...A Doll’s Transformation: Henrik Ibsen’s feminist heroine in A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is often considered one of the first feminist plays ever written, exposing, among other social commentary, women’s oppression and subordination through “the anatomy of a marriage where the wife was no more than a legal infant and her husband’s virtual slave” (Fjelde 475). Through one of history’s first female protagonists, Nora, Ibsen challenges the Victorian ideal of a woman’s role in her marriage and in society, painting a bleak picture of living life as a woman at the time. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen explores the sacrificial role of women in society, women’s oppression, and chauvinistic 19th century marriage customs through the life and transformation of his heroine, Nora. One tool Ibsen uses to present his feminist ideals is the theme of the sacrificial role that the play’s female characters must play. Nora has made a huge sacrifice in taking out a loan in secret and working to pay it back without allowing Helmer to find out; she has become a prisoner of her secret and of her necessity to pay off the loan with what little legal rights she possesses as a female in her society. Mrs. Linde, similarly, has made sacrifices as a woman, having found it necessary to abandon her true love and marry a wealthier man. The nanny, Anne-Marie, who proclaims she is a “poor girl “ and insinuates she had no other options, was forced to abandon her child to support...
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...inHenrick Ibsen’s Play, “A Doll’s House” Henrick Ibsen has outdone himself in his play “A Doll’s House”. Ibsen has refined and fine-tuned the taste and view of his plays with the use of different techniques, among them being Symbolism. Symbolism is among the most common techniques used in drama. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas and qualities, in an artistic and poetic style. It uses images, and indirect suggestions to express mystical ideas, emotions, suggestions and states of mind. Symbolism adds another layer of meaning to the meaning of script writing. While the clear, obvious meaning lies on the surface, symbolism is mostly hidden from the “front row” and it usually lies deeper than it seems. Ibsen utilizes symbolism in the play “A Doll’s House” with the purpose of revealing a certain character. In Nora’s character, Ibsen says that he used symbolism to develop her character and in the end the character’s qualities were incredibly outstanding that even the critics said it was an outstanding move. The play, “A Doll’s House,” revolves around the life of the two Main characters; TorvaldHelmer and his wife, Nora Helmer. They live in a “Doll looking House”, as it is symbolically represented by Ibsen. The play’ tittle, “A Doll’s House,” also symbolizes that all the people that live in Torvalds residence are “dolls.” Torvald plays with them when he pleases and ignores them when he has work to do or something else in his mind("Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House"). Torvald...
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...good man’s heart. Money can help feed, clothe and shelter people but it can also lead people to heinous acts that leave those closest to them shocked. The decisions people make in pursuit of monetary assets can potentially push their loved ones away; this is especially true when people become obsessed with the idea. Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” tells the story of a married couple that is eventually torn apart by money and the pursuit of it. Nora Helmer has been desperately working to pay back a loan she took out to pay for a trip to Italy when her husband was sick. Krogstad is blackmailing her about this to gain a higher position and Torvald, Nora’s husband, is ignorant of all of this. They are all committing acts that they would not normally do in pursuit of money. This drives a wedge between Nora and Torvald, and Krogstad’s pursuit of money had already injured his relationship with people in his past. Money has driven all of them to do things that have driven people away. This happens everywhere. The lust for money, even when it is for a supposedly good cause, will drive those a person loves the most away and this is portrayed perfectly in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”. The kind of hurt the hunt for money brings can be easily seen in the character of Krogstad. His love, Mrs. Linde, left him in pursuit of money and this left Krogstad devastated. She did this to support her family but her grab for money still hurt Krogstad profoundly. Krogstad claims that when Mrs. Linde left him...
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...Research question: Nora’s struggle to find her identity in the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s house is a play, which was written way ahead of its time. In the play Ibsen has highlighted that women’s right is a matter of importance. During that time women were considered a mere doll. A Doll’s house reflects the common society during that time period. Ibsen has tried to bring out the fact that during 19th century the role of a woman was to stay at home, raise her children and serve her husband. The same is expected by Nora Helmer, a character in A Doll’s House. She is portrayed as a victim of the 19th century woman. Michael Meyer has quoted, "The common denominator in many of Ibsen's dramas is his interest in individuals struggling for and authentic identity in the face of tyrannical social conventions. This conflict often results in his characters' being divided between a sense of duty to themselves and their responsibility to...
