The play A Doll’s House tells the story of a middle-class housewife, Nora, living in Norway in 1879 with her children and husband, Torvald. It is brought to the reader's attention that during the family’s financial crisis, Torvald falls ill and in efforts to save her husband Nora takes a loan illegally and forges her father's signature. Nora keeps this secret and is afraid to tell Torvald who had strictly forbidden her to withdraw a loan in his time of need. However, after being manipulated her secret is revealed. Throughout the play Nora's desire for independence grows as she discovers her unhappiness in her marriage with Torvald. Torvald's role in the play is questioned by many and is a controversial subject. Many speculate his role, asking …show more content…
Torvald Helmer develops into a misogynist in his efforts to conform to societal norms. Torvald Helmer develops into a misogynist in his efforts to conform to the family system and assumes a position of dominance in the household. The article "A Very Wild Dance Indeed: Family Systems in Heinrich Ibsen's A Doll's House" suggests that "the default assumptions of power and control of the Helmer family system—has relied upon Torvald’s assuming the role of parent to Nora, who acts like a child and thus helps turn her husband into a kind of parent" (McFarland-Wilson and Knapp 143). In Torvald's hopes to exert control over his family and comply with the norm of family system he takes on a "parental" role to adapt the Helmer family to fit the societal norm of a "normal" and proper middle class family. Torvald's misogynistic belief of women as well as society’s understanding is that women are inexperienced and must be treated in a childish way. His dominance over …show more content…
As explained before, Nora has grown up being treated like a doll child by her father and realized that she was handed off to Torvald who treats her in the same manner. She says, "I was simply transferred from Papa's hand to yours" (Ibsen 66). Torvald, who has been happily married to Nora for eight years, treats her with the same respect as her father without upsetting her. Nora, never having objected to her treatment beforehand, suddenly changes and is troubled with her husband's treatment of her. However, Torvald treated her in the same way as her father, misogyny was prevalent in the traditional male during the time. Misogyny, being a societal norm, led all conforming males to assume a dominant presence in society. This made the misogynistic practice of male dominance in the household common with the doll childlike treatment of girls later influencing the childlike treatment of them as wives for husbands to assert their dominance. The article "A Very Wild Dance Indeed: Family Systems in Heinrich Ibsen's A Doll's House" clearly suggests, "the relationship Nora has shared with her father reveals a powerful intergenerational influence upon the Helmer family system. Nora realizes how her father’s behavior toward her has influenced Torvald’s treatment of her" (McFarland-Wilson and Knapp
A doll house is based on Nora understanding how she feels about her relationship with her husband Torvald. The play opens up with Nora arriving home from Christmas shopping, excited to show her husband what she has purchased. Torvald will be getting a promotion at his bank so Nora feels that she gets to splurge a little on gifts. Torvald calls Nora a child, spendthrift, and a lark for her actions on spending a lot of money. Torvald teases Nora and compares her to her father by saying the following:
A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen, portrays the complicated marriage of Nora and Torvald Helmer. In numerous ways Nora is treated like a child or “doll” by her husband, and in turn, Torvald takes care of her physically, emotionally, and financially. While Nora is stuck in a patriarchal society, until she had a change at the play’s end, she played along and never had an objection. Nora’s sudden realization to start a new life and leave her family not only proves she is irresponsible, but also she does not know what she will face in the real world, and she cares about herself more than her own children.
In A Doll House Ibsen juxtaposes the marital relationship between Nora and Torvald with Nora’s and her father’s in order to present the idea an individual may look to their spouse as a replacement for a parental figure. Nora’s individual growth is stunted by her marriage, as she is dependent on her husband as a source of guidance and leadership, like a father, rather than a mutual source of maturation and equality between husband and wife. Nora drew comparison between her father and husband, stating “with Torvald it’s just the same as with Papa” (Ibsen 85). Nora recognized the similarity between the two before any epiphany of a parental replacement occurred; Nora was also comfortable with the
During this period, women were subjected in their gender roles and were restricted over what the patriarchal system enforced on them. Everyone was brought up believing that women had neither self-control nor self-government but that they must capitulate to the control of dominate gender. The ideology that “God created men and women different - … [and they should] remain each in their own position.” (eHow, Ibsen's Influences on Women's Rights) is present in A Doll’s House with Nora’s character, as she is seen as the ideal women during the Victorian Era, who is first dutiful as wife and mother before to her own self. Whenever Torvald gives Nora money, she spends it on her children so that they are not “shabbily dressed” (Act 1). Though she loves her children it is all the more shocking when she leaves them.
The inferior role of Nora is extremely important to her character. Nora is oppressed by a variety of "oppressive social conventions." Ibsen in his "A Doll's House" depicts the role of women as subordinate in order to emphasize their role in society. Nora is oppressed by the manipulation from Torvald. Torvald has a very typical
In ‘A Doll’s House’, Nora’s views on society and its conventions change remarkably over the course of a few days. She is initially portrayed as an immature and naïve child, with little personality of her own, who is perfectly satisfied with her ‘doll-like’ existence, where she is pampered and patronized by her husband, Torvald. However, as the play progresses, we notice that Nora is not as frivolous and childish as she first appears. Certain phrases that she utters in the play demonstrate that she is aware of her subservient role in her marriage from the very beginning, but it is not until the very end of the play that she has an awakening, where she finally realizes that in order to live as an independent adult, she must discover who she is
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, we are introduced to the 19th century relationship between Nora and her husband Torvald Helmer. While reading through the three acts of the play numerous things are uncovered. It becomes clear that Torvald and his expectation for his wife are strongly influenced by society and culture in the 19th century. Torvald himself believes that he is the ideal husband. Torvald believes his wife is clueless and he is her savior. However in reality Torvald is the one that’s clueless and Nora is his savior. Additionally, Nora is everything he ever wanted to be.
