At the beginning of A Doll’s House, Nora seems completely happy. She responds affectionately to Torvalds teasing, speaks with excitement and takes pleasure in the company of her children and friends. As the play goes on, Nora realizes that she is not a “silly girl’’ as Torvald refers to her. She is well aware of the business details related to the debt she took upon herself in order to help her husband’s health related matter. She feels intelligent and capable of taking action. She has also managed to keep a secret of the loan she took. Nora has also managed to keep up with monthly instalments. Nora’s ability of keeping this secret shows great determination and ambition. Krogstad’s blackmail had opened Nora’s eyes to unfulfilled and underappreciated potential. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald,” she says during her confrontation with him. Nora realizes that her dancing and singing tricks for her husband were a show she has put on throughout her marriage. She suddenly feels the isolation of a doll trapped in her Doll’s house. Nora has pretended to be someone she is not in order to satisfy her father, her husband, and the society. All these expectations made Nora realize how isolated she felt. Another example of how isolated she felt was when she put away her sewing needles and unfinished dress because she knows that her husband does not wish to see a woman toiling away.
Torvald’s severe and selfish reaction to Nora’s loan and forgery she made was the final act for Nora to realise she does not belong there. It gave her the sudden urge to get out of the Doll’s house into the real world and prove to herself that she is capable of looking after herself and finding who she really is. Nora’s awareness of the truth about her life grows, and she does not want to continue her life feeling isolated and putting on a show to please others. This leads to Nora walking out on her husband and children to find herself
Nora’s views changed throughout the play. She was happy at the start until sudden realization occurred to her. This shows us how a woman like Nora can spend years striving to please others, be a good daughter, wife and mother, but yet not know her true self. Nora had spent 8 years doing everything in her power to please her husband, and be somebody he wanted her to be. Before the marriage to Torvald she always wanted to please her father, who wanted her to be a little doll in a doll’s house. All of this made her feel very isolated and lonely. When Nora finally realized how isolated from the world she was, she left to discover who she really was, as she thought this was the only way to find happiness.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Nora and Torvald are a married couple and been taking on many challenges in their relationship.Torvald basically takes care of and provides for Nova and their children. During their conversation in Act 3 it talks about how she was been transferred from her father’s hands to torvald hands. Nora feels like torvald is treating her like a poor women from hand to mouth. This means that he is treating her like she can’t do for herself. Torvald is taking over her life and when her father was alive he did the same that’s why her life consist of nothing. Torvald is very physically controlling, treats Nora like she’s a child and doesn't trust her with money. The expression Nora used as “ doll child” and “doll wife” is that her life was controlled by her husband and father. By expression her feelings she tells torvald how she feels. She says, “You and Papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.”. She doesn’t have anything to fall back on besides what her husband gives her. She can’t do anything on her own without getting an approval from Torvald.…
- 592 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nora counts the remaining hours of her life after the rehearsal because she thinks she is going to sacrifice herself, before her husband would sacrifice himself for her. Both sacrifices never occur and the theme of the play is a twisted irony to the separation and uncertainty of life. Torvald’s “helpless little thing”, Nora, ironically becomes stronger, confident, independent and serious in life. Torvald’s so imagined possession, his little doll, his beautiful treasure becomes ironically a complete stranger to…
- 886 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories, a major character faces a common theme of isolation within their lifetime. This theme of isolation can cause a person to act differently. Hawthorne himself experienced a feeling of isolation in his lifetime due to his great shyness towards other people. At the age of four, Hawthorne’s father died. His mother and sisters often isolated themselves in their rooms, which had an effect on him and his writing. After graduating, he spent nearly twelve years with his mother in seclusion. This may have influenced the theme of isolation throughout his stories because he knew what it was like to be isolated, and the feeling it brought upon someone.…
- 856 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
However, there are particular people in the ranch who have lonelier lives than others. The loneliest person on the ranch has…
- 2148 Words
- 9 Pages
Good Essays -
A Doll’s House has several high points that lead up to what I’ve considered the most defining moment. When Torvald finally reads the letter Krogstad (a fellow schoolmate and an employee at the bank) wrote revealing that it was not from Nora’s father that she borrowed money, but from him, what follows was totally unexpected by me. It seems that the situation of her husband falling ill and the decisions she had to make in regards to that, forced her to grow. In the end, Nora makes a decision that she doesn’t want to be married to her husband Torvald any longer, and she tells him so. The line, “We’ve been married for eight years. Doesn’t it occur to you that this is the first time the two of us, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?” (Isben 1879 p. 590) says Nora, licks at where she is going with this conversation between the two of them.…
- 815 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Nora Helmer, the main protagonist of Scandinavian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), has always been depicted, as an exuberant novelty item, whose only purpose is to serve the important male figures in her life. This especially pertains to her father and her husband. These male figures move around Nora’s realm with indirect disregard to Nora’s true nature, desires, and abilities. Although this facade seems to be built on solid ground in the beginning, we see the consequential subtle, but progressive, crumbling of a falsified foundation. In the end, Nora, the once veiled unseasoned girl becomes a woman waiting to grasp the horizons of experience…
- 1095 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