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...An Analysis of Act One Nora and Kristine Linde Henrik Ibsen can be considered one the most key influential figures in the development and motivation of theatre throughout history. An “ardent advocate of selffreedom, self-emancipation, and self-control”¹ Ibsen used his plays as a medium to challenge his audience about the flaws in their society, using his characters to mirror it and show the need for change. A Doll’s House is one of the most significant, and arguably the first, examples of Ibsen’s modernism, the protagonist, Nora, journeys throughout the play to become the ‘New Woman’ torn between society’s traditional values and her “duty to [herself].”² Transformation is one of the most important themes within A Doll’s House, and in fact in many of Ibsen’s plays, but for Ibsen to show his audience the benefits of this metamorphosis they must first witness the stages and reasons for development. Nora, the protagonist of this problem play, is the largest, but not only, character to show change and we can see this by contrasting the girlish Nora seen at the beginning of the play to the woman she has become by the end. One of the most important techniques Ibsen uses is that of “parallelisms”³ , each character appears to be paired with another and they have, essentially, a role reversal. For Nora her foil is Mrs Kristine Linde, an old school friend who has turned up on her doorstep out of the blue secretly in search of a job. MRS. LINDE [subdued and rather hesitantly]. How do...
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...Henrik Ibsen | Henrik Ibsen was born on the 20th March 1828 in Norway, He was born into a wealthy family but when he was about 8 years old his father went bankrupt and they had lost all their money. When Ibsen was growing up he never wanted to be a playwright, his dream job was to became a pharmacist but due to him failing his pharmacy exam he didn't pursue this career. After this he started to write poems and then he later on started to get into play righting. Ibsen had three main jobs, he was a playwright, a theatre director and a poet. He wrote it two main forms of acting which were Realism and naturalism and these two styles are very similar and try to make the play relatable and lifelike. Ibsen was a member of the modernist movement. And most of his plays were considered scandalous as they did not obey by the strict morals of family life during that period but Ibsen was very set on showing people the reality of life. ‘A doll’s House’ caused outrage and also sparked the feminist movement because it gave women a sense of hope .He is often known as ‘the Father of Realism’ because his plays explore and challenge the social norms of the time and were also highly realistic.He was knighted by the king of Sweden which almost kick started his career. He went from writing old, poetic folktales to writing realistic examinations of controversial social issues. * In Ibsen's career he had many influences such as William Shakespeare but a major influence on his life was his family....
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...While fighting for these rights, women characters in short stories, novels, plays, and even poetry were made to beat the odds of normalcy. In some instances, these women were portrayed as heroines. Three perfect examples of women characters before their time are Nora Helmer from A Doll’s House, Antigone from Antigone, and Emily Grierson from “A Rose for Emily.” These sapid characters, Antigone, Emily, and Nora, step from the normal roles as women and fight against all authority, stand up for what they believe in, and break the laws as they fall. To better understand the character, one must first understand the author and the time period in which the story was written. Sophocles wrote many dramatic plays including, Antigone. Sophocles, like many of his characters in his plays, was a hero of sorts. He held many public offices and was a general during the Samian War and the Archidamian War. “Sophocles was a priest of Halon and helped introduce the cult of Asclepius, god of medicine, to Athens” (Gill). He grew up in a town known as Colonus, but he stayed in Athens most of the time (Gill). His play, Antigone, was written in 441 B. C., in Ancient Greece. (Sophocles 1465) . In the dramatic play, Antigone, Antigone undergoes a deadly battle with her uncle, future father-in-law, and king, Creon. Antigone is considered a princess in the land of Thebes where her father, King Oedipus, once ruled. In this play, Antigone’s two brothers fight to the death for the throne. They kill each other...
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...In the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, the story follows Nora Helmer and the life she has with her husband Torvald Helmer, who treats her as if she is his doll. The play was written in 1879 and the play takes place in the same decade. Throughout the whole play, Henrik Ibsen demonstrates the importance that social class had in the nineteenth century. In addition to the importance of social class, Ibsen also reveals the role that people were expected to live up to during the nineteenth century. To express and show how it was during this time, Henrik Ibsen’s play shows how Nora and Torvald struggle to live in a society where you expected to act a certain way to uphold your social standing. The time that the play takes place is when there...
