A Doll House

Nevertheless, Torvald experiences a substantial switch in power dynamics within the last act of A Dollhouse. Torvald lost complete power and control over his relationship when his wife decided to leave him: “No, that is just it. You don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either—before to-night. No, you mustn’t interrupt me. You must simply listen to what I say. Torvald, this is a settling of accounts” (Ibsen 1799). This illustrates a change in power because it shows that his wife is no longer willing to be submissive to his whims. Moreover, there is a change in power between the husband and his wife, Nora, at the end of the play when she sees Torvald for who he truly is. After it is revealed that Nora illegally borrowed money from Krogstad to save Torvald’s life, Torvald implodes with rage revealing a reverse persona to himself that Nora has been

In Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” Nora and Torvald Helmer are the average, happy married couple. They are thrilled that Torvald got a new job as a manager of a bank. Money won’t be an issue anymore, as they have struggled for some time. But, Nora has been keeping a secret from her husband. Early in their marriage, Nora borrowed money because Torvald became ill. At the time, they did not have any money to pay for medicine or the bills. She funded a year in Italy, in order to pay off the debt and skimmed from the allowance. A man named Krogstad works with Torvald at the bank—something about this man intrigues Nora, as she thinks she knows him.

In the play “A Doll's House” by Henrik Ibsen, the controversy within the Helmer family conveys a critical attitude toward marriage and duty. The drama traces the awakening, self-realization and transformation of the main character, Nora Helmer. Having borrowed money from the character Krogstad by falsifying her father’s signature, Nora was able to afford a trip to the south for the sake of saving her sick husband, Torvald Helmer’s life. Since then, Nora has been secretly working in order to pay off the loan. Nora expects that if Torvald finds out about her sacrifice for him, he will risk his life to save her. When Torvald is put to the test, he shows no intention of sacrificing himself, despite the fact that his wife committed a crime to

When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fakes as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.

After Torvald answers why he doesn’t like Krogstad, Nora begins to panic. She begins to panic because she learns that she committed the same crime as Krogstad. Torvald says that Krogstad never admitted his guilt, has a life full of lives, and even lies around his family. Torvald then goes on to say how living in this type of atmosphere can corrupt the whole family. Then, Torvald tells Nora that there’s no way he could work with a person like Torvald. Nora realizes that she might be corrupting her children and that she should leave them to prevent her from corrupting the children. After Torvald tells her all of this, she says that she has to get back to work on the tree so she can think.

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the

Nora believes her purpose in life is to be happy for her husband and the children. Nora did believe that she loved Torvald and was happy. She had a passionate and devoted heart that was willing to do almost anything for her husband. At first she did not understand that these feelings were not reciprocated. Torvald does not want a wife who will challenge him with her own thoughts and actions. She finally realizes her feelings where untrue. The final confrontation between the couple involves more oppression by Torvald calling her a "featherbrained woman" and "blind, incompetent child", but by this time Nora has realized the situation he wishes to maintain, and is convinced her own happiness is more important. The fury Nora saw in Torvald after opening the letter that exposed her lie showed Nora a strange man. Someone she had not been wife to, someone she did not love. Their marriage is fake and mutually beneficial because of their social class. She realizes they are

When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie, however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she consequently comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fake as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.

In response to Nora’s confession of writing her father name on the document, Krogstad asks “Did it never occur to you that you were committing a fraud on me?”(23). When Nora first revealed that she made the decision to save her husband's life, it made her seem noble and caring. However, at this point Krogstad makes the audience aware that Nora does not care about anything except her and her family's reputation. Krogstad attempts to make Nora feel bad for him by telling her that she has ruined his reputation, but this make Nora more defensive of her own family. After Krogstad leaves, Nora speaks with her husband and at this moment he proclaims how a poisoned house begins with deceitful mother. Torvald leaves Nora alone to think “Deprave my little children? Poison my home? It’s not true. It can’t possibly be true” (28). Nora coming to the realization of the effect of her lies foreshadows how her life and family will eventually fall

