To Be a Doll Essay

She gains her independence and saves her husband. However, her reputation is nearly destroyed after Torvald finds out she forged the letter. Nora asking, “It is indiscreet, to save your husband’s life,” knows that she sacrificed a lot to save Torvald (Ibsen 1029). Nora believes she saved Torvald’s life, she also believes that if he knew then their lives would never be the same. If Torvald knew Nora had taken out a loan, he would feel indebted to her and that would be humiliating to his masculinity, while disrupting their “happy” home life. However, Nora relinquished many of the things that meant a lot to her. Nora forged her father’s signature risking her and Torvald’s reputation. She also takes on all the debt herself, paying it off with her spending money. Nora will not be able to buy as much for herself with the debt revealing her willingness to sacrifice wealth for Torvald’s wellbeing. Just as Cyrano sacrifices his life to send letters to Roxane, Nora sacrifices her happiness and reputation to save Torvald. This shows Nora’s devotion and unconditional love towards Torvald. Both Cyrano and Nora are risking their lives for someone they love. As Cyrano repeatedly risks his life for Roxane, Nora feels as though her “duties to herself” are more valuable than her devotion to anyone else as she states, “aren’t they your duties to your husband and children?... Duties to myself…” (1076). Nora has gone through a kind

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer is a traditional “angel in the house” she is a human being, but first and foremost a wife and a mother who is devoted to the care of her children, and the happiness of her husband. The play is influenced by the Victorian time period when the division of men and women was evident, and each gender had their own role to conform to. Ibsen’s views on these entrenched values is what lead to the A Doll’s House becoming so controversial as the main overarching theme of A Doll’s House is the fight for independence in an otherwise patriarchal society. This theme draws attention to how women are capable in their own rights, yet do not govern their own lives due to the lack of legal entitlement and

When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fakes as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.

Nora finds strength in realizing her failure, resolving to find herself as a human being and not in what society expects of her. Nora’s recognition comes when Torvald so

Nora is motivated throughout the story to be according to her "free," however, she does not only want to be free of the loan she is owning to Krogstad, she wants to be free from her father and husband's control. Throughout the story, Nora feels as if she has always been treated like a doll child first by her father and then by her husband and is never given the opportunity to evolve as an individual and become a woman who has the potential to be independent and forceful (Yuehua 83). The perfect example her attempt to fulfill her potential as a woman is when she first borrows the loan from Krogstad by forging her dying father's signature. Although she knows her act is wrong and against the law, she still goes on with a naïve challenge to Krogstad during their encounter about the forged signature

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

During this period, women were subjected in their gender roles and were restricted over what the patriarchal system enforced on them. Everyone was brought up believing that women had neither self-control nor self-government but that they must capitulate to the control of dominate gender. The ideology that “God created men and women different - … [and they should] remain each in their own position.” (eHow, Ibsen's Influences on Women's Rights) is present in A Doll’s House with Nora’s character, as she is seen as the ideal women during the Victorian Era, who is first dutiful as wife and mother before to her own self. Whenever Torvald gives Nora money, she spends it on her children so that they are not “shabbily dressed” (Act 1). Though she loves her children it is all the more shocking when she leaves them.

While Mrs. Wright lashes out against her perceived cage, her gender role, by killing Mr. Wright, Nora’s character ultimately decides to trip the latch, to fly free from the bars. Nora’s complex personality proves to be difficult to predict to the very end, when she decides to shirk her duties to her husband and children to focus on herself, to serve her own needs for individuality, a decision that was not entirely popular with readers and audiences alike. Indeed, Nora quite easily refuses to be the “doll” in Torvald’s house, and abandons her loving, though misguided husband, and her children. She feels driven to do this once she realizes that she and Torvald had never exchanged a serious word in

Torvald berates Nora about her physical appearance, saying, "Has my little sweet tooth been indulging herself in town today by any chance? ..." (Act 1). Nora often sneaks macaroons, because she can not eat them in front of Torvald for fear of his disapproval. Torvald is very particular about Noras figure, as he wants her to stay small, dainty, and delicate. This is Ibsen showing the “role” of the male in that society. He has to always be in control, and for Torvald, his and Nora’s image are the most important things in the world, whether it was Nora’s figure or the fact that Nora forged her father’s signature to obtain the secret loan, which angers Torvald a great deal.

Ibsen’s character Nora in A Doll’s House, shows gradual development throughout the play to support his theme that above all else, you are human; even in marriage both parties should be given the equal opportunities, rights and respect. While Nora may at first seem happy with her life inside her “doll house”, she begins to recognize that she must find herself, and stop being a toy in the lives of men.

However, Nora does eventually realize that she has been treated like a child all her life and has been denied the right to think and act the way she wishes. When Torvald does not immediately offer to help Nora after Krogstad threatens to expose her, Nora realizes that there is a problem. By waiting until after he discovers that his social status will suffer no harm, Torvald reveals his true

Nora plays the part of a slave in her subservience to her husband, for she is supposed to

   In his play, A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen depicts a female protagonist, Nora Helmer, who dares to defy her husband and forsake her "duty" as a wife and mother to seek out her individuality. A Doll's House challenges the patriarchal view held by most people at the time that a woman's place was in the home. Many women could relate to Nora's situation. Like Nora, they felt trapped by their husbands and their fathers; however, they believed that the rules of society prevented them from stepping out of the shadows of men. Through this play, Ibsen stresses the importance of women's individuality. A Doll's House combines realistic characters, fascinating imagery, explicit stage directions, and

Ibsen uses Torvald’s study to symbolize male dominance and superiority in order to connect to the theme of social oppression towards women. The first scene develops this symbol through Nora and Torvald conversation in the study. Nora enters his study to ask for spending money, but she must perform childish tricks as payment.

As act I of “A Doll’s House” begins, the scene is set to impress the audience “with vivid descriptions of a room “furnished with taste, but nothing too extravagant”. (Ibsen) The first to enter is Nora. Nora walks in with her arms full of bags after shopping, and her husband, Torvald calls from another room to make sure it is her he hears coming through the door. Torvald sets limits on Nora’s spending; he treats her as both a child and a doll. The way in which the characters in the play treat, and react to one another, shows the selfish intentions in which the expectations of society hold of them.