Henrik Ibsen 's A Doll House

Humanism is an idea which focuses on the importance of oneself, rather than the importance of divine or supernatural matters. Humanism is often mistaken for feminism which is one of the major controversies of A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. The idea of humanism becomes apparent through Nora’s interactions with Torvald, Torvald’s interactions with Nora, and Torvald’s interactions with other characters in the play. Many argue that A Doll House, is a feminist play due to its portrayal of the characters which emphasized many values of feminism, but in actuality the play addresses views on the value of dignity in one’s character and the need for one’s identity to be found based on positive choices which defines humanism. Ibsen was able to develop the idea that A Doll House was a humanist play through the way characters made decisions within their lives, even though within the play there were related notions of feminism.

In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, pointedly captures the reality of the Victorian Era within the play. Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the story, represents the typical women in society during that era. The audience’s first impression of Nora is a money obsessed, childish, obedient house wife to her husband, Torvald Helmer. However, as the play progresses one can see that Nora is far from being that typical ideal trophy wife, she is an impulsive liar who goes against society’s norm to be whom and what she wants. Her husband is illustrated as the stereotypical man during the 19th century, as he is the dominate breadwinner of the family, who too deserts his position as the play reaches its end. A key theme that is brought to light in A

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.

The play A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen) is centered around the lives of the antagonist, Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora Helmer. Torvald is deemed as the antagonist based on the belief that he is a power hungry misogynist whilst his wife naturally becomes the protagonist, as her husband does not treat her as an equal. The entire play itself is submerged in the issue of individual versus society. Women and men during the Victorian Era were known to have two separate callings known as separate spheres. The idea of separate spheres is based on the ‘natural’ characteristics of men and women. It is said that women are weaker and more moral thus they are more suited for the domestic sphere whilst men were to be the breadwinner and labour all day.” Ibsen uses interpellation in his play to allow for an even deeper insight and understanding of Torvald Helmer’s life. Interpellation is an ideology/philosophical ideal that has two forms: Repressive State Apparatuses and Ideological State Apparatuses. Repressive State Apparatus deals with persons being subject to ideologies or certain principles solely because it is seemingly the norm whilst

Nora has another side to her personality that is more clever and independent. Nora is proud about this side of her personality. She tries to hide things from Torvald, because her role in their marriage is to only serve Torvald and not to take care of any financial matters. When talking to her friend Mrs. Linde, Nora says, “I’ve also got something to be proud and happy for” (Ibsen 1253). Nora is referring to the fact that she borrowed money from Krogstad in order to pay for a trip to heal her sick husband. She told Torvald that she got the money for the trip from her father. However, in reality she borrowed the money all by herself. She is very proud about the fact that she did financial business on her own. Even though she is proud of this secret, she makes sure to hide it from Torvald. She tells Mrs. Linde, “Not so loud. What if Torvald

Henrick Ibsen 's A Doll House chronicles the difficulties of Nora Helmer, a housewife who is hiding a secret from her overbearing husband. In an effort to save her ailing husband 's life, Nora illegally took out a loan by forging her father 's signature on a contract. Nora kept this secret to herself for years and the only other person who knew of the scheme was the man who helped Nora obtain the loan: Nils Krogstad. The trouble for Nora began when Krogstad blackmailed her with this information in the hope of preventing Nora 's husband, who is also Krogstad 's boss, from firing him. Isn 't a man who would instill this type of burden on another person 's life a morally reprehensible human being? In reality, things are not as clear cut,

What comes to mind when the word morals is said? Whose morals should be followed, individual or group? In A Doll House, Ibsen portrays the protagonist, Nora, to follow the morals of her husband, Torvald. Four key aspects that help Nora decide to change her mind and make a decision to leave Torvald. These include the constant change of nicknames, the questioning of her own independence, the questioning of Torvald's love, and the realization that Torvald loves his reputation more then herself. As a result, Nora sets out to find her own individuality and moral beliefs.

A Doll House showcases the harsh reality and truth of someone being something that they are not, and it shows the journey that Nora Helmer has to take to realize what she wants in life to find the real her. Throughout the play A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, we learn about the main character and her qualities. Nora Helmer is the wife of Torvald Helmer, who became very unhealthy. By trying to help her husband’s health, Nora begins going into debt and commits a criminal offense, forgery; she does all this for the man that she loves. Nora has many challenges and difficulties to deal with during the play. Nora goes from being a childish and scatter minded woman to one that knows what she wants in life and shows us that she has more wisdom than we had first thought.