Marriage is a life-changing commitment between two people to love one another, yet marriages do not necessarily have the fairytale happy ending as emphasized in Henrik Ibsen's foreshadowing play “A Doll House.” Written in 1879, the play tells the story of a nineteenth century middle class woman who breaks the chains of her marriage that determine her role in life in order to find herself and her identity as a woman. Set in the Helmers' house hold, Victorian Era, Norway, the female protagonist Nora Helmer lives a perfectly comfortable and seemingly carefree life until her husband Torvald Helmer falls ill, compelling his family to move south in order to ensure his recovery. Yet Torvald refuses to pay the money for his family to move which ultimately leads Nora to take matters into her own hands. She is forced to forge a signature on a contract that would enable her to borrow enough money from a lawyer named Nils Krogstad to travel to southern Italy to save his life.

He asks her, “Miserable creature--what have you done? (175). He doesn’t recognize her explanation. He is just worried about his reputation. “Now you have destroyed all my happiness (175). That shows that he just worried about his honour and his future. On the other hand, Nora’s reaction after all is very brave. Even though living a independent life is very difficult, specially for women, she still decides to leave Torvald. Besides her braveness, she is also very kind. Although Nora haven’t seen Mrs. Linde for a long time, Nora still helps her without hesitation by influencing her husband to give her one position in the bank. If she didn’t help Mrs. Linde, she would not replace Krogstad’s position, and Krogstad would not blackmail her. In addition, Nora is very innocent. when she is blackmailed by Krogstad, she wants to ask Dr. Rank for help. However, when she finds out that he loves her, she decides to not ask for his help anyone. She doesn’t want to cheap on her husband because she really loves her him. After all, Nora is a good wife and mother.

In the play “A Doll’s House”, by Henrik Ibsen, the two main characters, Nora and Torvald are married. Being that the play is set in the Victorian Age, standards of life and treatment of one’s spouse was incredibly different in the era. While Torvald creates the inferred label as a “doll” for Nora, he treats her as if she is his child and demands her to act certain ways. Nora, being disobedient to his orders in many cases, goes behind his back to take actions to be mischievous, deceptively flirtatious, and two-faced in order to maintain their “charmed life.”

Nora tries to pay off a debt in secret while she puts on a smile to entertain her husband so he doesn’t find out what she did. To make sure he doesn’t she has to convince him not to fire one of his employees, Krogstand, or her secret will be out. Then she tries to maintain her friendship with their doctor, Dr. Rank, without complicating his relationship with Mr. Helmer and her by noticing his unappropriated feelings for her. And sustaining her other friendship with Christine, her childhood friend. After her version of betrayal by her husband Nora tries to overcome her urge to commit to suicide. Then she comes to the decision that she was playing a role and she needs to find herself. In his world, Torvald was recently promoted so he needs to maintain social hierarchy and at home he has to entertain his wife with her spending habits and sweet tooth. So he is really oblivious to her antics

Ibsen’s a doll house centers around a time where men worked and women were the care givers of the home. In a Doll’s House there were some major points made that eventually led up to that one defining moment. The defining moment for me was when Nora decided that she no longer wants to live the lifestyle of being the “doll”. It starts with Torvalds reading the letter about her borrowing the money and Nora’s secret is finally exposed.

Sometimes, characters in a novel or play go through a great dynamic change only to find their true self and to remove the fraudulent perception of themselves in the eyes of others. Such a change leads the character to become fully aware of their life as well as finally understand what a hypocritical life they have mistakenly led. At the beginning of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer is shown as a childish and na ve housewife with a knack for spending money. This opinion is transferred mostly through Nora’s “parent – child” dialogue with her husband, Torvald. Torvald’s usual characterization of Nora as an “expensive little person” (p14) with a skill of melting his money in her hands clearly illustrates Nora’s relation with her