...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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...nineteenth century saw many changes to daily American life, with war, technical advances, and the industrial revolution. All of these events majorly impacted the human lifestyle and way of life, especially the division of gender roles. Henrik Ibsen published A Doll’s House in the midst of all of these changes. At the time, he was highly critiqued at the premier because his play went against the nineteenth century and Victorian marriage norms by concluding the play with Nora finding herself after leaving the ideal marriage. In my research, I have discovered that this play was not necessarily geared toward a feministic view, but self liberation for all human beings. Nora Helmer, the protagonist throughout the play, is the adored wife of a newly hired bank manager. She is a very tender-hearted and happy woman. She knew her purpose in life was to dedicate her own to her husband. She was to be happy for the sake of her husband, Torvald Helmer and her children. Mr. Helmer is portrayed to be a very commendable man and who stands firm in his affirmation of faith and is loyally devoted to his family. He would be the match that every mother would want for her daughter. Nora considered herself very fortunate. She admires her husband, not only for his hard work ethic and devotion to making a better life for his family during such harsh living conditions, she feels shielded and protected in his presence. When a woman loves and idolizes someone the way Nora loves Torvald, she is blinded...
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...Throughout A Doll’s House, the use of symbolism is present. Through Torvald’s actions, the reader develops a clear understanding of Nora and Torvald’s relationship and thus developing theme. He treats her as if she is a child, but Nora doesn’t act upon this until the end of the play. This may be due to the constant reminder of her secret bank loan, which affects her attitude and interaction with her husband. Although not typically considered as imagery, stage directions are helpful to the reader as they provide visual information that the reader can use to help set the setting. Without prior knowledge of the play, the title seems odd, but as the story unfolds, the title becomes clearly connected to the plot and theme of the story. Through the...
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... 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 by the manipulation from Torvald. Torvald has a very...
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...Maturity in a short story It is strange how an author can make his or her characters in a story seem so real. In A Doll’s House, the protagonist, Nora seems as if she is actually human. In the play, she starts off as almost a childish person but then matures so much by then end; Just as most women and men are childish at the beginning of a marriage and by then end of it, they actually act like adults. Nora’s personality changes drastically throughout the play; at the beginning she is very happy and tolerates Torvald’s teasing ways, then she realizes that she is not a “silly girl” like her husband thinks and by the end of the play she is a very mature woman realizing her importance in life. At the first of the play Nora is so oblivious to the world and does not understand how her and her husband’s relationship is more of a father-daughter thing. Throughout the play Torvald calls her names such as a “squirrel,” and a “skylark.” He also restricts her from eating macaroons because he thinks they will mess up her teeth. Torvald definitely has the final and most of the time the only say so in most matters. Nora does go behind his back doing things he said not to, like eating macaroons and drawing out a loan to pay for a trip that she thinks is for her husband’s own health. Midway through the play, Nora finally realizes that she is not any of the things her husband calls her and that she should not be treated like a child by him. After taking out the loan, to “help” Torvald...
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...changed throughout the entire play. Torvald, in the beginning of the play, is a controlling narcissistic middle aged man who plays and controls with his wife, Nora, and his three children to conform to the ideals of him and the society. As Nora is pleading to Torvald for Krogstad to keep his job at the bank, Torvald tells Nora, “And just by pleading for him you make it impossible for me to keep him on. It’s already known at the bank that I’m firing Krogstad. What if it’s rumored around now that the new bank manager was vetoed by his wife.” This shows that Torvald makes a lot of his decisions based on the opinions of his peers. Also this is showing that he wants to make all the decisions and does not want Nora calling any of the shots. Because Torvald is controlling, no matter what Nora told him he would not change his mind and let Nora control him. Towards the end of the play after Torvald gets the second letter from Krogstad, explaining that he is no longer going to blackmail the Helmers anymore. After Torvald reads this his is stricken with joy and tells Nora, “For a man there’s something indescribably sweet and satisfying in knowing he’s forgiven his wife- and forgiven her out of a full and open heart. It’s as if she belongs to him in two ways now: in a sense he’s given her fresh into the world again, and she’s become his wife and his child as well.” Even after everything that Nora has went through, all that matters to Torvald is how he feels and how he forgives Nora for almost...
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...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 you do, Nora? NORA...
