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Nora And Anti-Feminism In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll

1016 Words5 Pages

Nora is now, a free woman. Nora has been living all her life under the thumb of a man. She didn’t have much freedom or independence. This play can be viewed in two perspectives, an anti-feminist one and a feminist one. The feminist approach is used while looking at Nora and Mrs. Linde. Nora becomes a free woman and Mrs. Linde shows how a woman doesn’t need a man. Nora is considered a free and independent woman since she finally stood up to her husband. She decided that she should take charge of what she wants, not by words but by action. She does so by leaving the house. Also, she expresses her opinions and thoughts to Torvald for the first time without worrying what he might think because she wants to be on her own without being …show more content…

Just by looking at the title, Nora is portrayed as a doll since her husband treated her as if she were one. Nora wanted this to change and she decided she wanted to do something about it due to the fact that the society at the time was a male dominant one. Nora at first, used to listen to her husband and she didn’t stand up for herself. She strives to accomplish the ideal image that is set by the society and her husband. Nora is considered really different from the other female characters in “A Dollhouse”. Nora is caught in that house, physically. Torvald created a perfect life for his doll wife and children, which Nora can’t stand and wants to leave this house any second she can because she feels oppressed by her husband. Nora Helmer had nicknames given by her husband such as “squirrel” or “little skylark” and he thought that all her thoughts are silly and common to all other women’s thoughts. To add, her father referred to her as the “other” and handed her to Torvald who treated her like a possession or an object. Towards the end of the play, Nora tells her husband that her father used to play with her like a doll, the same way she played with her dolls, and made his opinions become her opinions. She then says that after her father handed

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However both woman had endured abuse and are victims of a male dominated society. Nora the wife of a banker and a mother of three children seem to have it all. Her family lives in a fancy well-furnished home and they seems to well of financially, and her husband loved her very much. However the reader soon find out that he is an egotistical controlling man that sees Nora as an absent minds child.

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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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Most critics around the world believe the play led to increase awareness on the need for women’s rights in all continents, on the other hand some critics opine that the play depicted women as inferior creatures and dolls who have no personality of their own. Nora Helmer the main character strives to achieve the perfect concepts of life set by the society and her husband. Nora is trapped in her home where her Torvald has built a wonderful life for his ‘doll wife’. Nora’s transformation comes when she discovers the role in doll house imposed on her by the society and her husband and she is desperate to free herself in order to discover her identity.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

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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In the story “A Doll’s House” the story revolves around the character Nora who is the wife of Helmer Torvald the man in the story that sees her as a defenseless woman who he sees as his trophy wife. Within the play Torvald shows how he feels about Nora in the beginning of it talking down to Nora if she were his child. He asks her a series of questions that have to do with her father who like her spends money freely not thinking about the after effects of the spending lots of money on things she will not use all the time. After they finish up their conversation Nora would go to see three children at an orphanage where she seemed to change the way she talked and acted when she was around Torvald. She would talk about how she wanted the children

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1136 Words | 5 Pages

Nora’s defiance may have resulted in criticism from society, but Ibsen importantly commented on the terrible treatment of woman in relationships and the world. Ibsen created A Doll’s House in a time where women were treated unjustly and poorly. While the play might seem slightly irrelevant now, it still has a place in the world today. Women can borrow money and leave their husbands; however, society still puts tremendous pressure on women to fulfill sacred vows. The expectation to assure her husband’s happiness and to prioritize everyone else before herself is still an issue that many woman face today.

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At the beginning of their marriage Nora did everything on her power to save his husband health including going against her husband beliefs by lying about how she obtained a large amount of money (money that she told her husband that was borrowed from her father and not by doing business with Krogstad) Nora told Mrs. Linde that she has been using her allowance to pay the debt. She was looking forward to New Year, because she will have paid off her debt completely and then will be “free” to fulfill her responsibilities as a wife and mother without impediment. At this point we can notice the fact that Nora doesn’t feel “free” and realizes in her wife and mother

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

In the 19th century Victorian era, Ibsen delves into a society vastly different from the society we know today. He explores a society in which the men are in control, the men run businesses, the men control the money, while the women manage the home and children. Throughout the play, we see Torvald asserting that dominance over Nora, not only in spoken orders but also in how he speaks to her, “No borrowing, no debt. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt,” (Ibsen,1879). Frequently, Nora is referred to as "little songbird," "little squirrel," "little spendthrift," or "little Nora."

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'Human being', the easiest word to spell until it holds a significance. The human being is typically defined as any individual of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from the other organisms by their superior abilities to do different tasks. But does this definition really differs from a man and woman. “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.” ―Simone de Beauvoir After reading the play, “A doll’s House”, I came across through many concepts or opinions of being human.

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Analysis of the Character Nora in the “A Doll’s House” Play The play “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, portrays many different characters with different sides to themselves. A quote by Kurt Vonnegut writes “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be;” this shows us that everyone pretends to be someone, which means the characters in the play have a good chance of pretending to be someone else whom they are not. mInevitably, not every character can show each one of their sides, but rather, it has to be interpreted. Nora, to be specific, has a completely contradictory side to herself that we later discover in the play.

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1532 Words | 7 Pages

In A Doll 's House, Nora spends the majority of her time on stage as a doll: a colourless, passive character with little to no actual personality. Her entire life is a concept of norms of society in that era in order to meet the expectations of others. Until she realises that her life is a lie, and that she lives in a dream world. Within this World, Nora doesn’t feel the need to take life as seriously as everyone around her, an approach to life that eventually led to almost all of the plot’s twists.

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1349 Words | 6 Pages

The play closes on a positive note with Nora, representative of the supressed female, overcoming Torvald, representative of the oppressive male, however to express the true extent of this achievement, Ibsen makes evident the context of the struggle that society dictated women live by. The progressive characterisation of the protagonist Nora encapsulates Ibsen’s intention of pushing theatrical and societal norms through showing how women deserve to create their own identity and not be restricted by their male oppressors. Ibsen crafted every line to show the development of her dialogue, actions, setting and properties, and in doing so he potently slammed the door on the patriarchal society of the 19th

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614 Words | 3 Pages

A Doll’s House: Character Comparison and Contrast Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House contains a cast of deeply complex characters that emulate the 1800’s societal norms that they belong to. Two characters that compare and contrast each other throughout the play are Nora Helmer and Kristine Linde. Nora and Kristine are similar because they both display a sense of independence. Their personalities differ as Nora presents herself as inexperienced, while Kristine is more grounded in reality.

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237 Words | 1 Pages

The characters of "A Doll's House" all have their own different personalities, however, some of them have similar motives and ideas. Nora at first acts like a normal clumsy airhead who is seemingly carefree, but later we see how she would do anything to save her husband, even if she had to break the law. This shows that she does have some competency, making her different than other women of that era. Similarly to Nora's illegal actions, Krogstad sinks to the level of illegally blackmailing and threatening Nora and Torvald for his job, but unlike Nora, he has only his own selfish greed to blame. Although Torvald seems like a controlling husband to an audience today, he's mainly just a normal man of the time period, since at the time the men

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759 Words | 4 Pages

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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