How Does Ibsen Present The Development Of Nora

A man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square, a second plane crashing into the World Trade center, a group of soldiers raising the American flag at Iwo Jima, all have one thing in common, they are all recognizable images captured in time through photography. Photography has challenged what was possible many times, and now it is one of the most important mediums of the modern society. Photography has advanced tremendously over time. In the beginning a person had to stay still for several minutes for a colorless black and white image. Moving was never allowed because it would distort the image and make it bury. Eventually, it would advance so that with only one flash, a person could see an image of that time. But still, it
In the beginning of the play Nora is shown as a woman who acts and is treated like a young girl. Her husband treats her accordingly, he gives her nicknames which highlights how he views her as a little girl such as “my little squirrel” (164). Nora contains no concerns of how Mr. Helmer belittles her and treats her like a little girl, for everything she does she does out of love for him. This results in her thinking that his actions are of the same motivations. She comes to the realization that this is not the case when Helmer acts out in selfishness when he reads Krogstad’s letter. Nora had faith that Krogstad would heroically stand up and tell Krogstad “publish the thing to the whole world” (216). She thought that he would not care about appearances, but at this moment she realized he cared more about appearances than he did her. This is exemplified when he earlier said she would appear to be his wife to the public but not in the house. Nora tells Mr. Helmer how “[she] was so absolutely certain, [he] would come forward and take everything upon [himself], and say: I am the guilty one” (Ibsen 216). Although he attempts to apologize later on, it is just how Mahaffey states it “is revealed as more of a placation than a commitment” (Mahaffey 59). It is during these moments that Nora realizes that her husband care more about the norms of society and the appearance that he follows those
Nora comes to the conclusion that she has never truly fulfilled her personal desires: “I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so” (Ibsen 214). This symbolically implies that following gender and societal norms will not necessarily make a person happy. She transforms from someone of self-sacrifice to self-realization (Mahaffey 62) When Helmer asks if she will abandon the task of her motherly duties, Nora follows up with the comment: “there is another task I must undertake first. I must try to educate myself” (214). She is telling the reader that she is going to do what she wants for herself, and not what society thinks she should do. Nora's conflict represents something other than, or something more than, woman's (Templeton 2). She does not care if her actions defy the norms of the female gender that society has put forth and she tells Helmer