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...PEnglish 102-5 March 29, 2011 A Doll’s House Nora is the main character all throughout the first act of A Doll House. She has several different qualities that both work together and against one another to build up her character in this play. The two most prominent are her as a child, and as both a manipulator and one who has been manipulated. Nora is seen as a “doll” or child throughout this play. She is treated this way because of the way she “acts”. She will clap her hands when she gets excited about something, and is often humming and moving all around. Nora’s character can be controversial. Nora’s attitude toward her husband Torvald Helmer is very young as well. Torvald had always treated her this way because he regarded for her as a squirrel, which demonstrates that he does not believe her capable of dealing with adult matters such as finances and health crises. Instead of treating her as a wife or adult, Torvald lectures her on posturing, child rearing, and even dancing. By the end of the story, when he is hit with the knowledge of Nora’s complicated efforts—to save his life, he chooses to take aim and talk at her, rather than discussing her reasoning and emotional state when she made the choice she did by getting a secret loan. Throughout the play I felt that she couldn’t take care of herself without her husband by her side. I didn’t really know what to think of Nora at the beginning of the play. Nora’s “hidden” strength is shown the most toward her husband. She is...
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...Hewitt Intro to Literature 25 March 2011 Independent Identities A Doll’s House, a play by Henrik Ibsen, and The Darling, a short story by Anton Chekhov, are about two women struggling to find their own independent identities separate from that of their husbands. A Doll’s House is about a husband, Torvald, and his wife, Nora, coming to grips with the fact that their marriage is not exactly what society hypes it up to be, while The Darling is about a woman, Olenka, whom struggles to find her own identity through the midst of her ongoing relationships with her numerous husbands. Both women overcome their own personal obstacles in their own ways, while one ultimately succeeds in at least wanting to find out who and what her own personal identity is, and the other failing, still succumbing to living her life with the need of a strong, male figure. In the first act of A Doll’s House, the reader can see that Torvald and Nora’s relationship is anything but perfect. Nora, a woman who’s never had to work a day in her life, relies solely on her husband to meet her and her family’s financial needs. As the title of the play portrays, Nora lives the life of a doll by constantly living in Torvald’s shadow, being his perfect trophy wife, and doing whatever she is told; she relies solely on her husband for happiness and support throughout every little thing she does. In the beginning of Act One, Nora has just come home from buying Christmas things when Torvald begins to badger her about...
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...A Doll’s House The five major characters in the play all transform during the course of the play. However their level of transformation differs. Ibsen used the theme of transformation as a major theme in the play to show how people can change and experience self-realization. Nora at the start of the play was content with her life. She was happy enough to stay with her husband, and she was happy because her husband could provide all of what she wanted. Although Torvald teases her she still shows affectionate responses to them. He also tells her that she shouldn’t eat macaroons because they will mess up her teeth, she doesn’t go and argue top him about it but rather quietly has a few while Torvald is away at work. At the early part of the play Nora does not mind let alone realize that she is being treated like a doll by her husband. However as the plot develops, we realize that Nora is more than just a housewife, she is capable of so much more because of the way in which she pays back her loan. She works in secret for a long time trying to pay back the loan she obtained so that she could look after her husband’s health. This was considering that a woman was not supposed to look after the husband in any way other than being a housewife as it would emasculate the man. We also realize that Nora is courageous to suffer the consequences of borrowing money for her husband by having to work. This is particularly important because its shows that she was intelligent enough to know...
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...focus on the main character Nora. Because of her decision to abandon her children, many people have grown to dislike her. Although Nora ultimately decides to leave her children in the hands of a possessive man, she is not fully responsible for her actions. Ibsen cleverly includes feminist, possessive, loving, and desperate characters in order to create a controversial play. The characters in A Doll’s House affect each other, Nora’s development, and her decision to abandon her family in order to become independent. Anne Marie has a strong influence on Nora Helmer. She had given up her child, whom she had out of wedlock, for adoption. Instead of running away and marrying another man, she decides to work in order to send money to her daughter whom she is still in contact with. By not doing what was expected during the 1800s, Anne Marie proves to be a feminist. After seeing a woman who does not let society rule her, Nora is influenced to become a feminist by not allowing her husband or society to control her. Although Anne Marie inspires Nora to become independent, Anne Marie is not considered an independent woman. Anne Marie belongs to the lower class, so independence is not an option. Money is much more important than liberation for Anne Marie because it is a means of survival. She does not abandon her child in order to become independent but gives her daughter up for adoption because she cannot afford to raise her (Stetz 154). Unlike Anne Marie, Nora chooses to abandon her children...
