A Doll 's House By Henrik Ibsen

Nora is introduced as a housewife who believes the true meaning of marriage revolving around obedience. She demonstrates the true definition of a respectful daughter, a faithful and obedient wife, and a dependable mother. It wasn’t unusual for Torvald to throw his weight around towards Nora. He attempts to limit her macaroon intake “Hasn’t nibbled some pastry,” (Ibsen 788) she replies, “You know I could never think of going against you” (Ibsen 788). In the eyes of Nora, he is considered a confident, powerful, and successful businessman since he is receiving a promotion as a bank manager after the New Year. Torvald’s sense of marriage can be summed up that he is the king of the castle “This is the way it should be my darling Nora. What-ever comes, you’ll see: when it really counts, I have strength and courage enough as a man to take the whole weight myself” (Ibsen 814). Torvald’s view is she is just a “doll” in his doll house. To him, it was important to stress there was no such thing as equality in their partnership, he

Nora starts off the play essentially as Torvalds toy. She is obedient, she is cute, she rarely goes against his wishes, and she is nothing without her “owner”, Torvald. The reader, however, discovers early on that all is not what it seems to be. Nora is actually a very rebellious woman who enjoys going against Torvald’s wishes. There are scenarios where she does this out of the sheer enjoyment she gets. Nora loves macaroons.

She proceeds to convey how unhappy she is being his wife blaming him and her father for their controlling nature. During her childhood Nora was unable to make her own decisions her father controlled her as Torvald controls her now. She was never able to discover for herself, her likes and dislikes and with lack of education and little known about society she remains a lost child trying to find her way. Her feelings of being less than human are portrayed when she tells him, “I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child,” a sad fact of her life (Ibsen 838). At first he accuses her of exaggerating things and tries to dismiss this behavior, but as Nora continues to open up to him, he starts to see that the way he treated her was not appropriate and she deserved much more. Torvald makes a plea for her to allow him to change his ways and he may have if given the opportunity, but only one person changing would not help Nora in the least. She needs to journey on this road to self-discovery alone, no labels of wife or mother to cloud and confuse her she must discover who she

A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that has been written to withstand all time. In this play Ibsen highlights the importance of women’s rights. During the time period of the play these rights were neglected. Ibsen depicts the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband during the 19th century. Nora is the woman in A Doll House who plays is portrayed as a victim. Michael Meyers said of Henrik Ibsen 's plays: "The common denominator in many of Ibsen 's dramas is his interest in individuals struggling for and authentic identity in the face of social conventions. This conflict often results in his characters ' being divided between a sense of duty to themselves and their responsibility to others." All of the aspects of this quote can be applied to the play A Doll House, in Nora Helmer 's character, who throughout much of the play is oppressed, presents an inauthentic identity to the audience and throughout the play attempts to discovery her authentic identity.

We also see his demeaning behavior when he underestimates her ability to handle money. Herman Weigand points out that "Torvald tells her in money matters she has inherited her father 's disposition" (Weigand 27). So Torvald 's condescending language and names keep Nora in her place as a doll where he likes her to be. James Huneker put it best when he said

restricted to playing with the children, doing little housework, and working on her needlepoint. A problem with her responsibilities is that her most important obligation is to please Torvald, making her role similar to that of a slave. Torvald easily talks down to Nora saying things like: “…worries that you couldn’t possible help me with”, “Nora, Nora, just like a woman”, and “Mayn’t I look at my dearest treasure? At all the beauty that belongs to no one but me—that’s my very own?” as if she is considered his property.

By referring to her as ‘little lark’, ‘child’, and ‘silly Nora’, he shows that he feels incredibly superior to her. "The child [Nora] shall have her way" (2.385). "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?" (1.9). In these instances, Torvald refers to Nora as a child and even a squirrel.

“That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing ‘Torvald’” (12). The moment Torvald spoke these words, is when the story truly began to evolve. The first words Torvald speak that stand out are when he say, “That is like women” which immediately makes Nora feel as if she can’t act like herself or a women in order to make her husband happy, but it was too late. Nora knew that she already borrowed money and didn’t follow Torvald’s rules, even if it was out of love, but know matter what, she knew that she wasn’t going to be treated ordinary from Torvald or anyone else for that

In the play, Torvald is a authority and parental figure, while Nora is the mischievous and funny little child that charms her household. Torvald controls every aspect of Nora's life, just like a parent does. Alexander J. Skolnick &

In “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen Nora’s character has traits’ of a narcissistic person. You can see these traits through her actions throughout the story. In the article “A Psychoanalytic Reading of Nora” written by Carol S. Tufts states values of a narcissistic personality one of these are “Grandiose sense of self- importance and uniqueness….” Nora can relate to this because when she decides to leave her family to go find her self, she is displaying this notion of self-importance. Nora also shows this when Dr. Rank confesses his love for Nora, when he is about to die and she gets upset with him because she needed his help and now she feels that she can-not take advantage of him.

In the mist of her situation, Torvald describes the influence of having a negative mother figure in the household. The toll is especially great on the children, “Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of the home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil” (Ibsen 27). His warnings immensely scare Nora because she does not want Torvald or her children to think awfully of her. To her husband, Nora is the ideal physical object of attraction that performs and entertains him, and who could not do no wrong. Cause beyond all jobs, her main duty is to be a humble mother and wife, who does the right thing and doesn’t risk defacing the name of Torvald and his home. Putting on a mask and being Torvald’s “little skylark” or “little squirrel” is overbearing for Nora.

Torvald is only concerned with, in regard to his relationship with Nora, how well she makes him look and what other people think about it. If he has a beautiful, obedient wife and joyful relationship, people will respect him. They’re relationship, on the outside appears to be happy. But, when you analyze their relationship, you see Nora is treated like a child in this relationship, but as the play progresses she begins to realize how phony her marriage is. Torvald sees Nora 's only role as being the subservient and loving wife. He refers to Nora as "my little squirrel" (185), “my little lark” (185), or “little spendthrift” (185). He only sees her as a possession. Torvald calls Nora by pet-names and speaks down to her because he thinks that she is not intelligent and that she can not think on her own. Whenever she begins

Torvald, Nora's husband, feels powerful by referring to Nora as different types of feeble animals. Nora realizes this and uses it to her advantage. During act II she wants a favor from Torvald so she manipulates him by calling herself the animal names that make Torvald feel dominant. She says,

Agents of socialization help to dictate what is an acceptable form of gender role. The stage that is already set from birth within a family. Placed in the world and carried on with the world, it is reinforced by the way that society portrays what is acceptable, thus maintaining the overall picture that certain roles are assigned to a certain gender type. As with Nurture – which is the experiences, values, environment and upbringing that defines who we are - along with socialization which is the lifelong process by which through social interaction, we learn our culture, develop our sense of self, and become functioning members of society. The symbolic interactionism in the book A Doll’s House written by Henrik Ibsen looks at the behavior of people and the things that affect such behavior, such as the inequalities in marriage.

In past history, society has been very traditional with its views on gender roles. The term "gender role" alludes to society 's idea of how men and women are expected to act and behave. Gender roles are based on norms, or standards, created by society. In American society, “masculine roles have commonly been related with strength, aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles have traditionally been related with passivity, nurturing, and subordination” (sex roles/gender roles). In “A Doll’s House,” written by Henrik Ibsen, the readers are shown a firsthand view at how gender roles affected the character’s actions and interactions throughout the play.