Ibsen's A Doll's House

Ibsen's A Doll's House was a very controversial play when it was first written in 1879 because of the character, Nora, and how she abandons her husband and children at the end of the play (A Doll's). Ibsen dealt with the problem of women's rights, not as an activist, but as a facet of reality within his play. He wanted to bring the issue to light. The play established a new genre of modern drama because Ibsen elevated theater from a forum for entertainment to a forum for exposing social problems. He was given the title of "the father of modern drama" for this work, because of how he ended the play with the character of Nora walking out on her life. The play broke away from the common romantic themes, and looked at the psychological concerns of the real world, especially the position of women in society. To explore the character of Nora, we first have to look briefly at what happens in the play, and who the main characters are, so that we can see why she acts the way she does at the end of the play.

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen takes place over the Christmas-New years period and examines the lives of Nora Helmer and her husband, banker Torval Helmer (Ibsen, Act 1; SparkNotes;). It is Christmas Eve and Nora returns home loaded with Xmas gifts. Torval chides her for spending so much, recalling how they have had to be careful with money, but he has just been promoted and now they can afford a better lifestyle. The maid announces that a family friend, Dr Rank has a

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; she swears, just for the sake of defiance of societal standards - all subtle signs of rebellion. Even though she appears to be enjoying her "doll" like existence as Torval's showpiece, being shielded, protected, and cared for, we see stirrings of discontent throughout the play, and we see that there is much more to Nora than just being a silly plaything, a "silly girl" as Torval calls her, a "squirrel," a "song bird" (Goldman; Sparknotes). When Torval asks what Nora would like for Christmas, she says money (Ibsen). When she tells Mrs. Linde of her loan, she says of how she has been able to repay it, "When Torval gave me money for clothes and so on, I never used more than half of it; I always bought the simplest...Torval never noticed anything," she explains. "But it was often very hard, Christina dear. For it's nice to be beautifully dressed. Now, isn't it..." (Goldman; Ibsen). She goes on to explain how she also worked to earn money, "Well, and besides that, I made money in other ways. Last winter I was so lucky - I got a heap of copying to do. I shut myself up every evening and wrote far into the night." This shows how Nora was innovative and creative in finding ways to make money to repay the loan without her

Category: Literature - I