Social Role In A Doll's House

In the play “A Doll’s House” written by Henrik Ibsen Nora is an iconic character who happens to fall victim to being a doll. This play took place in the mid 1900s, where women were expected to do anything there husband asked of them and supported everything they did or said. She is a very dynamic character because her personality changes and mindset changes throughout the story, causing her actions to change. As the story begins, she acts like a child and is afraid to speak up and say what she believes because she doesn’t want to go against her father’s or husband’s word. But towards the end of the story she does what she pleases and doesn’t feel the need to answer to anyone or justify her decisions, causing her to be at fault in some ways.

Torvald would never have thought she were capable of it, since during that era it was unrealistic of women to leave their houses but rather put up with the difficulties they faced. Ibsen highlights society's domineering outlooks of marriage and the interactions of two people naïvely pretending to be in love. Throughout the play Ibsen reveals the fragile attributes of his characters to help enhance the play-like nature of their relationship, the role of women, and Nora's course of self-discovery.

In the beginning, Nora and Torvald's relationship appeared to be a good marriage according to the principles of the time. However, this marriage was based on fairly different and unequal roles. Torvald is a banker and he holds the power of the house as a man. He is very much concerned about his status and value in the society. Nora is a housewife who is supposed to take care of her husband and children. Torvald understands that Nora needs his guidance with every decision she makes and he treats

In A Doll House, Nora finds herself subordinate to her husband as well as the rules of society. Torvald forbids her from the consumption of macarons, bestows on her an allowance as if she were a child, persuades her to do as he wishes, dance like this, not like that, and she like a “good little lark” obeys his most every will. Her act of courage and independence, illegally taking out a loan to save his life, is seen as wrong in the eyes of society, while she sees it as necessary and forgivable; it is what a good wife should do for her husband.

In “A Doll’s House”, Torvald and Nora each have a unique role in their marriage. Torvald treats Nora as his little doll, or plaything, while Nora treats him as the man of the house who has the authority to do anything he wants. These ideas form because the society within the play does not allow much freedom for women. According to this society and culture, a women’s role is depicted by the man she is with, the female character’s all exemplify Nora’s assertion that women have to sacrifice a lot more than men. In this play, Nora, Mrs. Linde, and the maid all hold sacrificial roles depicted by the society they

In this day and age, it was normal to husbands to take the leadership role and to treat their wives as property. Although she recognized Torvald was controlling for so long, she never wanted to hurt his ego. She had once said, “He has such strict rules about these sorts of things. And, well, like most men, Torvald has his pride” (Ibsen 28).

Another main difference between Torvald and Nora is how much their self-image matters to them individually. Nora's self-image is the complete opposite of Torvalds. From Nora's perspective she doesn't have much of an image to produce, but she does have the image of herself that Torvald can see along with her close friends. She really cares about what her husband thinks about her so she does whatever she can to make sure that his opinion doesn’t change, she gets worried by how she will look in his eyes after he finds out about the crime she has committed, this is why she tries to stop Torvald from sending Krogstad his notice, "Call it back, Torvald! There's still time. Oh, Torvald, call it back!..."(1304) Nora acts like this because once Torvald finds out what she has done, she knows that he is going to look at her a different way than what he does now. Nora doesn’t want this so she tries preventing Torvald from doing his job. On the other hand, Torvald cares a lot about the way others look at him, he thinks that once people find out what his wife has done that it will destroy his reputation and people will tend to look down upon him. When he finds out about what his wife has done

The play itself is named A Doll’s House, and Nora is the doll the title is referring to. While Torvald has control over her and is essentially the reason she is the way that she is, Nora exemplifies the meaning through her restricted life and the way she acts. She is moulded to be perfect in Torvald’s eyes, like a doll. With all of this taken into account, a very clear central theme is formed. The theme alludes to the prominence of gender roles during the time period in which the play was written, which made women have very little to no free will, and the problems that arose from this.

A Doll’s House finished with a tragic ending to a not so stable relationship. It all revolved around one secret that was hidden for too long between Nora, who was married to Torvald and Krogstad who is a good friend of her husband, though it was up to Krogstad whether to protect their marriage or not. Throughout the book it was easy to take sides from one character to the other. However some may think that Nora decided to end the marriage for good reasons. One of them being that she felt as if she wasn’t an equal more as if she were treated as a “doll”.

In the beginning of the play, Nora was a typical housewife for that time. She would obey her husband and never challenge him.Torvald her husband provides for her and the family, Nora doesn’t have to work she depends completely on her husband and enjoys spending his money on gifts and cloths. Because of that Nora lives to serve her husband even though he constantly belittles her and treats her like a little child that is very inferior to him. He calls her pet names like when he said in the first act “where’s my little squirrel”. Names like these may seem sweet but actually show how inferior and small he sees her.Torvald enjoys being the strong man that provides for his family and when Nora asks him for money or when he gives her money it feeds

“When I was home with Papa he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me his doll child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls” (Ibsen 66). Nora’s relationship with her husband was compared to that of her husband, showing truly how indecently both her father and husband had treated her within their normal family life. She wasn’t able to have her own opinion, and was shown disapproval for it. Hence, she was forced to create a personality to use around Torvald and also those who she wanted have the thought that they were indeed a perfect family.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the character Torvald illustrates a hostile husband to the main character Nora. Ibsen paints a picture of Torvald as a hostile and insensitive husband by writing that he doesn’t want to be bothered by Nora, and that he treats her like a child, and manipulates her.

Her action of borrowing money from Krogstad to save her husband’s life was clearly explained as a protest of feminism. She wanted to become more responsible in her family where the husband is normally responsible for the family. Nora changed her role through borrowing money, and arranging to pay debt which expresses her growing responsibility towards her family, and at last she walks out permanently from the house which shows her strength and power for freedom.

You settled everything according to your taste; and I got the same tastes as you…I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong. It’s your fault that my life has been wasted…[O]ur house has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa’s doll-child…I thought it fun when you played with me…

A Doll’s House is an example of a literacy work with numeral possible themes. The idea of the play is an expression of the need for women to escape from the confinement and restriction that they faced in nineteenth-century European society, it is supported by the condescending manner in which Torvald treats Nora and by his frequent references to the respective value of men and women. Another theme is in order for a marriage to be successful, the people involved should know and trust each other, show view each other as