A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen moves the plot forward through the usage of aha moments. Other scenes merely provide the context of these decisive events. The key moments of the play make great strides in the development of the plot, such as when Nora Helmer realizes the potential consequences of her actions, Krogstad and Mrs. Linde decide to shoulder their burdens together, and Nora realizes the perverseness of her marriage. Krogstad awakens Nora to the ramifications of her loan, forcing her to take action. Until Krogstad threatened her with the possible consequence of prison, Nora had considered it implausible.

A Doll’s House revolves around the lives of Nora and her husband Torvald and their relationship. The play uses man vs. man conflict to illustrate the expectations of a Victorian society. In Act I, Nora and Torvald’s relationship appears happy, loving, and caring. The reader learns of Nora’s secret of how she borrowed money to save her husband’s life and is now trying to pay it back without Torvald’s knowledge. During this time period, “a woman couldn’t legally borrow money without her father’s or husband’s consent” (Mays and Booth 878). Krogstad, another character who works at the same bank as Torvald, is the one who lent Nora the money and discovered that Nora forged her father’s signature. Krogstad is now blackmailing Nora, threatening to expose her secret if Nora does not save his job at the bank. Nora begs

Ibsen 's concerns about the physical and mental oppression of women by male dominance are brought to life in “A Doll 's House”. Through the characterisation of male dominance Ibsen expresses the view that all women possess the right to develop their own individuality, but in “A Doll’s House” the reality is that their role was often sacrificial. During the late 19th century, when the events of “A Doll’s House” unfold, women were not treated as equals with men, either in relation to their husbands or society. Torvald’s egotistical fear that his employees would think his wife influenced him is evident in the following quote, “Everyone at the bank knows I’ve sacked him. If it comes out that that the new manager changes his mind when his wife demands it-…... I’d be the laughing stock”. Women could not conduct business or control their own money, for which they needed the authorization of men, whether that was husbands, brothers or fathers. Moreover, they were not educated for responsibility. Nora suffers from both of these inequalities, firstly by taking out a loan without the authority of her husband, and secondly by believing, out of naivety and ignorance of the world, that she could forge a signature and be absolved of the consequences of her actions. Throughout the text Ibsen implements specific characterisation in an effort to effectively comment on the effects of male dominance. It is evident that Nora and Torvald represent the stereotypical ideals of male dominance

The protagonist, Nora, of this story plays the role of an average woman from this time period. From the beginning of the play there is a sense of dominance as her husband, Torvald, calls her names such as his “little squirrel” and a “featherhead”. (1.5-1.16) As the play goes on it is evident that Nora is not so much the child everyone sees. She reveals the unthinkable, she forged her father's signature illegally in order to keep her husband alive. Krogstad, the antagonist of this story, claims he will ruin her husbands reputations as the bank manager if she does not convince Torvald to promote him. When Torvald discovers this secret, he criticizes his wife telling her she is “unfit to raise their children” and “.............”. She is heartbroken

In Henrik Ibsen's, A Doll's House, the character of Nora Helmer goes through the dramatic transformation of a kind and loving housewife, to a desperate and bewildered woman, whom will ultimately leave her husband and everything she has known. Ibsen uses both the characters of Torvald and Nora to represent the tones and beliefs of 19th century society. By doing this, Ibsen effectively creates a dramatic argument that continues to this day; that of feminism.

In Ibsen’s play, “A Doll House” the protagonist is Nora, and the antagonist is Krogstad. This dramatic play is motivated by her efforts to keep her big secret. She does everything to keep her secret from Torvald, including flirting and even dancing. Nora goes through the biggest journey out of all the characters. At the beginning she is an obedient house wife, but by the end she is a liberated woman. Krogstad seems to be the villain of the play. He is constantly making Nora go against him. He starts conflict in Nora’s life with consistent threats and blackmailing. However, in the end he is reformed. Even though he was awful to Nora, he helped her see the emptiness of her life. Without his constant scheming, Nora would still be nothing but a

‘A Doll’s house’ is a three act play by Henrik Ibsen, which tells the story of a woman named Nora and her advances into independence from her husband. The play is set in Norway and is naturalistic. The sub text in this play communicates to the audience how the characters are actually feeling, despite conveying a completely different emotion. Nils Krogstad is a convoluted character in that, as the play progresses, the audience are not quite sure whether he is actually a bad man, or just a misunderstood one. His attitude changes greatly when Christine Linde admits her affection for him – he becomes