Imagine living in a world where one is looked down on just for being a specific gender. Where people do not care what opinion one has about anything because they already assume there is no possibility of any thought in mind. It does not seem like an ideal way to live, but that is how women felt in Norway, as well as around the world, in the late 1870’s. Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, “A Doll House,” demonstrates how women wore a façade in society when dealing with men, through the main character Nora. In the play “A Doll House”, the reader can have an idea on how some men in the late 1870s in Norway act towards women. After the people of Norway read and viewed the play, there was a lot of controversy over “A Doll House”, because of the main character Nora decisions. Ibsen himself stated that “for him the issue was more complex than just women 's rights and that he hoped to illuminate the problem of human rights” (Literature Resource Center).

In the nineteenth century, women were supposed to be housewives and mothers, and do whatever their husbands wanted. Men on the other hand were expected to live a public life, whether it was working in a factory or socializing. Women had no rights to say anything without their husband’s permission, at least which was the perception of society. The women duties were cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children, on their free times they have to sew clothes and doing laundry, so there is no social life for women. In the middle of the nineteenth century women when Henrik Ibsen 1 wrote one of his play, A Doll’s House: According to Shideler, Ross. A Doll’s House was published on “December 4, 1879

By exemplifying the oppressive situation and diminished value of women in the 1800s of Victorian society in the captivating play A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen portrays the life of a woman, whose entire existence is a build of societal guidelines, coming to the realization that her life is a pretense, propelling her into rebellion. Nora, a defiant wife, mother, and daughter of Victorian society, who is reduced to a mere plaything, struggles against the unjust constraints of social conformity, ultimately rejecting her oppressive marriage and life, freeing herself from the norms of society. Throughout the play, Nora rebels against the inequitable constraints of society and her oppressive husband in symbolic ways including, the things she says, her neurotic habits of behavior,

In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, the roles of masculinity and femininity as apparent in Nora Helmer and Torvald Helmer appear, though in a way one would not expect-- Nora being masculine and Torvald being feminine. Throughout the play, Nora is portrayed as defying societal standards of the Victorian Era, the time period which lasted from 1837-1941, by doing things that were not accepted by many people at the time, especially when she abandons Torvald at the end of the piece (BBC). From this, more masculine traits are presented in her characterization. In contrast, Torvald presents more feminine traits, especially proven by the aforementioned final scene, as he then realized how much he had relied on Nora for self-confirmation and his happiness. This is, additionally, present in Torvald’s use of pet names for Nora and treating her like a child, as a mother would to her child. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, the roles that Nora Helmer and Torvald Helmer are expected to appear as on the surface to fit into in a Victorian Society are challenged by Nora being more masculine, presenting traits like rebellion and independence and Torvald being more feminine such as being dependent on Nora and motherly.

and it is revealed that he is the one she borrowed money from and the

The play A Doll House was written and published in 1879 by Henrik Ibsen and is set in 19the century Norway. Having discussed Norway’s perception of women, religious beliefs, political and economic development over the 1800s as well as the life of Ibsen himself and his play’s influence on feminism in Norway. Personally, I found that I lacked cultural knowledge of women in Norwegian society during this time while reading the play. I learned that women in Norway’s patriarchal society lived their lives according to the societal expectations at the time. They were expected to tend to their husbands or fathers needs but had to make sure to be independent on male figures. Both married and unmarried women had gender-specific roles and responsibilities whereby they had little rights to do otherwise until well into the 20th century. This led to the discussion of feminism in Norway. The subject of feminism was mentioned to have been increasing in popularity since the mid-1800s. Since Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was written for the cause of women, it had a huge influence on progression of feminism into the 20th century by raising awareness on contradicting Norway’s society norms. It was important to discuss the culture and context of the play since its plot and premise was based on a real-life event because Nora was based on a friend of Ibsen’s, Laura, whose husband sent her to an asylum following her fall into debt on his behalf. Political and economic development of the time was

Nora tries to pay off a debt in secret while she puts on a smile to entertain her husband so he doesn’t find out what she did. To make sure he doesn’t she has to convince him not to fire one of his employees, Krogstand, or her secret will be out. Then she tries to maintain her friendship with their doctor, Dr. Rank, without complicating his relationship with Mr. Helmer and her by noticing his unappropriated feelings for her. And sustaining her other friendship with Christine, her childhood friend. After her version of betrayal by her husband Nora tries to overcome her urge to commit to suicide. Then she comes to the decision that she was playing a role and she needs to find herself. In his world, Torvald was recently promoted so he needs to maintain social hierarchy and at home he has to entertain his wife with her spending habits and sweet tooth. So he is really oblivious to her antics