Marxist Reading Of A Doll's House

For every decision and action a person makes, he/she always has an intention and motivation to do so. Nora Helmer and Hester in the works A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence face choices related to finances. Due to the differences in severity and inspiration for money between the two, Nora can be used as a lens to better fathom the selfishness and greed of Hester’s actions in relation to riches. Moreover, the theme of money in A Doll’s House sheds light on this same theme in “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” especially as it pertains to these characters. While both Nora and Hester adore wealth, Nora’s attitude toward money is selfless, whereas Hester’s outlook is self-indulgent; this is seen through what the characters do with the money, how their perspectives develop regarding wealth, and how they are viewed by other characters.

Helmer hates to borrow money his beliefs doesn’t permit to depend on someone else money. He was raised with other beliefs and moral, a good man is supposed to take care of his family, not the family taking care of him. When he finds out the truth about the money he gets out of control, his wife disobey him. She went

Firstly, Nora and Torvald have different opinions regarding money: he upholds that borrowing is never an alternative to financial problems, but acknowledges that Nora does not follow this rule. Torvald believes she cannot help her tendency of over-spending, describing it as a hereditary condition: "It is in the blood; for indeed it is true that you can inherit these things, Nora." (p 9). She has been content to maintain her secret of borrowing money from Krogstad without her husband’s consent. This allows her husband to think of her as a possession and an expense, as "One would hardly believe how expensive such little persons are." (p 8). This becomes the main source from which the play 's tension originates. This is essential, as Nora’s terror of Torvald uncovering this secret causes her to weave an increasingly unstable web of lies, which subsequently collapses around her

Nora proceeds to apologize and plays the role of the obedient wife. Nora has the right to spend extra money after what she has been through for the first few years of marriage. Nora and Torvald were very poor. Torvald also became sick and had to travel to Italy to recover. Nora secretly and illegally got a loan to pay for the trip to Italy. During the time setting of the play, women weren’t allowed to do certain things without their husband’s permission such as take out loans. Nora has been working extra hard to pay back her debt and the promotion that Torvald will receive will help Nora become debt free.

Nora begins to confide in Dr. Rank because she feels she can trust him with any secrets. Nora knows that she cannot go to her husband and communicate with him because Helmer will blow up on her. Nora says “But I often talk about things like that with Dr. Rank because he listens to me.” How can a wife say that about another man? Nora talks to Dr. Rank about her secrets that have come up because she knows Dr. Rank will listen to her unlike Helmer. Dr. Rank portrays that he is jealous of Mrs. Linde, Nora’s friend. Dr. Rank does not like the fact that she comes over everyday just to sit and talk with Nora. Nora says “I know you are my best friend, my truest friend.” Nora is deeply connected with Dr. Rank. Nora feels completely open and forward with Dr. Rank unlike her husband. Helmer tends to be possessive and strict over the things she does.

     Most of us live a life where we do what we want and when we want without anyone telling us how to live our lives. This wasn’t the case in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, where he illustrates to us how one woman lives a life through her father and husband. Throughout the play we see how a once childish like woman gains her independence and a life of her own. Ibsen shows us a very realistic play that demonstrates how on the outside Nora and Torvald seem to have it all. While in reality their life together is simply empty until Nora stands up for herself and starts to build her own 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.

In the book A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen there was thoughts alluding to the play being based off of feminism. At the University of Salahaddin two English professors Saman Salah Hassan Balaky and Nafser Abdul Mosawir Suilaiman wrote an article called, “A Feminist Analysis of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House”. They had three points that analyzed about the A Doll House, which were the Feminist Literary Theory, Ibsen as a feminist, and a feminist analysis of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was a controversial play for its time because it questioned society's basic rules and norms. Multiple interpretations can be applied to the drama, which allows the reader to appreciate many different aspects of the play. This paper examines how both Feminist and Marxist analyses can be applied as literary theories in discussing Ibsen's play because both center on two important subject matters in the literary work: the roles of women in a male-dominated society, and, the power that money has over people.

When Nora borrowed money from Krogstad it was in efforts to save her husband. This passion got her in trouble because it went against her responsibilities as a wife. Helmer was a very prideful man. Having his wife do his biddings would embarrass him. Borrowing money was also a big thing that Helmer absolutely was not okay with.

In life they're will always be people who will deceive you in a variety of ways and their motives will try to justify those actions. In "A Doll's House," Nora deceived Helmer in result of her selfishness and immaturity. It began with small, innocent, white lies about her consumption of macaroons into the reader's realization that Nora had lied to Helmer about the fact that she had borrowed money and more specifically that she had forged her way into borrowing money from Krogstad. Although, Nora did save Helmer from dying, it didn't make it right for Nora to keep this from him and almost costing Helmer his job.

Throughout Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, the protagonist, Nora Torvald, is seemingly in a constant scramble both after and away from the dangers of currency. As the play progresses, Nora explains her paradox; she illegally forged her father’s signature in order to secure a loan, but this loan was necessary to save her husband’s life. In Nora’s blissful ignorance, she believed that forging her deceased father’s signature would fail to have any consequences. Part of her ignorance arose from the mass of wealth her husband, Helmer Torvald, provided for her. In the play, Helmer had recently risen to the position of bank manager, benefitting from the time period’s rapidly growing economy.

Nora then has to keep her husband from knowing about the loan, and doing many things such as dancing with him. The play also pivots on the point that Nora is in a struggle to gain power from her husband. In a relationship the power needs to be shared between the participants. Nora does all she can to gain power which includes lying to her husband and always asking for money from him. She does many things that deceive him, and it is all about who has the power. Nora just wants her husband to respect her and know that she can be independent without him, and to have a miracle where he shares all his

Furthermore, Ibsen uses the conversation between Nora and Krogstad to illuminate the theme of deceit. Deceit is the central theme of the play with the spiral of devious events undertaken by Nora becoming at catalyst for her awakening. The theme is prominently illuminated during the first conversation between Nora and Krogstad with it being revealed Krogstad lent Nora the money she sought to save Torvalds life, ‘you came to me to borrow two hundred and fifty pounds.’ This heightens the climax as the reveal of Nora’s loan juxtaposes Torvalds negative values on borrowing money, ‘No debts! Never borrow! A home that is founded on debts and borrowing can never be a place of freedom and beauty.’ However, even though Nora disobeyed Torvalds central rule of borrowing money, her act of deceit was committed for ‘moral’ reasons as she had to save his life provoking the audience to

When Nora confesses to her friend Mrs. Linden what she had done, she does not seams worry or ashamed because as she explained the money was used to save her husband’s life. Nora worked in the house copying books to get money to pay the loan, and every time she went clothe shopping she would save half of the money. Now we can understand why in act one we see Nora asking for money and when her husband asked her what she wanted as a Christmas present, she also asked for money.