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...Ashley Griffin Professor Paulette J. Marek ENC1102 81 30 October 2013 Metaphors A Doll’s House is a play that is significant for its attitude toward the 19th Century Marriage norms. There is lots of controversy that talks about protagonist, Nora, Leaving her husband and children because she wanted to find out who she is as a person. Metaphors are use all the time in writing. The Pet name that torvald uses for Nora are metaphors for how women were treated during the Victorian era. I feel that the main idea of the author Ibsen’s work is all about metaphor that he uses in this drama The Doll’s House. In the begging Nora follows her childlike or housewife role that she plays. After sometime Nora speaks to Torvalds and realizes that he feels that Nora should only be the housewife and mother of his children. She should not be able to know or find out who she is as a person. Nora goes from a very immature person or just went along with what she was told to a very dependent, and very self-sufficient person. She now shows the idealized “doll” role of a woman but also keeps away from the limitations and social constraints of that time period. In the beginning of this drama Nora is a house wife and very childish person that she feels she needs to be. Growing up she had a father that was very dominant. She then married Torvalds who was also very dominant towards Nora. With the way Torvalds was it showed Nora’s Physical growth but her immaturity and emotional dependence hasn’t changed...
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...The Struggle for Identity in A Doll's House A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that was written ahead of its time. In this play Ibsen tackles women's rights as a matter of importance. Throughout this time period it was neglected. A Doll's House was written during the movement of Naturalism, which commonly reflected society. Ibsen acknowledges the fact that in 19th century life the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband. Nora Helmer is the character in A Doll House who plays the 19th woman and is portrayed as a victim. Michael Meyers said of Henrik Ibsen's plays: "The common denominator in many of Ibsen's dramas is his interest in individuals struggling for and authentic identity in the face of tyrannical social conventions. This conflict often results in his characters' being divided between a sense of duty to themselves and their responsibility to others."(1563) All of the aspects of this quote can be applied to the play A Doll House, in Nora Helmer's character, who throughout much of the play is oppressed, presents an inauthentic identity to the audience and throughout the play attempts to discovery her authentic identity. The inferior role of Nora is extremely important to her character. Nora is oppressed by a variety of "tyrannical social conventions." Ibsen in his "A Doll's House" depicts the role of women as subordinate in order to emphasize their role in society. Nora is oppressed...
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...The Puppet On Strings Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House is a portrayal of a Victorian lifestyle in the 1800’s, when the men of the family were powerful figures and the women merely powerless in their own homes. Throughout the entire piece, Ibsen included many symbols to show the mistreatment of women in the Victorian era. During the 1800’s, the time period this play was based in, women had little to no control or power, merely accessories for their husbands to wear to events, “trophy wives”. In A Doll’s House, Torvald, being the man of the house, makes all of the executive decisions, when he tells Nora to jump, she asks how high. Throughout the entire story, Nora is treated like a naive child and a puppet, by the man who supposedly “loves” her. In a literary criticism, Emma Goldman states, “In A Doll's House, Ibsen returns to the subject so vital to him,--the Social Life and Duty,--this time as manifesting themselves in the sacred institution of the home and in the position of woman in her gilded cage” (Goldman). Torvald believes that she is his property, ordering her around like she is his toy to play with. This creates a great deal of stress and dishonesty within the relationship. This forces Nora to lie and involve her friends Dr. Rank and Christine to protect herself from Torvald’s power. Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, uses symbols of macaroons, the Tarantella performance, and Torvald’s pet names for Nora, to demonstrate the imbalance of power in their parent-child...
