A Doll's House

Henrick Ibsen’s 1879 play A Doll’s House, focuses on gender struggle and power imbalance in martial and family relationships. The play reinforces themes of women and femininity, respect and reputation and marriage. Nora has often been painted as one modern drama’s first feminist heroines. Over the course of the play, she breaks away from the domination of her overbearing husband, Torvald. The men of A Doll’s House are obsessed with their reputation. Some have good standing in their communities and will do anything to keep it, while others have lost their good name and will do anything to get it back. These three themes have a relation to my own life and the world around. Though the play is set in the living room of a private residence, the

As Krogstad and Torvald are both driven by fear of unfavorable public opinion. Nora says “A barrister’s profession is such an uncertain thing, especially if he won’t undertake unsavoury cases; and naturally Torvald has never been willing to do that”. She says this because Torvald’s dedication to obeying the law stem from personal integrity and a fear of what other people might think. Or Krogstad clearly mentions his respect in “My sons are growing up for their sake I must try and win back as much respect as I can in the town, This post in the Bank was like the first step up for me – and now your husband is going to kick me downstairs again into the mud.” Regaining his good name is Krogstad’s major motivating force throughout the entire play. In modern society respect is easily given to people that treat you with respect but it can be taken away in an instance and takes a lot to earn it back. In our society, mostly people in high positions care a lot about their reputations and will do almost anything to keep it the way they want

At first the Helmers seem happy, but over the course of the play, the imbalance between them becomes more and more apparent. By the end, the marriage breaks apart due to a complete lack of understanding between them. Together in wedlock, the two are incapable of realizing who they are as individuals. They’ll don’t know how to act as equals. The Helmers marriage fell apart due to an imbalance of power and Ibsen’s concept of a true marriage seems to be a union of equals. Nora says “How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald… to know that he owed me anything! It would upset our mutual relations altogether.” This opens up that the Helmers’ marriage is based on maintaining a veneer of male dominance. “Christine is… is frightfully anxious to work under some clever man, so as to perfect herself-“ Nora’s relationship with her husband seems to be built on careful manipulation of his ego. Comparing marriages from back then to now if couples get married they are much different for the play. In most marriages the spouses are most likely to be equal or in some cases the women unlike in A Doll’s House is the dominant partner. It is unusual to see a wife treated as a ‘doll’ in front of people and if noticed seems weird to this society in the current