A Doll's House

The Use and Effect of Symbolism and Extended Metaphor in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House In A Doll’s House, Ibsen makes frequent use of symbolism and extended metaphor to convey ideas and develop motifs. The use of extended metaphor and symbolism is present throughout the play, including the title. Ibsen makes the metaphor of Nora as a doll in the play through dialogue and narration.

Ibsen 's play A Doll 's House centers on a stereotypical and comfortable family in the nineteenth century which, outwardly, has the appearance of respectability to which any audience can relate. There are many indicators that reveal that this family upholds a false image, such as the symbolic title “A Doll 's House". Nora is introduced as a "little Spendthrift" (p 6), which foreshadows future tension in her relationship. Torvald believes she is spending money frivolously, but she has actually secretly borrowed money to save his life, and is using the money he gives her to pay back her debt.

Torvald was ill and the only thing that could save him would be time spent away from the cold. Nora never tells Torvald about this loan because he doesn’t believe in borrowing. Toward the end of the play when Torvald finds out about the loan, his true colors come out and Nora finally gets to see what her husband is really like. This is what really causes Nora to leave her family and to try to find who she really is. This situation also causes Torvald to change a little as well. Near the end when Torvald finds out about the loan, he gets angry with Nora. Once he learns that she is going to leave him and the children, he begins to change his ways a little and starts treating her with a little more respect. He hopes this will make Nora stay, but she already has her mind set and finally has control for once in her life.

Nora’s marriage has been a sham ever since the start. By the standard of modern day, she has legitimate ground to leave her husband Torvald. Because Torvald only cares about his image, he treats Nora as an object rather than a wife, Nora has never been taken seriously by her husband, and Torvald only loves her for her appearance. Torvalds image is of great importance to him considering now he is a bank manager, and he will not allow anything standing in his way to ruin this image this includes his wife. All of Nora’s life has been controlled by a male figure, first her father which just transitioned to her husband. Towards the end of the play suggests he never actually loved Nora, it was in fact just an act to have more control over her, and to prevent her from leaving.

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

Torvald had a view of how he thought his life should be lived, and it was not exactly in Nora’s favor. He believed that his reputation was a very important part of his life and Nora knew that and that is why she contemplated committing suicide before he found out about the loan. Nora did not want to hurt his social reputation. Nora lived for him; she never wanted to disappoint him or cause him any harm. Unfortunately, Torvald did not care near as greatly about Nora as she did for him. He treated her poorly, by constantly telling her that her actions were careless and that a disease was the cause. Also, Torvald was selfish and controlling. He never really said “we” when having a conversation with her it was all about him and how her actions

“Feminine Alienation” Women in today’s society strive for equality. However, a century ago, the female gender is treated very differently. People believed in patriarchy, where women are solely dependent on men. The two plays, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, sparked controversial opinions on the position of women striving for conventional respectability in society. Nevertheless, if they stand out from their cultural norm, these female characters are often alienated from their society.

In the story, “A Doll house”, the author, Henrik Ibsen, describes the gradual collapse of the marriage between Nora and Torvald. Nora, a dedicated and supportive wife, borrows money from Torvald’s friend Krogstad without her husband’s consent in the early years of their marriage. The money borrowed was used to pay for the expenses needed to prevent her husband from dying. Nora has a growing knowledge of her failing marriage right from the time she borrows money from Krogstad, her conversation with Dr Rank and Christine, admonition from husband for her frivolous spending, and eventually the reaction of her husband when he receives the information about the forgery and the loan.

The Doll House takes place in the late 1800s, in which things were way different than they are now. During this time, men were basically the ones running the place instead of woman. Society expects women to be the ones who will stay home to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. During that, men will be able to do almost anything they want and they basically bring in the income to the house. The play taught us how women are treated and how they can redeem themselves by finding their own virtues and values. Nora was basically treated like the “squirrel” she was by Torvald, in which he didn’t think nothing was wrong at all.

“Your squirrel would run about and do all her tricks if you would be nice, and do what she wants.” (Act II, p.38)

In the play, The Doll House, towering acts of deception are shown as main character Nora stages a vigorous battle between her heart and her mind to save the life of her husband Torvald, while simultaneously performing acts of embezzlement towards her father. Throughout to timeline of the play, Nora is triggered by the constant thoughts of losing her husband, Torvald. Without a source of income or money laying around, Nora is forced into action. Upon initially asking for a small loan from her father, she was quickly dismissed.

The play A Doll’s House centers around the appearance of a perfect marriage. As it says in the name of the play, the characters in A Doll’s House seem to be living like dolls in perfect worlds. Gender roles are prominent – with Nora as the meek wife, and Torvald as the “puppet master”. However, deception and lies are woven into the dolls of the Helmer clan. The doll house soon becomes a prison, and Nora shatters the perfect image to do so.

Torvald as the husband expresses his duty to the family, by working hard and making money for his family. Nora expresses duty to the family by bringing happiness and love, she expresses it by spending money and shopping for her family. When Nora forged her father’s signature at the bank it was for her husband, Torvald was very upset when he found out, he stated some very harsh words to her. Nora defended herself for the first time by stating “I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile” (Act 3), in which she decides to leave Torvald for treating her as a “doll” their whole martial relationship. The main reason it is an example of the duty to the family over duty to the law of the state is because Torvald works for the bank.

Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. This belief can be identified in works of literature to promote change in society. May Swenson’s feminist poem, “Women” can be compared to Henrik Ibsen’s thought-provoking play, A Doll’s House. “Women” utilizes a sarcastic tone to demonstrate its theme which concerns gender roles. Although the poem does make an impact, it might cause anger amongst its readers because the meaning may be lost if the reader does not catch the sarcasm thrown at them.