Abstract: A Doll’s House is the best known and one of the most popular of Henrik Ibsen’s works. It is about the liberation of an individual from restraints of customs and convention due to money issues. It also deals with marital problems and is about the unraveling of a middle-class couple. Torvald Helmer and Nora’s first conversation establishes Helmer as the master of the household who earns and controls the money. On the other hand, Nora is the member of the house who spends it. According to Nora’s friend Cristina. Linde, Nora was a big spender in her young days. Through this comment Nora is portrayed as a shallow woman who is concerned with material delights. Yet, her generous tips to a porter and the gifts for the domestic help during Christmas show her as a generous, unselfish woman. This paper will not show her as a “new woman”. Rather, it will show how monetary issue can be a devastating outcome of a routine marriage where the couple have different views on money and on life. It will also explore the conditions of wives in the late nineteenth century Europe.
Keywords: Nora, Helmer, money, marital problems Henrik Ibsen’s landmark play A Doll’s House is one of the world’s most controversial, socially relevant
…show more content…
At the same time, he enjoys her foolishness and ignorance because they render her helpless and makes her dependent on him: “Do you know, Nora, I often wish some danger might threaten you, that I might risk body and soul, and everything, everything, for your dear sake” (Act III, p.151). He gains control over her by addressing her “little squirrel” or “precious little singing birds”, “skylark” or “Miss Sweet Tooth”. These comments make Nora seem more like a prized possession than an equal life partner in their marriage. They have no equal partnership and he rebukes her like a child for eating macaroons