In the play, A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen depicts a foolish, fragile, very self-centered young lady that rarely has to do anything for to help herself. Nora is cared for and lavished by her husband now that he has obtained a new position at the bank. She has no concerns but her appearance in society and the role of woman in a man's eye. Nora's husband believed that borrowing was not an option because it would lead to debts. Therefore, he was the one in control of money; this included making money and spending it. However, when Nora's husband turned ill, she realized that she had to develop her own individuality. Nora could no longer pretend to be someone that others would like her to be rather than being her true self.…
- 2027 Words
- 9 Pages
Good Essays -
Hawthorne was familiar with the intense feelings and reflection isolation granted him during the years he spent secluded from others. As a boy, Hawthorne was confined to a room following a leg injury, where his love for reading deepened. Hawthorne also witnessed his mother’s seclusion from her family after his father was lost at sea in 1808. Determined to be a writer, Hawthorne secluded himself in the chamber of the eaves of his mother’s home in Salem from 1825 to 1837, after leaving Bowdoin.(Turner13) Hawthorne’s self imposed isolation undoubtedly granted him the ability to “[look] at [life] from a distance...with meditative eyes.”(Mabie)The isolation Hawthorne experienced as an introspective man who preferred solitude transferred over into…
- 238 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
In A Dolls’ House the stories’ two main protagonists Nora and Torvald Helmer which is a married couple experiences many things while being married. And in most cases money brought forth the bulk of their problems, which eventually caused the relationship to split apart. However many people looked at the couples’ relationship from the exterior and thought it was legit. Another character in the play, Nora’s close friend Ms. Linde views the Helmers as a married couple who lives comfortable enough to afford things that she usually cannot. Even though the Helmers’ household is taken care of financially, it is in disarray due to lies, and deceit. On the outside it looks fine as Nora could be compared to a doll; looking nice and well kept together. In reality Nora has hid from her husband that she have been repaying a debt for years from when her and her husband took a trip to Italy. The reader also learns that Nora secretly forged the signature of her deceased father. Out of all the things that happened within the story Torvald eventually finds out about what’s been going on and is outraged. He calls Nora a hypocrite and a liar and complains that she has ruined his happiness. He declares that she will not be allowed to raise their children. And as a result the married couple are separated. The symbol “doll house” really help functions in the work of revealing the characters because it shows Nora as a doll who you would think is squeaky clean and flawless, but deep down inside is…
- 368 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
You must submit to your husband, you must let him talk first and wait to put your input in until he has gotten settled in the house, and you must be ready for whatever his needs are; the roles of women in the 1800’s. In the play A Doll’s House author Henrik Ibsen wrote about a married couple named Nora and Torvald their relationship from the start had readers very uncomfortable and feeling emotions towards their dynamics. Nora shows that she has a secret side by going behind Torvalds back and getting a loan, in doing so forging her dad's signature which in turn puts them secretly in debt that only Nora knows about. Through the play one goes through a whirlwind of how this secret plays out in the lives of other characters and how Torvald finding out about this lie shows his other side. Nora is very submissive to Torvald and Torvald loves his doll Nora.…
- 1102 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
In the following short stories Eveline written by James Joyce, The Story of An Hour written by Kate Chopin, and A Rose For Emily written by William Faulkner we find that isolation is a popular theme throughout the stories. There are several factors in each one of the stories that makes us feel the isolation that each one of the women in the stated stories felt. Weather it is Eveline feeling stuck at home due to a request for her to tend to her family and resume the place of her deceased mother. Or Mrs. Mallard with her feeling that “it was only yesterday that she felt that life might be too long” (228). Along with Miss. Emily who seemed isolate her self form the word by closing her door for good. In the three stories James Joyce, Kate Chopin, and William Faulkner use different strategies to help the readers understand the feeling of isolation that each one of the women in the stories are feeling.…
- 1208 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Nora is the main leading character of “A Doll House”. She seems to be a happy woman at the start of the play as she shows her affection towards Torvald. Like every woman she shows her excitement about the extra money of Torvald’s new job. She also enjoys the company of her children and friends. She does not seem to be unhappy with her life and relations.…
- 789 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
A Doll’s House is a story about Nora, a trophy wife whom spends her days shopping. When Nora’s husband becomes very ill, and local doctors have no way to help him, Nora takes her husband to Spain for the proper medical treatment. In order to afford the trip and its expenses, Nora takes out a loan to save her husband’s…
- 932 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Throughout the entire play, each character searches for their true identity. First by her father then by Torvald, Nora is treated like a doll her entire life. She does not know how to live any other way. All the men in her life treat her as a porcelain figurine as if she did not know any better. On page 181, Nora quotes, “When I lived with Papa, he used to tell me what he thought about everything, so I never had any opinions but his. And if I did have any of my own, I kept them quiet, because he wouldn’t have liked them. He called me his little doll, and he played with me just the way I played with my dolls. Then I came here to the live in your house--” In this quote, Nora describes to Torvald how she never had no say in her life; she always was someone’s shadow. Once she decides to leave Torvald, she has found her true identity. She decides to become an independent women and try to figure life out on her own. Nora isn’t the only character that is on a search for their true identity though. Krogstad is decried as morally corrupt by many of the characters. On page 157, “…And yet this fellow Krogstad has been sitting at home all these years poisoning his children with his lies and pretenses…” Krogstad, a single father, forged a document and got caught in his act. At the end of the play, the readers find out that Mrs. Linde and Krogstad had a relationship a while back in the life. Mrs. Linde…
- 987 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The comparison in A Doll’s House is similar to Shakespeare’s Othello. In A Doll’s House Nora was also being dishonest, not trust worthy and was deceiving her husband as it pertains to their finances. Nora had forged her father’s signature to secure a loan to save her family and sick husband financially. Nora’s…
- 1570 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays