, a women’s role is depicted by the man she is with, the female character’s all exemplify Nora’s assertion that women have to sacrifice a lot more than men. In this play, Nora, Mrs. Linde, and the maid all hold sacrificial roles depicted by the society they are in.
In the beginning of the play, Torvald calls Nora by little names such as “my little wastrel” or “my little lark” and he makes her dance for him.1 Nora does not reply or deny him because in this culture, a woman had to listen to his man even at the expense of her dignity. Another instance where Nora displays a sacrificial role in her marriage is when she had to sneak around his back in order to obtain a loan to save her husband’s life. This shows that a woman’s marital role in “A Doll’s House” is less dominant than the man’s role. In act 3 of “A Doll’s House”, during the Helmer’s fight, Nora reveals that she was going to kill herself to save Torvalds honor and when she expected him to, he declares that “nobody sacrifices his honor for his love.” This symbolizes the fact that in 1879, a woman would go to the lengths of killing herself, when a man would not even think about it.
Another female character that possesses a sacrificial role is Mrs. Linde. The statement “Do you think it was easy ...
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...b and not leave her daughter.
In conclusion, Henrik Ibsen captures the role that women have to go through in “A Doll’s House.” He shows that in this society, all women have to go through sacrifices, no matter what economic status they hold.2 Nora, Mrs. Linde, and Anne-Marie all make sacrifices because of the men they are with. Nora has to give up her identity because the men in her life, such as her dad and Torvald, chose what she likes, what she thinks, and what she does. Mrs. Linde has to give up her true lover, in order to marry a man that will take care of her and her family. Lastly, Anne-Marie had to abandon her daughter, to support herself financially.
Works Cited
"A Doll's House." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.
Works Cited
to discover and educate herself. She must strive to find her individuality. That the perception of woman is inaccurate is also supported by the role of Torvald. Woman is believed to be subordinate to the domineering husband. Instead of being the strong supporter and protector of his family, Nora's husband is a mean and cowardly man. Worried about his reputation he cares little about his wife's feelings and fails to notice many of her needs. The popular impression of man is discarded in favor of a more realistic view, thus illustrating society's distorted views. Ibsen, through this controversial play, has an impact upon society's view of the subordinate position of women. By describing this role of woman, discussing its effects, and predicting a change in contemporary views, he stressed the importance of woman's realization of this believed inferiority. Woman should no longer be seen as the shadow of man, but a person in herself, with her own triumphs and tragedies. The exploration of Nora reveals that she is dependant upon her husband and displays no independent standing. Her progression of understanding suggests woman's future ability to comprehend their plight. Her state of shocked awareness at the end of the play is representative of the awakening of society to the changing view of the role of woman. "A Doll's House" magnificently illustrates the need f...
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 the play “A Doll’s House”, marriage is merely a social formality. Torvald and Nora, husband and wife, share merely a few intimate moments throughout the entire novel and their relationship is devoid of any affection at all. The setting of the play “A Doll’s House” is 19th century Norway and the norms and beliefs of this era play a huge role in defining the role of Torvald as a husband, and Nora as a wife. The husband in this era is supposed to be the sole guardian of the house, responsible for taking care of the families financial requirements and ensuring a high standing for the family in society. Torvald believes that Nora is confined to looking after their children and basically taking care of the physical aspects of their household, and Nora feels so oppressed by her husband that she helps him in a time of dire need without even telling him. This incident occurs in the scene where Torvald falls dangerously sick and is too foolish to spend money on foreign treatment that could save his life, Nora sensing the grave danger goes behind Torvald’s back and collects money to save Torvalds life by committing the crime of forgery.
