Nora the female protagonist in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House struggle is struggling with many different issues, which mitigates her action throughout the play. From the analysis of her relationship with other characters, Nora is in a form of captivity because she feels answerable to other characters. For instance, she Nora is in a sort of emotional captivity because she feels like getting married to Torvard was out of duty to please her father. She exclaims to Torvald, “ I mean, then I went from Papa’s hands into yours… it’s a great sin what you and Papa did to me” (Ibsen 109). Nora has a choice either to remain married and fufill the will of the father or leave her husband. However, leaving is not easy for a woman who is raised in a society that …show more content…
Despite that the two have a three kids in addition to a cozy home, one can already tell that something is wrong when the husband begins christening Nora with demeaning pet names. Torvald treatement towards Nora as a child or a toy is demeaning. When reprimanding Nora, Torvald retaliates “ My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird needs a clean beak to warble with. No false notes” (Ibsen 68). Unfortunately, Nora is subjected to this kind of treatment through her marriage life. Obviously, Nora is unhappy about being treated as a doll-wife especially when Trovard forces her to perform song and dances to him. She complains to Mrs. Linde about her being forced in role-action. The above treatment by her husband renders Nora helpless, she tries to regain her power, and freedom by going behind Trovald’s back and applies for a loan. At this point, she has not devised her plan for exit yet, but she uses deception to her advantage in attempt to have a voice of her own in the …show more content…
He spending habits indicates that her fascination with money is real. She spends huge amounts of money for Christmas decorations and gifts. However, her excitement is cut short when Torvald questions her spending habits by saying, “Bought, you say All that there? Has the little spendthrift been out throwing money around again?” (Ibsen 44). In defense, Nora retaliates that Trovald is anticipating a pay rise thus “Trovald, we can squander a little now, Can’t we? … Now that you’ve got a big salary and are going to make piles and piles of money?”(Ibsen 44). From the above conversation, is it obvious that Nora actions are an attempt to taste some form of freedom, she want to feel that she is in control at least with the slightest domestic decisions like Christmas celebrations preparations. Nora’s obsession with money increases ten-fold for she hopes that being in control of money will give her a sense of freedom. However, her obsession with money somehow diverts her struggle for freedom especially when she discusses how her husband has been promoted to a bank manager with Kristine Linde. She says, “Wont it be lovely to have stacks of money and not care in the world?” (Ibsen 49). Nonetheless, the obsession with money provides Nora with false sense of freedom because she has devised creative ways to save from household allowances besides working on copying jobs, oblivious of her
Nora’s defiance may have resulted in criticism from society, but Ibsen importantly commented on the terrible treatment of woman in relationships and the world. Ibsen created A Doll’s House in a time where women were treated unjustly and poorly. While the play might seem slightly irrelevant now, it still has a place in the world today. Women can borrow money and leave their husbands; however, society still puts tremendous pressure on women to fulfill sacred vows. The expectation to assure her husband’s happiness and to prioritize everyone else before herself is still an issue that many woman face today.
A single family income has always made budgets tight and being a wife and mother leaves little opportunity for earnings, in fact Nora did tricks and begged her husband for what little money he gave her. While many critics condemn Torvald’s treatment of Nora, in reality he was no different from any other man during this time period. When their finances were minimal he did whatever it took to take care of his family, working day and night almost to the point of death. For that reason, Nora showed her love for Torvald by securing a loan in order to take a trip to Italy for his treatment and recovery. In doing so, Nora needed to work odd jobs to repay the loan while keeping it a secret from her husband.
After eight years of marriage, what allows Nora to see that she must break free from the “Doll’s House”? “A Doll’s House” is a play written by Henrik Ibsen, set in late nineteenth century where women were expected to uphold social norms of being a submissive wife and a caring mother. In the beginning of the play, Nora is initially portrayed as a naive and obedient “doll” trapped inside of a “Doll’s House”, but towards the end of the play, Nora is able to come to the realisation that she was never happy during her eight years of marriage with Torvald, leading to her leaving Torvald and breaking free from the “Doll’s House”. This essay will explore the different factors which allows Nora to see why she must break free.
However both woman had endured abuse and are victims of a male dominated society. Nora the wife of a banker and a mother of three children seem to have it all. Her family lives in a fancy well-furnished home and they seems to well of financially, and her husband loved her very much. However the reader soon find out that he is an egotistical controlling man that sees Nora as an absent minds child.
In A Doll 's House, Nora spends the majority of her time on stage as a doll: a colourless, passive character with little to no actual personality. Her entire life is a concept of norms of society in that era in order to meet the expectations of others. Until she realises that her life is a lie, and that she lives in a dream world. Within this World, Nora doesn’t feel the need to take life as seriously as everyone around her, an approach to life that eventually led to almost all of the plot’s twists.