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...characters in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Bertold Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children. Henrik Ibsen’s Nora Helmer and Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage present two strongly defined female heroines whose actions not only adversely affect the other characters’ lives but also suggest a fundamental problem with their societies. Both playwrights establish the macroscopic view of society’s turmoil in the microscopic, individual characters of Nora and Mother Courage. Both characters have an indomitable magnetism that, on the one hand, allows them to control others but, on the other, cause them to make desperate choices that reflect a repressive society. In analyzing the figures of Nora in A Doll House and Anna Fierling in Mother Courage and Her Children, it is important to examine the ways in which they interact with their respective societies, specifically how well they play the roles defined for them. For each play, there exist social structures, as well as exigencies of a given period within those structures, which range from being burdensome to downright inimical to the process of being a good mother. In the case of Nora, the perspective is bleak: due to the oppressively, male-dominated society , not only is she in no position to be a provider or protector for her children, but due to the condescending, patronizing attitudes of her father and husband she has remained in a state of arrested development her whole life. At the end of the play she leaves her...
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...“Ibsen’s Nora is a perfect vehicle for an exploration of self-determination, as she embodies the repression of women, as well as the suffocating bourgeois life style” A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen portrays a metaphoric life of individuals confined in a “doll’s house”. The text, written by Henrik Ibsen, produces a point of view seen in the society at the time, where women were expected to be the dutiful young wife and mother. Although Ibsen denies that it is a feminist play, many critics believe otherwise. The characterisation of Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the play, becomes a perfect vehicle for an exploration of self-determination as she embodies the repression of women as well as the suffocating bourgeois lifestyle. Her role in the play unravels as she starts off as being a part of an expected duty of women in the society and flourishes into an independent courageous woman. Ibsen portrays this through the use of symbolism, dramatic techniques and language forms. As being the perfect vehicle for self determination, Nora, in the play, disguises her true self. This ultimately shows the repression she endures to meet the expectations of society as well as her husband, Torvald. Society’s outlook on the role of women is for them to be completely devoted, to husband and to family. Nora’s duty is to be adoring, reliant on Torvald and perhaps childlike through her ways of handling money, spending it on useless things such as macaroons. Outwardly, Nora is seen to fulfil her husband’s...
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...A Doll's House's Symbolism A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was written in the late 1800’s and uses symbolism to get the writer’s ideas and descriptions across to the reader in greater detail. We will examine four of the writer’s uses of symbolism. The first is actually the title of the play and sets the stage for everything that transpires in the play. The second symbol is the Christmas tree that is brought into the first scene by Nora. The third use of symbolism that Ibsen uses is the macaroons that are only introduced in the first scene. Finally, the Tarantella can be interpreted as one of the most symbolic parts of the whole play. The title of Henrik Ibsen’s play, “A Doll’s House,” is symbolic in itself. The doll in the play would be Nora. Nora is in a mindless role of a plaything that first belongs to her father and then to Torvald. Nora play’s her part in the life but secretly wants more and is constantly reminded of how little control over her own life she has. An example of this is that after 8 years of marriage and three children, Torvald Helmer wags his finger at Nora and asks “Hasn’t Miss Sweet-Tooth been breaking the rules in town today ?” (Ibsen, 1897, p.)_Torvald speaks to Nora as a parent would speak to child in a condescending tone throughout the play. The title “A Doll’s House” is an ironic metaphor for what could be considered as more of a prison than a home for Nora who is really not expected to ever make decisions for herself or think for herself. In the...
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...A Doll’s House is a play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879 presenting the marriage between Nora and Torvald Helmer. Ibsen describes Nora, the main character as being young, naive and confused, who is in the process of transforming as the story is revealed to the reader, and she becomes independent towards the end. The author describes their marriage as a traditional one during that period of time. This drama illustrates the role of women in society during that time, pointing out how patriarchy placed an important limitation on what women could do. Patriarchy is the system in which the male race governs societal views, and this practice has been in existence since the dawn of time. Ibsen’s drama can be analyzed from a psychoanalytical point of view, that makes the reader question the character’s motives, beliefs and desired both conscious and unconscious. A Doll’s House gets the reader involved in a direct way, because it sends strong emotions thru the language that he uses. The reader gains a deep understanding about the author’s direction, the character’s actions and plot. It seems rather easy for the reader to interpret the message that Ibsen is portraying. The elements of drama presented in the story are theme, plot, rising action, climax, falling action, exposition, unknotting, and characterization. The theme is the underlining idea. At the beginning Nora seems playful and lacks knowledge, her life is dictated by her husband. Nora does have some life experience, however, the...
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