Henrik Ibsen wrote the play A Doll’s House in 1879. In the play Ibsen describes how the society trapped women in marriages and how they carry no value to the family. Just like Stasz Clarice writes “Society, particularly through social class, structures men and women alike to be insensitive and inhumane.” Nora Helmer is apparently happily married to Torvald, he is a lawyer who is about to be promoted to a management position. They have three small children. Early in their marriage Torvald became seriously ill, and the doctors advised a stay in a more southerly climate. Nora had to get hold of the money for the journey in secrecy and so borrowed it from Krogstad, a lawyer who had been a coworker of Torvald. As security for the loan she forged her dying father’s signature. Ever since then she has saved some of the housekeeping money in order to pay back the loan with interest, and she has taken on small jobs to earn some money herself. When the play opens, an old friend of Nora’s, Mrs. Linde, has arrived in town to look for work, and Nora sees to it that Torvald gives her a post at the bank. But this means that Krogstad is dismissed from his post at the bank, and in desperation he goes to Nora and threatens to tell Torvald about the loan and the forgery unless he is allowed to keep his post. Nora considers asking Dr. Rank, an old friend of the family, for the money, but when he declares his love for her, she finds it impossible
The theme of power is expressed through the title of A Doll’s House, as when one plays with dolls he or she has complete control of what occurs. The relationship between a person and their doll is a direct act of subjugation, only the doll is not alive and has no choice in the matter. With the binary opposition of phylogeny versus misogyny present in the stage production, a question of the work is who is the one controlling the household. Ibsen had the character of Torvald believe he was in command of what occurred in the house; however he (Ibsen) provided more evidence that Nora was really the one who kept everything together. For example, Nora was speaking with Mrs. Linde that she obtained much needed money without consulting with Torvald first, as she lied to him saying it was given to them by her father. Mrs. Linde replied saying “a wife should not borrow without her husband’s consent” (Ibsen 88), meaning she had fallen into the belief that women are below men, which Ibsen is proved to be false in this play.
In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen presents us with the drama of Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have been married for eight years and whose lives are controlled by the society in which they live. Their relationship, although seemingly happy, is marred by the constraints of social attitudes around them and their perceived gender roles. Creating even more conflict is the thin veil of deceit between them, which inevitably breaks them apart.
The inferior role of Nora is extremely important to her character. Nora is oppressed by a variety of social conventions. Ibsen in his "A Doll 's House" depicts the role of women as subordinate in order to emphasize their role in society. Nora is oppressed by the manipulation from Torvald. Torvald has a very typical relationship with society. He is a smug bank manager. With his job arrive many responsibilities. He often treats his wife as if she is one of these
In “A Doll’s House”, Torvald and Nora each have a unique role in their marriage. Torvald treats Nora as his little doll, or plaything, while Nora treats him as the man of the house who has the authority to do anything he wants. These ideas form because the society within the play does not allow much freedom for women. According to this society and culture, a women’s role is depicted by the man she is with, the female character’s all exemplify Nora’s assertion that women have to sacrifice a lot more than men. In this play, Nora, Mrs. Linde, and the maid all hold sacrificial roles depicted by the society they
In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen focuses on the importance of women's roles and freedom in society. Widely regarded as a feminist paean, the play features two major female characters; the most prominent of whom, Nora Helmer, shatters her position as a subservient, doll-like female when she walks out on her husband and children with a flagrant "door slam heard round the world." Nora’s evolution, though inspiring, should not overshadow another crucial woman in the play: Mrs. Kristine Linde. Both women attain freedom in a society dominated by the adherence to conservative marital roles, but do it in different ways. While Nora reaches her consciousness and slams the door on her shackling domicile, Mrs.
The role of women in A Doll´s House is reflected by showing firstly that the strength is a characteristic of men and that weakness is one of a women. The author tries using stereotypical gender actions to describe the characters of Nora and Torvald in the play. Nora who is Torvalds wife, is the character that plays the role of that typical 19th century woman which and is portrayed as a victim. The inferior role of Nora is important to its character, “Is that my little songbird piping away there?” (Page 10),
In a doll’s house , Henrik Ibsen shows the dominance of male in the society of that time . Although Nora is the mistress of the house but all the things are controlled by Torvald . We see it when Nora says , “Torvald certainly knows how to make a house attractive and comfortable” , which means that all the things in their house are kept to suit Torvalds’s tastes . The wife is expected to follow her husband without any question which is indicated again and again in the play . It’s her duty to fulfill all the orders of her husband . Nora says , “I wouldn’t do anything that you don’t like”, which highlights the dominance