The author clearly reveals the imbalance in power within the Helmer’s marriage. When Torvald addresses his wife, he continuously reinforces his dominance by calling her belittling pet names such as, “my little lark… my squirrel” (Ibsen 1190-1191). Only when Nora is being criticized does her husband address her by her name. Torvald condemns her for being wasteful with money, and connects it with the fact that she is a woman. Nora endures constant ridicule for her “feminine” acts of squandering money, “Nora, how like a woman… you little prodigal” (Ibsen 1191-1192). Throughout the play, Ibsen reiterates “little” to expose Torvalds’s repetitive disparaging of Nora’s character. But not only does Nora continue to allow the condescending treatment, she responds by acting helpless and in need of proper guidance. When discussing the responsibilities of women in the Victorian era, Hsin Ying Chi, English instructor at Troy State University, points out, “Her first duty is to be a submissive wife who loves and obeys her husband” (par. 27). In A Doll’s House, Nora represents the “traditional” subordinate house wife who solely exists to please her husband. She is shown to be oblivious to any outside issues, and it is apparent to the reader that Nora is completely dependent upon Torvald. Therefore, as a Victorian women, Nora must blindly follow her husband’s
In “A Dollhouse,” Nora is stuck in a marriage with a rich man who has no respect for her. Nora’s husband Torvald, does not think his
Upon reading “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, many readers may find the character Nora to be a rather frivolous spending mother of three who is more concerned about putting up a front to make others think her life is perfect, rather than finding herself. At the beginning of the play, this may be true, but as the play unfolds, you see that Nora is not only trying to pay off a secret debt, but also a woman who is merely acting as her husbands “doll” fulfilling whatever he so asks of her. Nora is not only an independent woman who took a risk, but also a woman whose marriage was more along the lines of a father-child relationship.
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.
Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.
In A Doll’s House, Ibsen portrays his lead character, Nora, who is a housewife in the Helmer’s family. She has undergone a transformation throughout the play that she reacts differently to her husband. Her husband, Torvald, is an example of men who are only interested in their appearance and the amount of control they have over a person. In particular, he has a very clear and narrow definition of a woman's role. At the beginning of the story, as from the title of the play, Nora symbolizes the “doll” in the house, which means that she has been treated as treats Nora like a child or doll. For example, husband called Nora ‘bird’ and it implies that husband treats her like his pet and she is his doll as the title is a doll house. In other words, her husband wanted her to be a ‘lark' or ‘songbird' so he can enjoy h...
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...
Ibsen’s play, “A Doll House” was highly influenced by the gender roles of the twentieth century, which was when he chose to write the play itself. Within his time period, woman were portrayed as inferior counterparts to men. “Women were denied participation in public life; their access to education was limited; their social lives were narrowly circumscribed; and they could not legally transact business, own property, or inherit.” (A Doll’s House) The way women were portrayed in the twentieth century reveals Ibsen’s reasoning for creating such a husband, Torvald. Nora seems to be inferior towards Torvald because of the gender roles set back in previous generations. Throughout the play, Torvald undoubtedly provides evidence that he depicts Nora more as a child than a wife to him.
A Doll’s House illustrates two types of women. Christine is without a husband and independent at the start of the play whereas Nora is married to Torvald and dependent on him and his position at the bank. Both begin at different ends of the spectrum. In the course of the play their paths cross and by the end of the play each woman is where the other started. It appears that a woman has two choices in society; to be married and dependent on a man or unmarried and struggle in the world because she does not have a man.
In his play, A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen depicts a female protagonist, Nora Helmer, who dares to defy her husband and forsake her "duty" as a wife and mother to seek out her individuality. A Doll's House challenges the patriarchal view held by most people at the time that a woman's place was in the home. Many women could relate to Nora's situation. Like Nora, they felt trapped by their husbands and their fathers; however, they believed that the rules of society prevented them from stepping out of the shadows of men. Through this play, Ibsen stresses the importance of women's individuality. A Doll's House combines realistic characters, fascinating imagery, explicit stage directions, and an influential setting to develop a controversial theme.
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.
In A Doll's House, Ibsen paints a bare picture of the sacrificial role held by women of different economic and financial standards in his society. The play's female characters demonstrate Nora's assertion that men refuse to sacrifice their integrity. In order to support her mother and two brothers, Mrs. Linde found it necessary to leave Krogstad. She left her true love, Krogstad, to marry a richer man. These are some of the sacrifices that women have to make to provide for there family. The nanny had to abandon her own child to support herself by working as Nora's children sitter. As she often told Nora, the nanny considers herself very fortunate to receive the job as the sitter, since she was a poor girl who was left astray. Isben concerns about women in society are brought up throughout the play. He believed that women had the right to develop their own individuality, but only if they made a sacrifice. Wo...