English 102 Final

“A Doll House”

Ivania Martinez

Mark K. Nishimura
English 102 Section #0235

The play “A Doll House” written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879 is considered a landmark in drama for its portrayal of realistic people, places, and situations. I n 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. Ibsen confines his story to the middle class. He writes of a society that is limited not only by its mean of livelihood but also its outlook. Ibsen portrays his characters as preoccupied with work and money, showing a reduction of values in and that lack of quality persons with morals. Henrik Ibsen offers remarkable insight into the nineteenth century preoccupation with the family and the role of the father, and what role is projected upon those who are subjugated to him. This play takes up the subject of a strong woman and a weak man within the plot. A prominent theme within this drama is the deterioration of the male, who is aware of his role as a father figure. At the start of the play, Nora is presented as a sweet innocent, little woman who cares more for material goods then most anything else. Little by little, Nora reveals through conversations with the other characters that she is more than just the average careless giddy house wife that are audiences are used to seeing presented in the theater. To prevent the death of her newly acquired husband she takes out a loan from a mystery lender that requires her to pay back the amount in a 7 year period. Not only is it illegal for women to take out loans without the permission of their husbands at this point in time, but Nora forges her dying father 's handwriting to attain the loan. While on the trip to Italy for improving Torvald health, Nora 's father 's health gives out and he dies. Effectively, Nora sacrificed her father and her dignity for her husband. Acting so brashly as she did is to lose your honor and dignity, for only those women without a husband or cultural outcasts dared handle money matter. She also risks losing her husband if he found out he had to depend on a women to save his life. She was her husband doll he had her the way he wanted to.
Torvald is a successful bank lawyer in the drama “A Doll House” written by Henrik Ibsen. His wife’s name is Nora. She is a housewife with three children and gets help raising them from her maid Helen. Nora and Torvald are both busy people within their lives. Little do they know that their marriage is not safe due to the fact that it is not given first priority in the lives they lead? The action takes place in their home. Torvald is very protective when it comes to the family image that is portrayed to the public. This is because his career, as a lawyer, depends on it. He feels that he should have a perfect public image for the sake of his career and not his family, since that is what comes first in his life. This is seen when he discovers a letter from a bank that his wife Nora gets a loan from. He finds out that the loan was acquired illegally through forgery. She uses her father’s signature. Torvald immediately strips her of all her rights to him as his wife and to the children as their mother. He does not ask for divorce since this will not be a good public image for his career, instead he asks her to have a separate room from his and limits her time with the children. Torvald is the rule maker of his house. He meticulously gives details on how he wants his house run. He has set time for everything, when the meals are prepared, when the children should go to sleep, when they should wake up, what to eat, when to check the mail etc. This is probably the reason why he is successful in his career. He is again putting his career as first priority and uses the principal that he applies to it in the family. Torvald has an office in the house of with he has limited accesses to his wife, Nora. He treats her as if she was one of his children instead of his wife. He entertains his official friends in the office in closed-door sessions and usually doesn’t fill in his wife on his business. Career comes first for Torvald.
In the play "A Doll House" the main character, Nora, is in a situation where she is caused to act, emotionally and physically, as a doll to please her husband. Nora has to be very sneaky and conniving in order to be perfect and talked down to by her husband. I believe that the title "A Doll 's House" may fit because it is Nora being a doll in order to please her husband Torvald. Torvald sees her as his toy, not as a human equal to himself. Torvald gives his wife pet names such as "spend thrift" and "squander bird". This shows just how controlling he really is. Nora just plays along, keeping secrets from Torvald in order to please him at any expense. This was a very common situation during the era that this play was produced. Nora is smart and capable of a lot more but she lets herself be held back in order to be the perfect wife for Torvald. Nora is the only character acting in a different manner in order to please her power hungry husband, Torvald. Even if she was conniving it was all in good intentions. It takes a very loving wife to go out of her way in order to make sure that her husband isn 't burdened down with the expenses of a trip that saved his life. The typical traditions this play are the same ones that use to happen during that century women always did as there husband wished. There are still some relationships that experience that situation that they do what their husband wants just to make him happy. In act III, After Krogstad threatens to expose Nora to Torvald, does not immediately offer to help her. He cares about himself only. He does not think about her wife and her feeling. He waits until he discovers that his social status will suffer. When knows that his social position will not be harmed he reveal his true emotion to Nora. Immediately, she realized that her husband only cares about his social and physical appearance.
Probably the most important part about The Doll House is the ending, when Nora realizes that she does not belong with that man and leaves the house. Nora was aware that she was in the relationship because of her husband job, but she came to realize that she was not a doll that she could not be treated as her husband wanted to treat her. Nora and her husband sound like everyone typical life style they seemed perfect in public but when it came to being behind the doors they were a very unhappy company they were mainly doing it for their kids. At the end Nora discovers who she is and values herself. It is clearly presented that Torvald takes his position as being superior because he feels that Nora is dependent on him. The Feminist movement is an ongoing reaction against the male definition of woman. In most western civilizations men have dominated politics, society and the economy of their worlds. They have suppressed the voices of the women so that they could mold it the way they wanted it. Thus they defined what was feminine as insubstantial, subservient and devoid of will. Femininity was further emotion driven, illogical, and naive and not be taught to be anything else. Feminism has been changing the world for more than a century and the new viewpoints it has brought give a new insight into literature. Feminist critics siphon the male perspective from a piece and look carefully at what the feminine aspects of the work are saying to the world. It is a way of showing the interweaving male and female influences in writing to make it function. Now in the modern days there probably are couples like this but not very many most women are very independent of themselves now most now work, are not stay at home mothers, and are single parents. Maybe if one is part of the political world then that is where the last name and family matter to society other than that the 21st century is very different and not a lot of women are there husband doll.

Works Cited
Gardner, Janet E. Literature: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2009. 899-957. Print.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.

Cited: Gardner, Janet E. Literature: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2009. 899-957. Print. SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.