Use of Symbols in Ibsen's Play, A Doll's House Essay

Henrik Ibsen uses several different stylistic devices in A Doll’s House. The author’s choice of writing this piece as a play is to emphasize interactions between various

Animal imagery in Henrick Ibsen's play, A Doll's House is a critical part of the character development of Nora, the protagonist.

Diction – Most of Ibsen word choice is ironic, particular, and precise with a touch of satire. Most of Torvalds’s lines are said in one way but interpreted in another, especially when he speaks to Nora. To him, he’s just calling her cute little pet names like “ My little skylark,” or “My little songbird,” but to her, it feels like he’s talking to her as if she were mere child. Specific words such as “child” or “naive”(said by M. Linde), or “little”, “obstinate”, “helpless”, and “childish”(said by Torvald) further explains their perception of her personality and persona. Ibsen didn’t place them in for cute little pet names; almost

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

Each and everytime he speaks with her, Torvald has a new pet name for her. Towards the beginning of the play, Torvald says to Nora, “Is that my little lark twittering in there (Ibsen 969)?” By calling her a ‘little lark,’ he is addressing her as if she were small and helpless. This is how an adult would speak to a child. Torvald also chastises Nora, as if she were his own child, making mistakes and doing bad things. After Nora lies about something, Torvald says, “My little songbird must never do that again. Songbirds are supposed to have clean beaks to chirp with - no false notes (Ibsen 987).” A Doll House becomes confusing at times because the reader may feel as though Torvald were speaking to a child and not his wife. This creates immense significance for the title due to Torvald’s controlling actions and Nora’s doll-like

Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a controversial play focusing on the marriage of Nora and Torvald Helmer. The play is filled with symbols that represent abstract ideas and concepts. These symbols effectively illustrate the inner conflicts that are going on between the characters. Henrik Ibsen’s use of symbolism such as the Christmas tree, the locked mailbox, the Tarantella, Dr. Rank’s calling cards, and the letters allows him to give a powerful portrayal to symbolize aspects of characters and their relationship to each other.

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.

Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” a nineteenth century play successfully uses symbolism to express many characteristics of Helmer’s life, together with the way that the main character Nora feels towards her marriage at the end of the play. Ibsen’s use of symbolism to convey about the social setting, including the harsh male-controlled Danish society, seen mostly in Torvald in the play and the role of women, signified mostly in Nora. These symbols act as foretelling before the tragic events at the end of the play, as they show the problems which lead to the demise of the Helmer’s ‘perfect’ family life.

    A bird may have beautiful wings, but within a cage, the beautiful wings are useless. Within the cage, the bird is not fulfilling the potential for which it was created - it is merely a household decoration.  In Ibsen's symbolic play A Doll House, Nora is the bird, and her marriage is the cage. Externally, Nora is a beautiful creature entertaining her husband with the beautiful images of a docile wife, but internally, she is a desperate creature longing to explore her potential outside the cage of her marriage. In a society dominated by the expectations of men, Nora must choose between the obligations determined by her role as wife in opposition to the obligations of self, in

In Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”, the Christmas tree is a centrally important stage property used to symbolize Nora’s duplicity, reflect the disintegration of the facade of the perfect marriage as well as the fate of the Helmer family, and mirror Nora’s self-image. The state of the Christmas tree transitions from a plain fir tree at the beginning of Act I, to a decorated Christmas tree towards the end of Act I, then finally to a dishevelled tree at the beginning of Act II. Such transition in its appearance on-stage symbolises significant changes that happens in the Helmer household over the Christmas season. The decoration of the Christmas tree symbolizes Nora’s duplicity as being both a seemingly compliant housewife, and a tactfully manipulative

Nora and Krogstad’s first encounter in Act One of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, is significant to the plot as the main source of conflict is revealed whilst the central theme of deceit is enhanced through the use of dramatic irony. Throughout their conversation, Ibsen uses language devices to explore the characterisation and parallels between Nora and Krogstad and to foreshadow and detail Nora’s awakening at the end of the play.

A doll house is based on Nora understanding how she feels about her relationship with her husband Torvald. The play opens up with Nora arriving home from Christmas shopping, excited to show her husband what she has purchased. Torvald will be getting a promotion at his bank so Nora feels that she gets to splurge a little on gifts. Torvald calls Nora a child, spendthrift, and a lark for her actions on spending a lot of money. Torvald teases Nora and compares her to her father by saying the following:

This contrast is evident within nearly all of Nora and Torvald’s interactions, such as his referring to her as ‘girl’ and his almost constant condescending tone

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.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, the play is framed around symbolism and its irony.