Marxist Reading Of A Doll's House

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.

Act I of the play begins on Christmas Eve. Nora enters the living room of the Helmer household, which also serves as the setting for the entire play. Upon Nora’s arrival, Torvald comes out of his study to greet her but ends up lecturing her about spending too much money on the Christmas gifts. During this initial conversation, and throughout the rest of the play, Torvald refers to Nora as a lark, a squirrel, a spendthrift, and a featherhead. These pet names are the first examples of Nora’s childish treatment by Torvald. At the end of Torvald’s lecture, we are made aware of his most important rule, “No debt, no borrowing”. When asked what she would like for Christmas, Nora asks Torvald for money. Torvald lectures Nora about her spending habits again but brushes it off as one of the traits she inherited from her

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.

Torvald says “That’s just like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know how I feel about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can’t be any freedom or beauty in a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have managed to stay on the straight road so far, and we’ll go on the same way for the short time that we still have to be careful.” Nora responds saying “As you wish, Torvald.” When saying this Nora is very upset and pouting because she feels disrespected in the way Torvald was talking to her and believes that she is right and Torvald is wrong. She thinks the debt shouldn’t be something of their worries because he will be earning a large salary at his new job that could pay off the loan very quickly. But, because she doesn’t want to go against her husband she agrees and says what she says to avoid conflict. Torvald feels bad and because of it gives her money to spend on Christmas gifts. Then after giving her the money he tells her that she is very wasteful with her money and that same trait runs throughout her family. He basically just disrespected Nora and her father to her face and she sat there and just quietly smiled and said “Ah I wish to inherit a lot of Papa’s traits.” She is agreeing with him that she is very wasteful with her money and that she doesn’t care, instead of standing up for herself and telling him that she spends money on things that she feels are a necessity to her. Throughout the rest of this act Nora never gains the

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

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

Nora, the innocent little housewife, starts off as a harmless little doll but soon changes. She is Torvald’s perfect wife in the beginning of the play, but little does he know that she has a mind of her own and isn’t really his little doll. The opening of Nora’s ulterior personality starts when she opens up to Mrs. Linde (Act 1). Nora bleeds to Mrs. Linde her financial problems with the trip that she spent two hundred and fifty pounds on, on her husband. Being the reader, I was shocked to hear so knowing how harmless and perfect Nora appeared to be. Then later on, the plot unfolds and reveals the incriminating fact that Nora had been owing Krogstad this money the whole time and had been paying him back in increments with the allowance given to her by Torvald. It is crazy that Nora had been so sneaky all along and had been keeping it away from Torvald all along. Nora is then stuck in a dilemma when Krogstad blackmailed her by telling her that she has to get his job back or he’ll reveal the whole thing to

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.

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 thought she did the right thing by borrowing money when Helmer was sick and not telling him. She knows that it was illegal to forge her father’s signature but feels that this crime should not apply to her because she had the good intention of helping her husband get well. This can be seen as an example of the subordinate position of women in society. Nora was thinking of the well being of her husband, while not thinking about the rules of the business world which is where men had all of the power at the time and even today. This is evident when Krogstad, the man she borrowed money from, comes to meet with Nora with the forged loan to discuss what she has done.

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.

Through every character and every lie in the play, Nora realizes that she has lived a sheltered life. She had always lived under a man's roof where she was dependent on that man, first her father, and then her husband, Torvald. Nora realizes she is sheltered from the world and dependent on her husband, first when she talks to the maid, who left her children to get a job, then when she talks to Kristine, who is an independent woman seeking employment. Also, the conflict of Nora borrowing money made Nora realize she is Torvalds’s doll that he bosses around and plays house with. She does not think that borrowing money to save her husband's life could be a crime, which leads her to realize that she does not understand the world outside the walls of her house. This all leads up to Nora’s decision to leave her husband and children behind so that she can grow into an independent woman.

Nora's unusual behavior doesn't meet the norms of society. Ibsen displays this when Nora borrows money to care for Torvold and the kids. "How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald with his manly independence to know that he owed me anything," Nora says when discussing the issue with Mrs. Linde. Here Nora reveals that borrowing is an action that is negative within society, but, Ibsen also insinuates with this comment that being in debt to a woman as a man is a semblance of shame. Ibsen uses Nora to reveal that, in general, women are less than men in the late 19th century. Furthermore, in the conversation between Nora and Mrs. Linde, Nora expresses her experience of working to pay off her debt as "...almost like being a man". Ibsen unveils the taboo of women working in society. He is able to show the roles household roles of men and women. The statement Nora said exhibits men as breadwinners and women as the caregivers.

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.

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.