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

My understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, was deepened through the interactive oral. We discussed about the cultural values of the time with its emphasis on the position of women, and the play’s influence on feminism in Norway. In fact, A Doll’s House is more relevant than before, since a paradigm shift occurred in the modern society that women are no longer dependent upon men.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the play focused greatly on the relationships of people, and the marriage ideals of the time. The family of Nora and Torvald Helmer is a very typical family of the time, following all the norms and lifestyles. When Torvald was sick, and was advised by doctors to move to the south of the country, Nora took in her hands the fate of her husband, by getting a loan from an untrustworthy man from her husband’s bank, Krogstad, without telling Torvald. The drama of the play focused on the revealing of the loan’s secret Nora was hiding from Torvald. The family dynamics that is represented in the play demonstrates very poor communication skills between them, and a very ideal of a 19th century relationship. The family dynamics of Nora and Torvald Helmer reveals that all issues arise from a dishonest relationship. In the beginning of the play, Nora was misleading Torvald in regards to her grand spending of money. In addition, Nora behind her husband’s back decided to receive a loan that could ruin her family. Lastly, Nora’s dishonesty and carelessness ruined the family and broke them apart. With the play ending in the departure of Nora from her family, it proved to the viewers/ readers of the play that the family dynamics should be based on trust and honesty.

A good book is a book that touches a reader’s heart by either being relatable or with great character development. Cheris Karmarae, a woman’s rights activist, stated, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.” This statement is relevant to A Doll’s House and is relatable to the female audience. Not only does A Doll’s House incorporate relevant matters, it includes great character development in the protagonist, Nora. Her display of bravery moved many readers. Unlike A Doll’s House, Frankenstein, which is quite fictitious, may appear to not be relatable. From the summer readings assigned for Sophomore World Literature, A Doll’s House, a play written by Henrik Ibsen captures the reader’s heart while the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley was unappealing and uninteresting. Ibsen sets his play, A Doll’s House, in an era that captures the female audience as he shows the hardships of women that are relatable and brilliantly uses those obstacles for character development while Frankenstein loses interest as it is lengthy due to its tone and revels on details that are not relevant to the plot.

Just as Nora was her father’s ‘doll child,’ and her husband’s ‘doll wife’, it is seen that Torvald is a doll of society. He is just as trapped in the same facade of a happy marriage as Nora. He feigns security and support for his wife, but this quickly disintegrates when the discovery of Krogstad’s first letter threatens his social standing. Torvald’s change in demeanor in this scene is apparent immediately, as he replaces Nora’s usual pet names and says “You miserable creature— do you realize what you have done?” (80) He is obviously not acting on his previously voiced desire to protect Nora from a “great danger” that prompted her to encourage Torvald to read his letters. Upon realizing this Nora “[looks steadily at him and says with a growing look of coldness in her face] “Yes I am beginning to understand thoroughly.” (80) In this instance the seams on Nora’s role as a doll begin to unravel and the state of their marriage becomes apparent— it’s a sham. Krogstad’s blackmail and the following conflict with Torvald doesn’t change Nora’s nature; but they allow her to see her unfulfilled potential as a human being “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald” (81), she says during their final confrontation. Nora comes to realize that in addition to her literal dancing and tricks, she had been performing throughout their marriage; filling the role that her father,

In A Dollhouse, Nora, the protagonist is presented as a financially and emotionally dependent woman of Torvald Helmer, her husband. He was a successful banker, and together they had children. However, before his success, at some point Nora had to borrow money since Torvald was ill, but she never told him. When Torvald discovered what Nora did, he was infuriated at first. Eventually he composed himself, but it was too late, Nora decided to leave her home, children and husband behind to pursue her independence. Henrik Ibsen, the author of A Doll’s House was an important dramatist and a defender of women’s rights. In fact, he was one of the few authors during his era that advocated for women. Additionally, “he is known to be the father of realism and has been a pioneer in the transformation and revolution of modern drama” (Hossain

Realism is a theatrical movement during the 19th century, illustrating a story without “artificial” and supernatural elements, in other words, a realism play would show things that happen in our everyday life, much like naturalism. We can distinguish realism from other theatrical movements by the facts that its characters are believable to be the everyday type, the costumes are authentic to the time period being illustrated, the setting is based in only one location that is as close to our everyday life as possible, and because the story happens within 24 hours and only has one story line.

Nora and Krogstad’s first encounter in Act One of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, is significant to the plot as the main source of conflict is revealed whilst the central theme of deceit is enhanced through the use of dramatic irony. Throughout their conversation, Ibsen uses language devices to explore the characterisation and parallels between Nora and Krogstad and to foreshadow and detail Nora’s awakening at the end of the play.