Attending a Masquerade in In A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

Nora Helmer, the wife of a Lawyer is treated as though she is insignificant and uneducated from the beginning of the play. Nora Helmer is seemly carefree about life in the first act, but behaves more frantically in the second, and then gains a sense of reality during Part three of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll’s House. In the first part of the play, Nora exhibits many childish characteristics such as tossing her head around saying that Mrs. Linde would do better if she could just run off to a bathing spa, instead of dealing with any real life problems (Ibsen 1196). Once she returns from what seems to be an expensive shopping trip with lots of packages she eats a few of the desserts she has secretly purchased while out and when her

The main character, Nora, in Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll House” is a character that had been held back and repressed by the patriarchal society she existed in. Throughout the play it can be seen that most of the issues and struggles the character, Nora, faced were created and brought on by the men who were in her life. From the very beginning it is evident that Nora is as an undermined and restrained woman. Nora’s husband, Torvald, is her overseer. Torvald treats Nora like a child. He gives her nicknames like “squirrel” as if she is a little animal that only scurries about. When Nora wants money she must ask Torvald for permission to borrow some. Torvald also calls Nora a “spendthrift” as he does not trust Nora with money and believes she just wastes it on useless things. Torvald’s little nicknames for Nora seem to dehumanize her and make her seem less than her husband. When Nora suggests to Torvald to borrow money until he gets paid, Torvald responds “how like a woman! You know what I think about that. No debts! Never borrow!” (Ibsen 884) as if to indicate all women are incompetent and don’t know how to handle money. Although Nora is a victim of a destructive patriarchal society, she is also an example of what it meant to be a part of the feminist movement. Feminism is a movement and ideology that believes in the establishment of economic, political, and social equality of the sexes. At

In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in

Throughout A Doll’s House, Torvald views Nora’s actions as being deceiving not only towards him but also towards her family. However, Nora gain her perspective on her own actions and begins observing it differently than Torvald’s. The play states, “ It was me they told that his life was in danger...well, well, I thought, you’ve got to be saved somehow. And then I thought of a way-,” (Ibsen 35-36). Within Nora’s and Mrs. Linde’s private conversation, Nora conveys that her manipulation of money revealed how she deceives her husband even though it was in good intent to save his life. In addition, this demonstrates Nora’s willingness to think about others, such as her husband, before realizing for herself that there were going to be consequences for her later on. Within the play, Nora states, “ You have never understood me. A

Each and everytime he speaks with her, Torvald has a new pet name for her. Towards the beginning of the play, Torvald says to Nora, “Is that my little lark twittering in there (Ibsen 969)?” By calling her a ‘little lark,’ he is addressing her as if she were small and helpless. This is how an adult would speak to a child. Torvald also chastises Nora, as if she were his own child, making mistakes and doing bad things. After Nora lies about something, Torvald says, “My little songbird must never do that again. Songbirds are supposed to have clean beaks to chirp with - no false notes (Ibsen 987).” A Doll House becomes confusing at times because the reader may feel as though Torvald were speaking to a child and not his wife. This creates immense significance for the title due to Torvald’s controlling actions and Nora’s doll-like

In the play “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, Nora goes through a transformation of self-realization. Nora lives a doll-like existence. she responds lovingly to her husband’s pet names such as “my little lark” or “my little squirrel” (Ibsen, 793). She does not mind playing a role for her husband. As the play progresses, Nora show that she is not a little girl. She understands how business work by taking out a loan behind her husband’s back to save his life. When she is blackmail by Krogstad, her eyes open to her unfulfilled and underappreciated life. she realizes that she been putting on a show for her husband. Nora has pretended to be someone else in order to fulfilled a role for not only her husband but also her father

In the play “A Doll House” the main character was a woman by the name of Nora Helmer. She was a young women who lived in Europe during the nineteenth century. She was married to a man by the name of Torvald Helmer who seemed to be a little controlling. At first Nora seem to appear as an

Throughout the play Nora’s family is referred to as a doll house. Hence the name of the title, but why is it a doll house? Nora and her kids are like dolls in Torvald’s game. It is like her family is always playing house. It seems to Nora that her life is being used as a game instead of actually getting to live happily. She and her husband have more of a father and daughter relationship, rather than a husband and wife relationship. “The child shall have her way (Ibsen 2.385).” When Torvald says this he sees his wife as a child and not an adult. He does not see her as capable as himself, therefor he does not share responsibilities. This makes him treat her like a child, and he tries to play her into doing what he thinks the story would be best doing. She even says “Surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa (Ibsen 2.217).” She even refers to her relationship with her husband being like her relationship with her dad. It shows that she has respect for her husband like her father, and that she listens to any command he may bark at her.