Nora is a married woman and has children to take care of. She really has little freedom because of the way Torvald treats her. She is not even I feel as if deep down she knows she is not free and wants something more in her life then to be a entertaining puppet for Torvald. She realizes at the end of the story that Torvald is not good to her because of the way he acted when she told him about forging the signature. When Torvald called her a criminal and other harsh words she realized that she had no true love from Torvald and wanted to be free from him.
He rather expects her to be more compliant, loyal and wants her to follow the social and moral rules strictly, like he does. Torvald’s assertion that Nora’s lack of understanding of money matters is the result of her gender (“Nora, my Nora, that is just like a woman”) reveals his prejudiced viewpoint on gender roles. Torvald believes a wife’s role is to beautify the home, not only through proper management of domestic life but also through proper behavior and appearance. He quickly makes it known that appearances are very important to him, and that Nora is like an ornament or trophy that serves to beautify his home and his reputation. He tells Nora that he loves her so much that he has wished in the past that Nora’s life were threatened so that he could risk everything to save her.
At the beginning of their marriage Nora did everything on her power to save his husband health including going against her husband beliefs by lying about how she obtained a large amount of money (money that she told her husband that was borrowed from her father and not by doing business with Krogstad) Nora told Mrs. Linde that she has been using her allowance to pay the debt. She was looking forward to New Year, because she will have paid off her debt completely and then will be “free” to fulfill her responsibilities as a wife and mother without impediment. At this point we can notice the fact that Nora doesn’t feel “free” and realizes in her wife and mother
This brings in to question whether or not it is acceptable for a woman to simply walk away from a marriage, involving three children, and not attempt to work things out. Nora realizes she and the life she has been living has been a complete construct of the way society expects her to be. Nora is Torvald’s doll and her life has not amounted to anything more than making sure he and the world around her is happy. The result of the inequalities she is faced with results in Nora being completely unhappy. Torvald fails to recognize everything that Nora does to ensure his happiness.
Her existential choice seems to be forced upon her by society, but in adopting her husband‘s and society’s language, so often used to contain in control women, she now speaks of her duties towards herself, even sacred ones. In a radical refusal to stick to inherited notions of women’s role in family and society, Nora rejects the other identities available to her, both as a doll and as self-sacrificing wife and mother, and of her husband’s pet names for
Kristine explains that she has “No one to work for, and yet obliged to be always on the lookout for chances.” ( Act I, pg. 762) While this is negative, Kristine wouldn’t have these worries if she were dependent on someone else. Nora wishes that she be free of her husband and children, as she perceives them to restrict her from being able to grow as a person.
First, Nora is treated like a child by her husband Torvald. Torvald had nicknames for Nora like squirrel or skylark that was often accompanied by demenors like sweet or little. At the end of the play, Nora tells her husband that he treated her like a weak, fragile doll just like her father. Nora’s feelings about Torvald’s attitude is evident in the quote from Nora and Torvald’s conversation ”I was your little songbird just as before- your doll whom henceforth you would take particular care to protect from the world because she was so weak and fragile. ”(Pg.
Her pain stems from her fantasy falling apart. As Maurice Valency writes, “A Doll’s House ...describes in a very convincing manner the process of falling out of love. It's force, however lies not in the superficial action, which in any case lacks suspense, but in the psychological undercurrent which it generates. The man Nora loves is a creature of fantasy…” [Valency 155].
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a play set in 19th century Norway, when women’s rights were restricted and social appearance was more important than equality and true identity. In A Doll’s House, Nora represents 19th century women entrapped by society to fulfill wifely and motherly obligations, unable to articulate or express their own feelings and desires. Ibsen uses Nora’s characterization, developed through her interactions with others as well as her personal deliberations and independent actions, language and structure in order to portray Nora’s movement from dependence to independence, gaining sovereignty from the control of her selfish husband, deceitful marriage and the strict social guidelines of morality in 19th century Norway. Initially, Nora appears to be a dependent, naïve, and childlike character; yet, as the play unfolds, she appears to be a strong, independent woman who is willing to make sacrifices for those she cares about as well as herself.
NORA. No, Torvald, indeed, indeed!”(Ibsen 3). This quote displays how Nora was literally pleading to Torvald that she wasn’t eating the forbidden fruit (the macarons) because she feared getting into a sort of trouble with Torvald, further intensifying the parent and child aspect. Taking the play’s title into perspective: “A Doll’s House” literally, and perfectly describes Nora’s life which is basically a doll’s house. Nora is living under Torvald’s roof and everything she does is decided and controlled by him.