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...Literature in Society Natasha Whitton Reflection Paper and Fiction: Drama 2 This play was written in a time when it was considered outrageous for a woman to leave her husband to gain her freedom as well as show she had a mind of her own. That is just what Nora does in the end. Nora was breaking the way women were supposed to behave to show she could take care of herself and her family. Henrik Ibsen wrote this play in 1879. It was considered one of his more realistic problem plays. At the time women were not really allowed to think for themselves or go against their husbands. Nora does both by fixing a problem that arises without the assistance of her husband. Nora has found a way to help her husband overcome a situation that is taking a toll on his health. She does so without the help of Torvald or her father. She did not go to her father because he is dying and she does not want to make his life seem less important than that of her husbands. When the play first begins the audience seems to think Nora and Torvald have a great marriage and they love each other. They seem to be a happy couple. Torvald speaks to his wife in a demeaning way but she does not seem to mind. So they go on with the charade of a happy couple who love each other. In a way Nora does love her husband just as he loves her in a different way. Torvald seems to treat Nora as he would a child. Nora does act a bit as a child would. She hides things from him such as a Christmas tree. The Helmers are...
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...26 May 1898 he stresses: ‘Whatever I have written has been without any conscious thought of making propaganda. […] To me it has seemed a problem of humanity in general.’[3] Ibsen clearly states he strove to expose the manipulation of individuals’ liberties as he worked for the human cause. In Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982) the aim of the play is to reveal how the fulfilment of women’s self-realization needs in the personal and social spheres is achieved by compromising humanity and morality. In the end, what ‘The New Woman’ gets is disillusionment and loneliness as she finds herself in a predicament: mother or career woman, sensitive or hardened. In Top Girls what is represented is the price women pay to go up the corporate ladder in a male-dominant world. Thus, I will explore how trends in Modern Drama are used and blended throughout time to address social problems of a particular contemporaneity. Next, I will illustrate the parallels and counterpoints between the two plays to demonstrate how class division is key in determining an individual’s insertion in the ‘enterprise culture’. I will argue, though, that Modern Tragedy[4] does challenge society’s views...
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...In the play A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, the convention of marriage is examined and questioned for its lack of honesty. The play is set in the late 1800s, which provides the backdrop for the debate about roles of people in society. Ibsen uses the minor character, Dr. Rank, to help develop the theme of conflicts within society. This, in turn, creates connections with the plot. Dr. Rank's function in the play is to foreshadow, symbolize, and reflect upon the truth of life and society and to break down the barrier between appearance and reality. One function of Dr. Rank in the play is to foreshadow events to come. Upon Rank's introduction in Act I, the reader is immediately given insight into the conflict Nora will face with Krogstad. Rank provides the reader with minute details into Krogstad's past that will help in understanding his desperate blackmail attempt. The reader can begin to see this in Rank's statement to Nora and Mrs. Linde: "Oh, it's a lawyer, Krogstad, a type you wouldn't know. His character is rotten to the root--but even he began chattering all-importantly about how he had to live" (1574). Rank also foreshadows the change of society that is a constant throughout the play. One can begin to see this foreshadowing in the statement Rank makes about the morally sick being forgiven, "That's the concept that's turning society into a sanatorium" (1574). Through these insights, Dr. Rank provides the reader with an ability to form opinions important to the plot. Ibsen...
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...for the right to lawfully borrow money without her husband given permission. At this point they wanted even more rights such as furthering there education by choice oppose to having to suddenly get married and raise children, and also being abe to choose whom they decide to mate and marry. Nora from A Doll’s House and both Ophelia from Hamlet can be considered when pertaining to these sexiest pre-set standards. In the 19th century, female characters have often played roles dependent on men. In Henrick’s Isben’s A Doll House, Nora’s life is dependent on her husband and her father. As for Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Opheila whom is also a female character who seems to be dependent on her father, brother, and boyfriend. Both Opheila and Nora come from predominantly different time periods, yet they are in similar situations but with evident differences. With these similarities of being treated as children and lectured for loss of honor also come differences of manipulation and management of their problems. In A Doll’s House written by Henrick Isben in the year of the late 1900s, Nora’s husband, Torvald, treats her as if she was a child and it becomes very obvious that he does not...
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