When we think about dolls, we think about being very playful and childish. Nora Helmer is just that, a playful, childish person. She is in her own little dream world. Since Nora does not get out much and does not have a job, she is very clueless about the outside world. She is married and she has three children. Nora is married to Torvald Helmer. At the start of the play, Christmas is just around the corner, and Torvald is promoted at the bank. Nora is excited when she finds out about Torvald’s promotion Nora is a very dependent character in the beginning of the play. Nora is seen as a pushover by everyone. Her husband uses her and expects her to do exactly what he says, but that does not always happen. In the play Nora changes a lot throughout.

When examining the different characters in A Doll’s House, Nora is by far the most interesting character in the play. She becomes the central character who is portrayed as a “doll” for her husband, Torvald, to dress up, show off, and give direction to. Over the course of A Doll’s House, Nora seems to be happily married in the beginning of the play towards the middle, however she begins to change towards the end. Nora played out to not be as happy as she seemed, therefore she just put on for the people and to show status.

Ibsen's A Doll House is set in the 19th century, but women are still seen as property of their husbands. They are restricted to household chores and child care. In the beginning of the play the Helmers are the typical family. Torvald Helmer, the husband, is the bread winner of the family, while his wife Nora stays home, plays with the children, and shops for items for the house and herself. Nora is the protagonist and readers are invested in her interests. From the start of the play readers can see that Torvald treats Nora like a child and is patronizing her constantly. His use of pet names and the rules and restrictions he places on her are not appropriate treatment for a fully-grown woman. Nora even admits to Dr. Rank "that with Torvald it's just the same as with Papa" (Ibsen, 240). She plays into the idea that he has some power over her by asking for his opinion on the things. Which may be a tactic to maintain her naive appearance. If she can lead Torvald to believe that she is incapable of simple things like dressing herself, he would never suspect her of being capable of fraud and deception. She even states at one point: "Torvald, I couldn't get anywhere without your help" (Ibsen 461).

In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, there are three major references in the play that explain Ibsen’s thoughts on both gender and societal roles for when of the past and present; these three references are to dolls, to animals such as skylarks and squirrels, and to children. Nearing the end of the story, Nora reveals that she feels similarly towards Torvald as she did to her father: “But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Papa’s doll child; and here the children have been my dolls” (67) Ibsen’s reference to Nora being a doll demonstrates the limited lives of women during this time; it shows that women weren’t meant to have their own lives; a man should control them in order to survive. Throughout the play, Torvald continuously refers to Nora as his “little squirrel” or his “little skylark” (2). Ibsen uses these references to symbolize the inferiority of women and superiority of men during the 19th century. Similarly, Torvald as refers to Nora as being like a child, also pointing to the fact that societal roles during that time meant that women were seen as helpless without the guidance of a man.

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:

In A Doll House, Ibsen presents us with Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have lived together for eight years and still don't know each other. This rift in their relationship, caused in part by Torvald's and Nora's societally-induced gender roles and also by the naivete of both parties to the fact that they don't truly love one another, expands to a chasm by the end of the play, ultimately causing Nora to leave Helmer. Throughout most of the play, Ibsen continually has his characters prepare for a masquerade ball that takes place at their friends' house.

Playing many different characters is what Henrik Ibsen’s meant to do in A Doll House. The main characters fool people into believing they are someone other than their true selves. Nora plays her role flawlessly as she pretends to be living two different lives. Nora is Torvalds devoted and self-indulgent wife, but naively enough, she doesn’t realize she is a courageous, self-sufficient women. As the character’s progress so does Nora’s personality, she goes from a fun-loving, trophy wife that is admired by Torvalds and his friends, to a self-empowered, edger women. At first Nora is compliant, money-hungry and immature wife. Nora only acts as though she only wants money from Torvalds. She is always asking for money as a gift for her Christmas present. But littles does the audience know that this is just a role she is playing in her house. As the play progresses, Nora exhibits that she is not a “Silly Girl” (Henrik Ibsen) P. 1493 as she is always called by her husband. When Nora took out a loan from a well to do business man Krogstad to save her husband’s life threating illness, she understood the business details that involved the debt and she a smart and very skillful women she is not just a housewife. Over the years she has worked and hide money to pay back the loan she had borrowed and she would hide it from her husband and this shows that she has perseverance and drive. “They all think I am incapable of anything really serious.”