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A Doll's House Analytical Essay

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In the feminist play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, a doting housewife, tries to save the life of her husband, Torvald, by taking out a loan using a forged signature. When this comes to her husband’s attention, he is furious and refuses to rescue Nora. She then makes the rebellious decision to leave her husband; she no longer wishes to conform to society’s roles and wants to discover herself as a person. Nora’s decision highlights how conforming to society’s roles can lead to anguish through the abuse she faces in her traditional role and the freedom she discovers after she rebels.
Torvald’s treatment of Nora, and her dependency on him, force Nora to conform to society’s standards. Torvald treats her like a child, calling her “skylark,” “squirrel,” and other animals that embody weakness and frivolity (Ibsen 5). Although these nicknames are insulting to Nora’s intelligence, she refuses to rebel against Torvald; Nora feels she has to conform to her role in society, and tolerates the abuse to maintain the facade of her perfect marriage. To Nora, “courtship and marriage [...] seem to her a superabundant gift which one is obliged to accept,” …show more content…

She tells Torvald, “I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now,” because she knows she has to be independent in her journey or she will fall back into the roll of a doll, due to abusive pressure from Torvald (Ibsen 75). Nora wants to learn and grow and cannot do that while Torvald, or men like him, are around. Nora realizes “Without truth there could be no change, no genuine ‘freedom;’” it is only after Torvald reveals his true colors that Nora is able to accept the idea of rebelling against society’s expectations (Roberts 1977). She finds the strength to leave her husband, as well as her traditional role, in order to grow as a person

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