Nora

A Dolls House – False appearances Mask Hidden Truths

Men, women, and the subject of bringing these two together through matrimony has always been the symbolically ideal partnership in the eyes of man throughout history. Within this partnership lie specific roles that deepen and revolve around gender. The problem with society’s definition of marriage can be detrimental when one tries to use the institution to conform to the general definition of marriage to our personal realities of human fragilities. This can lead to a shattered perception of self.

Javana Mundy
Coco
Group #2
A DOLLS HOUSE OUTLINE
Due: March 12th 2012
1st Draft

From the moment, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen begins, we view a glimpse of how the character, Nora Helmer, sees herself and her fractured relationship to her husband. We also see the importance of appearances in their home and to the outside world. Underneath all of the bells and whistles is a complicated woman hiding from herself and others. This extremely clever, curiously insightful women is in need of unconditional love from her husband, Torvald Helmer. This play explores the perception of what makes people happy in intimate relationships and how people in these relationships can manufacture false appearances. Nora Helmer shows us how the artificial facade society creates through these strict traditional roles of marriage eventually provokes her quest for finding her true self and her humanity.
Torvald, like most traditional males in the era that he was living in, subscribed to marriage ideals where women lived to serve and run the household. Women took care of the family’s needs and looked “as we put it today” like “a trophy wife”. Torvald treats his wife like a doll, he “need not be afraid to bump [her head], or drop [her] on the floor. [She] will not break as [her head] cannot be broken. [Her] hair and eyes are beautiful and [her] complexion indicates perfect health. [Torvald] would be happy [with this doll] to care for and educate. The face neck and shoulders are wax. The eyes are bright and beautiful” (Damon-Moore 53). This passage is from an ad posted in Magazines for the Millions by Damon - Moore from The Ladies Home Journal in the mid to late 1800’s. It parallels Torvalds’s views of his wife, Nora. She is his perfectly indestructible little doll to play with. The ordinary women of the period must be protected from the workday woes of the outside that could infect the “pure and spiritual sanctuary from [the] ugly world” (Davinson 35). The housewife "from her cradle to her grave...always half protected even against herself” (Davinson 34).
In the beginning of the play, Nora says, “Hide the Christmas tree carefully, Helen. Make sure the children don’t see it till this evening, when it is decorated” (Ibsen 3). This sets the tone for Nora’s inner life. In Ibsen’s Heroines, “Upon [Nora’s] first appearance, she is laden with shrouded holiday parcels; surrounding her deepest conflicts and dreams are secret festivity and presents.” (Salome 42). There is a storm dormant inside Nora because of her sheltered upbringing. Her opinions are not valued because her father raised her in an era where women’s ideologies were never allowed to stand on their own. Nora was never challenged and her beliefs were never provoked. She did not know her worth. She was the perfect storm.
Torvald never had the intention of marrying any woman for her deep and personal connection. He never wanted to understand her and worse yet he never really could. At the end of the play, when Torvald finds out the truth about Nora, his reaction not only shows how selfish and cowardly he is but it is typical of the time in which he is living when Nora’s secret is revealed and she confesses to Torvald “It is true. I have loved you above everything else in the world” (Ibsen 62). He then refutes back at Nora “Oh don’t let us have any silly excuses…Now you have destroyed all my happiness…And I shall sink to such miserable depths because of a thoughtless woman!” (63).
He throws their personal relationship under the bus for fear of being publicly judged and humiliated. Torvald then recants his entire statement and actions on the initial persecution of Nora when he proceeds to say to Nora, “Relax and feel secure; I have broad wings to shelter you under. Here is shelter for you; I will protect you like a hunted dove that I have saved from a hawk’s claw. “ (Ibsen 65). Nora comes to the self realization at this very critical moment that she will never find happiness for herself staying in this relationships and she declares to Torvald “You don’t understand me and I have never understood you either---before tonight…You never loved me you have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me” (66).
Nora is always there for symbolic reasons. The Fall of a Dollhouse, by author Jane Davinson, states, “For the ordinary women life was not a matter of choice - one either married (success!) or didn’t (failure!); careers were ‘second best’ (36). She continues, "A women of ‘character’ didn’t do a lot of things: she didn't indulge herself, didn’t neglect her duties, didn't put off till tomorrow. Though, a negative virtue, it was socially useful as it was oppressive “ (35). Nora dealt with the cards that she was handed and through thick and thin played the subservient supportive wife. Nora may have wanted to discuss and share her true feelings to guide her to a soulful connection but she chose to play her role and for most of her life lost everything about who she really was. Most women in that time period, woke up in the morning, got ready, and stepped out into the male-dominated world with one of their many mask to face an incomplete day. Modern educated women have learned to adapt and be independent of a man but can surely play the subserviant and naïve “skylark” in order to get their dessert. Nora was a seasoned veteran when it came to getting what was needed:
Nora (moving towards the stove): As you please, Torvald.
Torvald (following her): Come, come my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this? Is my little skylark upset? (Taking out his purse.) Nora, what do you think I have got here?
Nora (turning around quickly): Money!
Torvald: There you are. (Gives her some money.)
However, her understanding of what she really needs and wants is not discovered until later in the play. Nora’s character has to be pushed to the limits to realize what she really wants out of her relationships with everyone. When Mrs. Linde comes to visit Nora and brings real world problems into full view for the “little squirrel”, she then criticizes Nora by saying, “ My dear! Small household cares and that sort of thing! ---- You are a child, Nora” (Ibsen 12). With something to prove, Nora retorts in frustration and conviction, “You look down upon me altogether, Christine ---but you ought not to…Now I too will show you I have something to be proud and glad of. It was I who saved Torvald’s life“ (12). Additionally, when the realization came that she was not equal to her husband when trying to persuade him to let Krogstad keep his job Torvald clearly puts her in her place “Do you suppose I am going to make myself ridiculous before my whole staff, to let people think I am a man to be swayed by all sorts of outside influence [Nora]?” (36).
As Nora grows internally, she makes discoveries about herself that strengthen her point of view. A good example is when she explains to Mrs.Linde about how she slowly has been paying off her debt: “ Well then I have found other ways of earning money. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of copying to do; Often I was very tired; but all the same it was a tremendous pleasure …It was like being a man.” (Ibsen 15). This reinforces elements about her character that remind her that she has always been clever and ambitious. She never gave any sign of her strength until she had to. Whena person is put under a pressure cooker, something is bound to boil over. Nora understood that: “When [she] got there [she] did learn how dearly she loved her own way] how much [her] happiness depends on [her] having it” (Davinson 34). This pushed Nora to an enlightened sense of self-realization. This included wanting equality in her relationship and to be considered educated and smart. She wanted a new and improved Torvald that listened and paid attention to her. She wanted to be taken seriously and wanted to explore all of these things to provide room for real growth with all of her relationships, but especially within her marriage. When she starts to become desperate to save her marriage, she confesses where she borrowed her loan to Mrs. Linde and stumbles upon an epiphany. She tells her, “Then you must be my witness, that it is not true, Christine. I am not out of my mind at all; I am in my right senses now, and I tell you know one else has known anything about it; I, and I alone did the whole thing…A wonderful thing is going to happen!”(Ibsen 47).
In this moment, she realizes that what she wanted all along is for Torvald to know the real her. She has blossomed into this beautiful woman who has so much to offer to their marriage and wants to be the real thing and no longer artificial. She wants Torvald to know the truth so through their devastation; she hopes that their crumbling relationship becomes naked, beautiful and strong. She just wants to be accepted for who she is—as a human being who happens to be women with opinions, ideas, and unconditional love; but, more importantly a human being. The need for self expression becomes unbearable! She will no longer be the slave to the “devotion to caring of others” who won’t sacrifice the same things for her because it is now hindering her “development of an independent self” (Gerson 129). She hits her breaking point, When she says, “Actually you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task. There is another task that I must undertake first, I must try and educate myself---you are not the man to help me with that. I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now” (Ibsen 67).
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House uses Nora as the gateway to understanding the humanity in us all. One might think that he was only in support of the women’s suffrage movement and women’s rights; but in fact, he was a huge supporter of human rights. In a statement made in 1898 to honor the Norweigian Women’s Right League he says “ I thank you for the toast, but must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the women’s rights movement…True enough, It is desirable to solve the women problem, along with all the others; but that has not been the whole purpose. My task has been the description of humanity” (Templeton 28). This promoted “gender flexibility” (Gerson 10) in a time when the term and idea it promoted was unheard of. The involvement of “equal sharing and more fluid boundaries for organizing and apportioning emotional, social, and economic care” (10) would have been the ideal formula for Nora. To some degree Ibsen used the platform of the women’s rights movement to help the story get notoriety but it had less to do with women’s rights than the actual fight for all woman to have an equal chance to define who and what they were. Nora’s role in marriage is not what a marriage should be. This play was expressing the concept that to have a healthy relationship with anyone it must be understood that we are humans first, man and women second, and through that realization we can become anything we decide to be and expressing a committed relationship in an equally is what we aspire to achieve as the pinnacle of happiness in an intimate setting. I enjoyed the profound meaning behind the characters and learned a lot about the choices we make every day in our relationships with each other and how very fragile they really are.