Playing With Dolls In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll

Girls begin playing with dolls at a very young age, and sometimes even boys partake in the action. Dolls spark a child’s creative side, allowing them to broaden their imagination by creating a false reality in which they feel is a perfect world. Playing with dolls is a completely harmless activity. However, a problem comes about when one does not grow out of playing with his or her dolls. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, Torvald Helmer has created his own doll-like family in which he has a beautiful stay-at-home wife with lovely children, and he’s a hard-working man and seems to have everything together. What Torvald fails to realize about his perfect family, is that they are human beings; not dolls. Torvald’s failure to treat Nora like a respectable

Torvald’s ideas of a good marriage are rooted in his self-image. He has this attitude that as the man of the house he is to be the one and only provider, and that he should be the only one with the brains to get anything done. Of course most of this sprouts off the beliefs of the rest of society who think that the men should work hard, and come home to a clean house and wife, and cooked food. These types of beliefs keep him from allowing his wife to be anything other than a trophy wife, and he is too prideful to stir from what the rest of society thinks his marriage should be like, ultimately destroying what was left of his marriage. Likewise, the man who loaned money to Nora struggles to do anything more with his life because of his past decisions. The choices that Krogstad made opens the windows for others to judge him for who he used to be instead of who he is now. He used to be the man who was willing to ruin a marriage, but someone showing compassion to him changed him to be willing to show compassion to others. However, the rest of society does not know that about him, which leaves him stuck with a bad reputation and no job. The influence that society has on Torvald prompts him to be the way he is, where the influence of society only holds Krogstad back from being anything more than he is