Preview

Doll's House Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1038 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Doll's House Essay
Henrik Ibsen’s late 19th century drama, A Doll’s House is a political play that fractures the barriers between the public and private spheres of the suffocating bourgeois lifestyle of the Victorian era. The play's subversive attitude is embedded in an exploration of women that challenges female archetypes whilst emphasising a fine balance between freedom and attachment. Specifically, Ibsen’s exploration of identity emphasises the process of self-authorship and the creation of autonomy as defined by a sense of sacrifice. That being, he emphasises that an autonomous identity can only be achieved through the deconstruction of social and personal facades whilst conversely portraying manipulative and deceitful actions to maintain ‘stable’ relationships. However, it is Ibsen’s skilful unification of content with dramatic form that has allowed his play to resonate with contemporary audiences 130 years after its original date of publication, as female liberation is still a plaguing issue.

Resonating with contemporary society’s constantly evolving female positions, a 21st century audience recognises that Ibsen challenges the patriarchal Victorian era’s perception of women as objectified and submissive. Specifically, Ibsen dissembles the ideological façade of the home through a dichotomous representation of Nora as both a challenge and embodiment of patriarchal power. Ibsen alludes to normative female ideals initially portraying Nora as a subservient housewife passively accepting potentially derogatory pet names such as "squirrelkin" and "hummingbird" as terms of endearment. Additionally, depersonalising neologisms, such as "what a little featherbrain it is" highlight her submission and dehumanised status as an objectified 'it'. Yet, despite her seeming powerlessness, she contrasts social perceptions of the ‘angel in the house’ and a ‘silly girl’ by involving herself in the domain of business. In her forgery to obtain money to save Torvald’s life, her jargon exhibits

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One of the most prevalent issues Ibsen brings to his audience through A Doll’s House is nineteenth century gender roles. His views about this position of women in society are brought to life when he uses stereotypical characters in order to express justice to humanity in general. He portrays this idea of humanism in A Doll’s House through the characters Mrs. Linde, Nora and Torvald.…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll's House Essay

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Also in A Doll’s House, you will find that things are not always what they seem. One of the main examples of this, is the various sides of Nora that she uncovers throughout the course of the play. She goes from being told, “Nora, you’re just a child” [pg.951 Ibsen] by Mrs. Linde, to an untypical Victorian woman. She appears to be a spendthrift to Torvald, when really she is paying off a debt she owes to…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, a frivolous, lying wife, makes a major decision in which she borrows a loan meant to be used for a trip to better her husband’s health, behind his back. The play develops through constant struggles Nora takes to keep in secret her actions. In the end, her husband Torvald learns of her loan and is extremely infuriated to the point where he says he no longer loves her. Shocked by her husband’s reaction, Nora looks back on her motives for making her decision and decides she had been living a fake life which had come to be by a lack of communication in their marriage. After struggling so much to keep her husband from finding a painful truth and being critized when it was known, Nora realizes all she had ever been was a doll to her loved ones which pushes her to make the right decision of leaving everything behind and finding herself.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the situations very poorly in this play by keeping everything a secret. The way that women were viewed in this time period created a barrier that she could not overcome. The decisions that had the potential to be good were otherwise molded into appalling ones. Women should have just as many rights as men and should not be discriminated by gender; but they should also accept consequences in the same way without a lesser or harsher punishment.…

    • 3445 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ibsen, Henrik Subplots

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In this very popular drama from the playwright Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad make an important contribution to the drama as the subplot of the play “ A doll’s house “. The playwright’s intent of this play was to dramatize Victorian society and it is clear that without these characters help, the main characters would have probably remained stagnant. Nora would have most likely, never would have come to a self-realization of her own lost identity without these subplot characters. Krogstad and Mrs.L. clearly help the main characters in their evolution throughout the drama with the benefit of their own past experiences being similar to Nora’s.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Responders are immediately aware that the relationship between Helmer and his wife Nora imposes a barrier to Nora fulfilling this need. Throughout the play, we see Helmer degrading and belittling Nora through the chastising tone of “little featherbrain” and belittling terms of endearment such as “my little lark” and “my little squirrel”, a pattern successfully captured by Brian Johnston in 1932 when he claimed that “Nora herself actually is the creation of Torvald’s aesthetic imagination”. We become immediately aware that with the repetition of “my” and the references to animals, Ibsen portrays Nora as a possession of Helmer rather than an individual or person. We can also see by Helmer’s repetition of “little” to portray Nora that he judges her as his inferior. This is further reinforced in the opening scenes of the play, when Helmer objectifies Nora with the repetition of the word “it”. Here, we can see the social injustice where he denies her human identity, suggesting her role in his life is an object for his use. Reflecting the problematic values and customs of its nineteenth century context, Johnston further explains that “It is the very ordinariness of the pair … that makes the play’s analysis of marriage so disturbing”, because the issues here clearly reflect a view of marriage…

    • 3188 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    One way Ibsen displays feminism in A Doll House is through the outcomes of the relationships of two main couples: the Helmers (Torvald and Nora), and Krogstad and Kristine. Camilia Collett, a feminist activist and author who was a close friend of Ibsen’s, viewed marriage as “a union between two equal partners” (Ørjasæter 24), of which Torvald and Nora’s relationship was quite the opposite. In her relationship with Torvald, Nora was treated like a doll: she lived by doing tricks for him like dancing and playing the tambourine. Thus, when she realizes how poorly she has been treated by first her father and now her husband, Nora leaves Torvald. However, the relationship between Krogstad and Kristine was more along the lines of “a union between two equal partners” (Ørjasæter 24). Unlike Torvald and Nora, Krogstad and Kristine humbly accept the fact that they both need each other. For instance, when Krogstad tells Krisitne that he is a half-drowned man hanging onto a wreck without her, Kristine claims that she feels the same way. Then she…

