ipl-logo

A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen: Play Analysis

913 Words4 Pages

Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll House” was first published on December 4, 1879. This play is a three-act play with prose dialogue, stage direction but no interior dialogue. The play generally presents the drama of Torvald and Nora Helmer, who had been married for 8 years, seems to be controlled by the society in which they live. Their relationships seems happy in the play, yet as the play goes on, it is shown that they are marred by the constrains of social attitude and their perceived gender roles. The setting of the play, which it was represented, was in an unnamed city in nineteenth-century, in Norway. The play begins just before the Christmas and concludes the next evening. This play is played in three different parts and all three acts takes place in the same living room at the Helmer’s residence. The couple has been married for eight years, with three children. Torvald was newly promoted in act 1, and he is also a bank manager. They seem to be living in comfortable circumstances in a period when women are suppressed by a social system that equates males with success in the society, and females with domestic chores on the other hand. It is also a period where women tend to demand greater educational opportunities and greater equality and recognition in the business world. With that being said, A Doll’s House creates many of the …show more content…

The way Ibsen composed the way of character-painting, artistic handling of the situation never failed to cease me until the end of the play. Sometimes we have to do things in order to get an outcome for yourself and the others. This play is probably one of the great examples to support the fact. Nora realizes in the end that her husband was controlling her because of his prideful personality, and she felt as if she wasn’t herself the whole time they were being married. In the end, she experienced a recognition and decided to leave Torvald to find her self out on her

Show More
Related

  • A Doll's House Play Review

    805 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ibsen reinforces the idea that man is the leader of the house and a wife should submit to him through the play with symbolism and more. At the beginning of the play, Torvald Helmer positions the tone for controlling his wife Nora Helmer by taunting her with money during the Christmas season wherein the room there is a Christmas tree. The tree is symbolic of Nora, it depicts her as pretty home décor that brightens their household. A Christmas tree is spruced up to what one finds favorable and aesthetically pleasing to the eye and then put on

    Read More

  • A Doll's House Analytical Essay

    1136 Words  | 5 Pages

    Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was highly criticized for undeniably demonstrating woman’s issues in the 19th century. While the play doesn’t change setting much at all, Ibsen clearly focuses in on the characterization of three insightful characters: Mrs. Linde, Nora, and Helmer. Mrs. Linde is a minor character; however, that doesn’t alter her effect on the play. She provides the mold for the perfect, idealized wife. Nora, the main character, develops rapidly in the play, and her character is a stark contrast to Mrs. Linde.

    Read More

  • Gender Role In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

    1338 Words  | 6 Pages

    Since the dawn of time, a person 's gender has been an essential component of determining what roles each gender is to assume in life. Woman have frequently been viewed as the submissive or weaker gender, only to be useful in the home, who are not capable of making it in a man 's world, who are not allowed the same rights and privileges as their male counterparts. Men, on the other hand, have always been viewed as the dominant or stronger gender, the one who’s job it is to be the provider, the one who makes all the important decisions for his family. In Henrik Ibsen 's A Doll 's House, these assumed gender positions are upheld to the highest degree throughout the majority of the play, and not dismantled until the pivotal ending when Nora makes her stance on this lifestyle very clear.

    Read More

  • Social Norms In A Doll's House

    1406 Words  | 6 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen has used the play A Doll’s House to highlight some of the social issues and cultural norms that existed during his time, a period when society was transforming to modernity. Ibsen used the characters of Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora Helmer to perfectly depict the historical and cultural norms of the society at the time, especially in the relationship between a husband and wife. The play begins with the depiction of a seemingly happy couple who are living a bourgeois life but as it unfolds, the Helmer’s marriage would later disintegrate after the expected social conventions are rejected. Ibsen, in his play A Doll’s House rejects social conventions of his time.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On A Doll's House

    1409 Words  | 6 Pages

    A Doll’s house is a realistic three act play that focuses on the nineteenth century life in middle class Scandinavian household life, where the wife is expected to be inferior and passive whereas the husband is superior and paternally protective. It was written by Henrik Ibsen. The play criticised the marriage norms that existed in the 19th century. It aroused many controversies as it concludes with Nora, the main protagonists leaving her husband and children in order to discover her identity. It created a lot of controversies and was heavily criticised as it questioned the traditional roles of men and women among Europeans who believed that the covenant of marriage was holy.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

    1216 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” the alienation of the characters Nora Helmer, Christine Linde, and Nils Krogstad reveal society’s morals and assumptions that men are superior to women in that time period. Society’s morals and assumptions that men are superior to women in the time period of “A

    Read More

  • A Literary Analysis Of A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

    1238 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, it’s a theatrical play that is full of elements related to the aspect of the “typical ideal family household” and the gender’s role. In order to maintain the structure of the play and also the literature composition, the author utilize specific details to enhance and sustain essentials points of the literature. In order to obtain and develop a complete or comprehensive literature analysis of Ibsen’s A Doll House, I made a research to assist what I thought about was Ibsen’s point of view with the theatrical play. The story began with a family portrait during Christmas festivities.

