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The Doll House

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Most Victorian-era based plays depict the nature of women as being inferior to that of men. One such play is ‘the doll house' by Henrik Ibsen. The paper analyzes the perception of the central character Torvald Helmer about his wife Nora based on the language he uses throughout the play.
Torvald’s Perception of Nora At the beginning of the play, Nora comes back from a shopping trip. Torvald rebukes her for spending so much money calling her his little squirrel. Clearly, this shows Torvald’s perception of Nora as weak. He feels that his wife is a weak and inferior person to him and that he has to patronize her by calling her animated names to exert his superiority (Ford 156). His language shows that Torvald views his wife as a powerless figure in their home. The comparison of Nora to a squirrel that is known to be shy is meant to portray her as weak creature while Torvald is the superior being in their marriage (Ford 157). …show more content…

He keeps using a language that depicts her as a child or a doll. In the final stages of the play, Nora while standing up for herself is seen complaining that her father and husband have always treated her as a doll or a child (Ford 158). Their relationship, as shown in the play is more of that of a father and his favorite daughter than of a husband and wife. In his perception of Nora as a person in need of his protection, Torvald does not realize how courageous his wife is. Her courage is depicted in the past when she decides to forge her dying father’s signature to borrow money from Krogstad to save her ailing husband whom doctors had given a prognosis of death (Ford

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