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A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

752 Words4 Pages

At the end of his play A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen has the protagonist Nora make a very questionable decision, to leave her husband of eight years and their three young children. Nora’s decision to leave her husband and children is self centered and impulsive. Nora parting from her family is a selfish and impulsive choice, as Nora refuses to give Torvald an opportunity to change or her relationship a chance to grow and furthermore Nora takes no responsibility for the life and family she has helped create. Upon announcing her decision to leave her husband and children, Nora selfishly refuses to give Torvald any opportunity to change his ways. Several times Torvald tries to convince Nora that she doesn’t have to leave because as he says, “I have it in me to become a different man” (79). Torvald is not only willing to change for Nora but, “…would gladly work …show more content…

Nora blames her father and husband for the situation she is in as if she has no control over her own mind or body. This lack of responsibility is evident as Nora says to Torvald “You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life” (74). Nora continues to avoid taking responsibility for her life as she describes “When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything… and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it… And when I came to live with you… You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as yours else I pretended to…” (74). Nora not only refuses to take responsibility for her marriage but also for her children as she responds to Torvald’s pleas by saying “I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary for me” (76). Nora’s decision to leave is therefore yet another for her to avoid taking any responsibility for her own

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Throughout the play, emotional labor plays an imperative part in Nora’s deteriorating mental state until her epiphany, where she transforms into a woman determined to discover her authentic self, no matter the punishment. Subsequent to Nora’s epiphany, she explains to Torvald that she was her father’s doll-child, just like she is Torvald’s doll-wife, going “from Papa’s hands into yours. You arranged everything to your own taste, and so I got the same taste as you--or I pretended to; I can’t remember… I’ve lived by doing tricks for you, Torvald. But that’s the way you wanted it… You’re to blame nothing’s become of me” (Ibsen 1015).

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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.

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Nora expected Torvald to take the blame for her mistakes “When he’d done that, I was so utterly sure that you’d step forward, take the blame on yourself and say: I am the guilty one” (592). While Nora does say that she would defend her husband if he were to do so, Nora wanted Torvald to attempt to take the blame for her illegally borrowing money. She was so used to Torvald consistently taking care of her, Nora expected him to swoop in and take save her in her time of need. A husband and wife should be able to defend each other and ensure the other’s safety but even more importantly, Nora should have been able to be honest with Torvald from the

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Torvald tells her that Nora has a duty as a mother and a wife but Nora tells him that “she is an individual”, showing that she is finally putting herself on par with Torvald, and no longer allowing Torvald to control her, but instead she is trying to gain independence and liberation from social norms in order to break free from the “Doll’s House.” She tells him that she must leave him, because “for eight years [she’d] been living with a stranger”, emphasising how there was never any proper communication and mutual understanding between them, and hence no proper marriage, as she didn’t actually know what his true character was like up until that night, as she was convinced all along that Torvald would be the man to take everything upon

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She realized that wasn’t fully being herself, and because of that, she didn’t know who she was. She was tired of living by society standards. During Torvald and Nora last argument, Torvald said by deserting her husband and children she is forsaking her "most sacred duties." Meaning she was supposed to be a loyal wife and take care of her husband and children. Though, Nora doesn’t see that as her “most sacred duties” She tells Torvald that her duties that are most scared to her is the duty to herself.

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How Is Nora Justified In Leaving Her Husband

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Not only does Torvald not treat her well as a wife, he doesn’t understand that the illegal choices she made to raise money for Italy were done for his benefit and he doesn’t come through to support or defend her. She finally understands this when she tells him “Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home when I was papa’s doll-child”(Ibsen 879). When Nora leaves Torvald, she is starting a new life with a new idea of

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Nora is a character that will do everything that somebody tells her, she is kind of submissive regarding what Torvald says. She has to mention him at least once while she’s talking about anything, but she does have some petty forms of rebellion, like the macaroons. A larger way of her rebelling would be when she pays for the trip so that Torvald can get better. She is viewed as a child by Mrs. Linde, Christine, and is treated like one by Torvald and it seems almost like they look down on her because she is a woman and she is completely dependent on her husband. Her character, at this point, has no backbone; she is completely captivated by this life in which she perceives as

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The way that Nora responds to Torvald and his many rules show again Nora’s childish nature. This is evident in how Torvald controls Nora and does not want her to eat macaroons. After realizing that Nora had in fact had some, he questions her to which she responds “No; what makes you think that?” (Ibsen 1361). Nora hides the truth from Torvald as if he is her father and is unable to stand up to him because she fears what may happen to her even though they should be equals. Although it may be frowned upon for the wife to make such decisions in this period, Nora knows that this is no way to live, and instead of making that known she buries the idea.

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As the climax rises, Nora starts to realize her childishness which is why she compared to her life as a doll’s life. She expresses to Torvald how she feels. “I have been your doll wife, just as I was Papa’s doll child” (67). Torvald subtly dismisses her statement by telling her that “playtime is over”(67). His dismissiveness shows the control that he had over her.

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A Doll House By Henrik Ibsen Research Paper

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In "A Doll's House" the main character, Nora, is influenced and controlled by her husband Torvald. He often treats his wife as if she is one of his children, and the bigger problem with that is that Nora follows along with it. She acts very childish

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Torvald, however; only lusts after Nora and does not truly love her for who she is. Torvald treats Nora as an object and although he is just is a man of his time, it is still a vile and not virtuous thing to do to another human being. This play has characters that are complex, but their virtues are clearly seen. Every fault that Nora has in this play can be linked back to her being a victim of the time she was born in and the people

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During act III, Nora asked to speak to Torvald after her performance of the tarantella dance. The following conversation demonstrated her quest for autonomy and freedom, as well as Torvald’s inadequate responses to her arguments and demands; it also showed how deeply connected her unhappy situation is with society’s regulation of the relationship between the sexes. She asserts that she is “...first and foremost a human being”, and her strong conviction that her womanhood, and the expectations associated with it, are secondary, strengthens her resolve to make a radical choice: A break with both husband and, with necessity due to her legal position, her children (Ibsen, 184). During her conversation with Torvald, she proclaims, “I have other sacred duties... The duties to myself (Ibsen, 184).”

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For Nora, the goal was not to simply escape her life but instead to make a life for herself that she could be proud of and live with happily. Torvald did not treat her with the respect that a husband should treat a wife by modern standards and while this might have been considered a controversial decision for the period in which it was written, by modern standards it can easily be shown as the logical way to end the

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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.

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