    • 2047 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Written during the Victorian era, the controversial play featuring a female protagonist seeking individuality stirred up more controversy than any of his other works. In contrast to many dramas of Scandinavia in that time which depicted the role of women as the comforter, helper, and supporter of man, "A Doll's House" introduced woman as having her own purposes and goals. The heroine, Nora Helmer, progresses during the course of the play eventually to realize that she must discontinue the role of a doll and seek out her individuality. From the very first lines of the play, we notice the status quo between Torvald and Nora. Torvald is the stereotypically strong, dignified husband while Nora is "little skylark twittering" (Hurt and Wilke 1327). Torvald's continual reference to Nora using bird names parallels Nora's image of herself. For example, in the first act, Torvald continually refers to Nora as his "little featherbrain," his "little scatterbrain," his "squirrel sulking", and most importantly his "song bird." These images of weak birds characterize Nora as a weak person. The simple twittering, little birds we see every day are very susceptible to cold weather and to dying and so is Nora. The image of a "little featherbrain" and a "little scatterbrain" indicate stupidity. Nora can't think for herself because her thoughts are scattered and unorganized. Clement Scott describes the initial image of Nora as that of "a doll wife who…

    • 1436 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play, A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen is the story of a trouble marriage in Victorian society. Torvald treats his wife, Nora, like a trophy until she finally realizes that she is unhappy and leaves him. In his efforts to impress the bourgeoisie, he is constantly worried about the appearance of his wife and himself. In his attempts to control Nora’s appearance to society, he takes a bizarrely dictatorial role in her life. Torvald is extremely strict with Nora about her spending because of the strict financial policies of the banks at the time. While his behavior throughout the play is despicable, Torvald’s actions are very similar to the factual behavior of most men during the time that Ibsen wrote the play…

    • 1462 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In act 1, Ibsen immediately portrays the protagonist’s, Nora, status as a woman in the household. She is a symbol of the women of her era, who were believed to be content with just the business of the home. She has been buying presents for Christmas, and is described as being, “busy opening some of the parcels”. Nora busies herself with small matters, hiding macaroons and organizing things. Although her husband, Torvald, labels Nora as “my little squirrel” and a variety of other animals in a patronizing manner, Nora seems to act in the same as a woodland creature, continuously “scampering about”. Nora behaves like a small child, hiding macaroons from her husband and spending excessive amounts of money; Torvald is not entirely incorrect in his statement of, “has my little spendthrift been wasting money again”. Although Nora’s character seems to exhibit some complexity on an emotional level, she lacks a deep relationship and understanding of life outside of the house and Torvald, suggesting things such as borrowing money and, later, not realizing that forgery is a crime. One of the main causes of this is Torvald’s treatment of and relationship with Nora. Helmer’s mind-set is apparent in everything he say’s to Nora, as well as his degrading pet names, “lark”, “squirrel”, “songbird”, and his objectification of her. However, his diminutive nature towards Nora is more similar to that of a father than that of a loving husband. She is entirely dependent on him for…

    • 851 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the 1800s, women faced the harsh reality of being forced to conform to a predetermined image. In his play, A Doll House, Henrik Ibsen delves into the roots of this hypocritical culture. The play discusses how women were treated like second-class citizens, but were ridiculed if they acted as such. Due to his involvement in addressing the inequalities of women, Ibsen found himself being unwillingly pulled into the women’s movement. Henrik Ibsen's somber play, A Doll House, discusses the injustice of the sacrifices women make to fit into society's mold.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora and Torvald encounter common problems that many couples have experienced in past and present relationships. Of those problems is the act of deception, a major theme portrayed in the novel. Throughout the novel there is constant deception caused from pre-existing issues which are also major themes in the novel. From the beginning, Nora lies to Torvald about the simplest of things, like about eating the macaroons. This chain of cause-and-effect could be traced back to themes such as lying to protect an image, marrying for money and the role of women during that period.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll's House Women Essay

    • 1773 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The role of women in family life and society has long been a controversial topic. The play A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen brings this controversial subject to light from a feministic point of view. The play is focused on a man named Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora. In general, Torvald is very diminishing towards his wife, saying she cannot possibly understand things like work, finances, and anything other than typical housewife tasks. However, a while ago Nora went behind her husband’s back and committed forgery in order to take out a loan to help Torvald when he was ill. Nora tries to spare her husband’s pride by keeping this from him since he is supposed to be the provider for his wife and their children; however, between Torvald’s belittling…

    • 1773 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The individuals within the society of Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, are prohibited from being fully developed individuals, due to social and financial problems. A Doll's House is set in Norway in the late 1800s. At the time, Norway was just hit by a economic depression, making it difficult to find a job, and even harder to get promoted to a high-paying position. Also, sexism was very prominent, and women were precluded from their rights and freedom. Because everybody did not want to face socioeconomic hardships, people like Nils Krogstad, Christine Linde and Torvald Helmer were forced to lose oneself, and the desperate attempt to not get excluded by society lead them to follow mainstream societal values.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Torvald shows his power over Nora gained through the patriarchal society by the use of nomenclature. By calling Nora ‘my little skylark’, ‘my little songbird’ and ‘my little squirrel’, he diminishes Nora by relating her to a small, helpless animal and by continuously calling her ‘little’, subtly reminding her that she has little power compared to him. The obvious imbalance of power is also demonstrated by the separation of Nora from ‘the business world’ and Torvald’s authority. Torvald’s office is a visual enigma to the audience for it is a space into which the audience never sees her enter, rather Nora staying in the living room which is her ‘domestic space’. While Torvald attends to bank matters, Nora contrastingly ‘tidies’ the space and making the room neat while Torvald is busy being the ‘breadwinner’ of the family.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays