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A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen Essay

950 Words4 Pages

Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, is often regarded as a contemporary social commentary on marriage, and while that was perhaps Ibsen’s intention in writing the play, his subtle, yet insightful commentary on love - more specifically, blind and devoted love - is nonetheless, a brilliant motif. Through the marriage of Nora and Torvald, Ibsen essentially questions the practicality of falling in love blindly and thereby questions the viability of a relationship - or in this case, a marriage - founded upon such flimsy sentiments. Nora’s unquestioning and devoted love for Torvald, is marked by her willingness to make sacrifices, to the extent of giving up her reputation in order to preserve their relationship. However, her dwindling hope for the …show more content…

While Nora’s love for Torvald is blind, her willingness to make sacrifices illustrates the degree to which her love for him is true. Torvald’s love on the other hand is much more, shallow, and based upon a characteristic which he deems to be of the highest value: appearance. His unwillingness to involve himself in Nora’s household matters, such as decorating the Christmas tree, is contrasted by his hastiness to assure that she is perfectly presentable on the night of the ball. His involvement in her perfecting of the dance, and his engagement in assuring that her dress captures her beauty, is a fair reflection of Torvald’s view of Nora as a doll, as Nora’s unquestioning love allows Torvald to dress her up and “play” with her as he sees fit. His love for appearances is best explained during his outburst in the play’s denouement. After learning of Nora’s crime, Torvald sees her unfit to be a wife and mother, as she has ruined the one-sided happiness of their relationship, and he emphatically reveals his long held view that “all that matters is… the appearance” (Ibsen 1263). His selfishness prevents him from understanding that it was Nora’s sacrifice that saved his life, and thus Ibsen reveals a sad truth, about following love blindly, concluding that the profound devotion in perhaps ultimately unfounded. Initially Nora’s denial leads to eight years of being treated like a doll by Torvald; however, by finally questioning her devotion, and thereby realizing the truth about their marriage, Nora essentially sets herself free, as she states: “I’ve stopped believing in miracles” (Ibsen

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By shedding the dress of Torvald’s preference, she is shedding the constraints put on her by him and society alike. Nora is finally taking the first step to self-actualization as adopts the persona of an independent woman. Ibsen emphasizes this character development through the contrast in the exposition and denouement. Nora enters the stage in her “outdoor clothes” (147) and proceeds to take them off, feeling comforted and secure in her dollhouse. As she discovers her subordinate role as Torvald’s doll, she once again puts on her “outdoor clothes” (231), rejecting the security of her home, and stepping into the cold, harsh world in hopes of becoming her own

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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.

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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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1283 Words | 6 Pages

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1229 Words | 5 Pages

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1532 Words | 7 Pages

However, we now see Nora showing a more adult attitude by stating “I’m a human being” in order to get across the fact that she wants to be treated as an equal and that she is done being an object and in particular a doll. Towards the end of the play we see another sense of irony which is the fact that once Nora brings out her true self and sits Torvald down to tell him the truth, he is completely new to this side of Nora and as a result is shocked. However, with Torvald still wearing his costume from the party, this is a reprsentation of the artificial world he lives in whereby `Nora is his doll, but by confronting him, he realizes that she is not the Nora he thought she was, making him realise that his world is a facade, and that just like Nora, he too, is nothing more than a doll in a pretend

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1464 Words | 6 Pages

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1108 Words | 5 Pages

One piece of literature that analyzes the relationship between human society and money and socio-economic status is A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. Throughout A Doll House, Ibsen constantly highlights how money and socio-economic status are two of the largest factors when one makes socially unacceptable decisions, creating a satirical view of the importance of such factors. Financial instability is one of the largest factors that influence the actions of characters throughout the play. For instance, at the beginning of the play, Nora reveals how she had illegally borrowed money to pay for the trip to Italy to save the life of Torvald, her husband. Additionally, Nora reveals how “when Torvald gave me money for clothes, and so on, I never spent more than half of it…”

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828 Words | 4 Pages

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