A Doll House Archetype Essay

Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House”: An Archetypal Heroine Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, follows the life of a seemingly happy life of an obedient housewife, Nora Helmer. However, as the plot progresses, it reveals how unhappy and unnervingly monotonous Nora feels, as she feels trapped within her marriage and role as a mother. Nevertheless, she transitions from an obedient housewife and mother to an independent woman assessing her own needs above others. Thus, this transition and experiences categorize her as a her as the hero, following a typical heroine archetype. Nevertheless, Nora’s actions, motivations, and values reveal the theme of change versus tradition. Although Nora’s motives are not translucent in the beginning,

Nora continuously finds herself at odds between disrupting the norm to pursue her independence or remain in the role of a traditional wife and mother. Even though, initially Nora convinces herself that her happiness lies in between her husband and children, the harsh realization of her role encourages her to discard tradition. There are numerous instances where she places others needs instead of hers. For instance, when Nora confides to Mrs. Linde about how she raised the money for her husband’s surgery, she immediately responds with hesitancy; “Torvald, with all of his masculine pride- how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in that to me. That would just ruin our relationship.” (1735; ch.51, act 1). However, nearing the climax of the play Nora confronts her husband about their artificial and bland marriage, where he treats her similar to a “doll-child”, thus never allowing her to develop into her own person (1772; ch.51, act 3). Moreover, she laments this issue as she describes, “But our home’s been nothing but a play-pen. I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child.... that’s been our marriage Torvald” (1772; ch.51, act 3). From this interaction, Nora is motivated to opt for change rather than follow tradition and maintain the role of a “doll-child”. Although her internal struggle between change versus tradition occurs, Nora ultimately chooses to change into a self-reliant woman, thus rejecting