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A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen Essay

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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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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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After eight years of marriage, what allows Nora to see that she must break free from the “Doll’s House”? “A Doll’s House” is a play written by Henrik Ibsen, set in late nineteenth century where women were expected to uphold social norms of being a submissive wife and a caring mother. In the beginning of the play, Nora is initially portrayed as a naive and obedient “doll” trapped inside of a “Doll’s House”, but towards the end of the play, Nora is able to come to the realisation that she was never happy during her eight years of marriage with Torvald, leading to her leaving Torvald and breaking free from the “Doll’s House”. This essay will explore the different factors which allows Nora to see why she must break free.

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It is shown the part when Mrs. Linde said, “I will go to Krogstad at once and talk to him” and more on she said, “There was a time for the love of me he would have done anything”(Ibsen,p106). These phrases indicate the willing of Mrs. Linde to help and related to societies, all women must become like Mrs. Linde and be a true friendship only for the truth. Ibsen has used these women in this play to identify which type of women are we. It can be Nora with childish and greedy for money or Anne-Marie who became old but still independent and not forgetting her patience but how about Mrs. Linde who such a true friendship to Nora.

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Nora, the protagonist and wife of Torvald Helmer is presented as naïve and oppressive person who doesn’t have a past experience of the outside world. Nora’s husband represents the position of authority treating his wife as no equal but rather as a child. The author was intended to incorporate the stereotype of the perfect family and their respective roles. The first act take place during Christmas Eve, as Nora Helmer enters the house to her well furnished and decorate living room, carrying some packages and a Christmas tree. Since the first act the author

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Torvald tends to control many parts of Nora’s life, one of which is how she dresses. Her penchant to wear clothes not for the sake of personal expression, but rather to indulge Torvald’s fantasies, criticizes her lack of agency in their marriage. Clothing is often seen as a way for one to express themselves, hence, by controlling that, Torvald is essentially treating Nora, similar to a how a child treats his dolls as he dresses them up and plays with them. In Act one, Nora is seen asking Torvald to help her find a costume for the upcoming fancy-dress party. She states, ““I can’t think of anything that will do“ and since “no one has such good taste as you have” Torvald, couldn’t you decide, “what my costume’s to be?”

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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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Gender representation is a theme in which is common when focusing on the form and content of both Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godott. Even though they are represented in different manners they both highlight the gender norms during the time period they were written. Within Beckett’s writings masculinity is prominent, centralizing the powerful and protruding gender focal point. Whereas Ibsen includes the female perspective and allows the readers to become aware of the gender representation as such.

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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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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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As the play comes to a close, Nora exits the room by slamming the door on Torvald, showing her standing up to the patriarchy that exists in the family and in nineteenth-century Denmark. Male dominance is the key attribute to nineteenth-century marriages because women were never thought to have ways of power through the eyes of the man. When Nora slammed the door on Torvald, she was not making a stand for herself; she was making a stand for feminist equalization in

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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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First, Nora is treated like a child by her husband Torvald. Torvald had nicknames for Nora like squirrel or skylark that was often accompanied by demenors like sweet or little. At the end of the play, Nora tells her husband that he treated her like a weak, fragile doll just like her father. Nora’s feelings about Torvald’s attitude is evident in the quote from Nora and Torvald’s conversation ”I was your little songbird just as before- your doll whom henceforth you would take particular care to protect from the world because she was so weak and fragile. ”(Pg.

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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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Chapter# 1 INTRODUCTION Henrik Ibsen an incredible dramatist and an artist however his boss hobby is genuine ability in dramatization .He moral gravity, moral clashes, the mental significance in the advanced theater of middle class show that had quite recently brought disaster. It did not have the show of these things some time recently. In this way, Ibsen firmly than the antiquated Greek tragedies to another sort of European dramatization, new measurements and add to the genuine imaginative quality. It is deficient in imperative occasions and scenes.

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Torvald and Nora’s relationship and home can be compared to as a “doll house” because of its perfect characteristics, however it is quite the opposite, with its foundation based on lies and pretend happiness. The stage directions read “A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another to the left leads to Helmer’s study. Near the window is a round table, arm-chairs and a small sofa. Engravings on the walls; a cabinet with china and other small objects; a small bookcase with well-bound books” (Ibsen 4).

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