A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen Analysis

An ideal marriage consists of communication and honesty, but in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen the Helmer marriage is quite the opposite. At the beginning of the play, Nora conformed to obeying her husband and she was naïve in hoping that her husband would sacrifice his reputation for her. She even forged a check to borrow money from the bank to help Helmer with his illness. She thought that this would be a good way to show her love and ability. Their weak marriage later revealed that Helmer never really understood her and he was ashamed that she had concealed this secret. This event awakened Nora’s true personality and she finally realized that their marriage was fake and weak. In the play A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen uses symbolism to portray how Nora is forced by societal norms to mask her true personality through her lies and secrecy, which shows her transition into an independent woman, further emphasising that self knowledge is needed for an authentic life.
Ibsen uses the symbolism of nicknames to represent how Nora’s façade influences how Torvald treats her because her true personality is
These nicknames show how controlling Torvald is. The irony in this is that Nora does save her money so that she can pay back the money she borrowed, which helped save Helmer’s life. However, Helmer is still unaware of this situation because Nora would rather keep secrets from Helmer in order to please him and be the ideal wife. Here Helmer is implying that because she is a woman she is unable to handle money correctly. Hence the nickname “squanderbird.” This was a common conception of how men viewed women during the time this play was written. Nora is smart and capable of a lot more, but she hides her true personality to be the perfect wife for Helmer. After Helmer and Nora return from the dinner he notices that she seems tired. Nora agrees and says she will sleep soon. Helmer