    Read More

  • Social Expectations In A Doll's House

    759 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the three-act play, set in 19th century Norway, explores the progress of Nora’s marriage as she attempts to hide her debt and forgery from her husband. Ibsen conveyed social commentary on gender roles and societal expectations, a topic still in controversy, through the use of symbolism, irony, and dramatic elements. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen presents the problems associated with the position of women in a man’s world of business as his central focus, even if other social or individual problems become more prominent as the play progresses.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House Compare And Contrast Essay

    614 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Doll’s House: Character Comparison and Contrast Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House contains a cast of deeply complex characters that emulate the 1800’s societal norms that they belong to. Two characters that compare and contrast each other throughout the play are Nora Helmer and Kristine Linde. Nora and Kristine are similar because they both display a sense of independence. Their personalities differ as Nora presents herself as inexperienced, while Kristine is more grounded in reality.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Torvald In A Doll's House

    1029 Words  | 5 Pages

    Entry #1: Act I, Pages 1 – 13 I started the play, “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and since I came late into the course, I have some background on the play and some minor information about Nora, Torvald and Mrs. Linde, Christine from some of the IOPs presented. The first impression for each character introduced differed. Torvald seemed like a dominant man that was the essence of a typical Norwegian man during the time the play was written. He’s constantly being demeaning towards Nora and women in general during the dialogue between him and Nora. For example when he says, “That is like a woman!”

    Read More

  • Modernism In Doll's House

    856 Words  | 4 Pages

    A masterpiece of creative act that instantly portrays the hypocrisy of the Victorian middle class, a Dolls House was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879 a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre. The story takes place on Christmas eve where Nora and Torvald the two main characters represent the importance of gender roles and social image throughout the Victorian era. The conflict of the story is driven by Nora’s forging of loan documents to raise money for an expensive trip to Italy; Krogstad, who had processed the loan, tries to blackmail Nora over the fact that she forged the documents. Nora who risked jeopardizing her husband’s image had set the tone throughout the play as the constant change in personality set the tone of the play which I have really enjoyed due to the unpredictable plot twists and a chance to be engaged with The Victorian culture at that time period.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

    880 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abstract: A Doll’s House is the best known and one of the most popular of Henrik Ibsen’s works. It is about the liberation of an individual from restraints of customs and convention due to money issues. It also deals with marital problems and is about the unraveling of a middle-class couple. Torvald Helmer and Nora’s first conversation establishes Helmer as the master of the household who earns and controls the money. On the other hand, Nora is the member of the house who spends it.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

    1287 Words  | 6 Pages

    This play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, focuses on women, especially in marriage and motherhood. Torvald is a character, who describes inequality between men and women and the women’s role in the society in that era. He believes that it is an important and the only duty of a woman to be a good wife and mother. As an individual, a woman, could not conduct or run a business of her own, she needs to ask her father or husband and they were only considered to be father’s or husband’s property. Women were not allowed to vote and divorce if they were allowed they would carry a heavy social shame and it was only available when both partners agreed.

    Read More

  • A Doll House By Henrik Ibsen Essay

    1301 Words  | 6 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House tells the story of a wife’s struggle to break away from the social norms of the late nineteenth century. Throughout the play, Ibsen focuses on Nora’s characterization and experiences she goes through as a wife. Her husband, Torvald Helmer, is an overbearing, controlling husband, that wants everything to be perfect. Rather than being a loving and supportive husband, he continuously talks down to Nora and treats her as if she is one of his children, not his wife. Nora faces the decision to stay in this abusive relationship or take a stand to this cruel behavior and leave.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House As A Tragedy Analysis

    1568 Words  | 7 Pages

    In a sense, the play is a tragedy of the traditional society. It is a tragedy for the society represented by Torvald because that society had been confidently dealing with women in that manner which it regarded as correct and just. Now that a woman has suddenly given it a blow at almost its bases — the religion, traditional values, education, the institution of marriage, and so on — the society is facing a crisis, or a tragedy. If all the women, who are of course treated no better than this, do the same, the whole of the social system would collapse. And the impact would be basically the tragic destruction of the man's basis of happiness.

    Read More

More about A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen: Play Analysis

Open Document