Preview

How Does Nora Change In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
829 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Nora Change In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora Helmer is the wife of Torvald Helmer. Nora appears

to be a loving and innocent wife with no voice of her own. By the end of the play Nora shows

that she has a rebellious side and she gains her own opinion separate of her husbands.

To understand how Nora’s character develops you must understand the time

that this play takes place. In 1879 women, didn’t have many rights, and they weren’t

capable of doing much without the assistance or say so of their husband. She was bound by

society and her husband to perform only specific task. From the world of Sociology, Gale

Gender Roles are those positions, statuses, activities, and behaviors that are designated

by society as appropriate for one’s
…show more content…
She has her own opinion and

thoughts. She makes actions with confidence at this point in the play, and stands by what she

thinks are right. Nora changes her dress at an odd time and Torvald questions it. This is the

turning point where it’s apparent her character has change. Torvald is noticing this and confront

hers. Towards the final parts of the play Nora says, “see, here is your ring back. Give me mine.” (pg.1392, Literature: Craft and Voice)

That remark established Torvald and Nora’s relationship being over. The entire play Nora has

busted her butt to help Torvald and she’s been caring towards her friends and family. However,

something snapped in her and she couldn’t do it anymore. She has finally branched off from

being oppressed to Torvald. The parts that are left questionable about her personality and

character is if she will ever go back, and what is she going to do about her kids after all. Even

though the relationship appears to be over between them. Torvald ask her if she could ever

love him and she doesn’t say no. She says that she doesn’t know.

By the end of the play you can see the full change of Nora’s character. She isn’t in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    and self-doubt and gives the audience the impression that she could lose control of herself at…

    • 5176 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Posienwood bible essay

    • 1073 Words
    • 1 Page

    change was not like the others, it was more heartfelt. I couldn’t help but sympathize with her and…

    • 1073 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    relies on the development of her character in the time set before the novel begins. Her father’s…

    • 1465 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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
  • Good Essays

    The Shrew: Play Analysis

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Kate really does change. She shows us that she changes at the end of the novel when…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora Dramatic Irony

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Nora's epiphany occurs when the truth is finally revealed. As Torvald unleashes his revulsion against Nora and her crime of forgery, the protagonist realizes that her husband is not who she thought he was at all. Torvald has no intention of taking the blame for Nora's crime. She thought for certain that he would selflessly give up everything for her, like she given up so much for him. When he fails to do this, she accepts the fact that their marriage has been an illusion. In this moment Nora’s eyes and mind finally become clear of any delusions she once possessed. Nora was dominated and controlled by her father before marriage and afterwards it was her husband dominating her. Torvald never treated her as an equal. She had existed for her husband and she had always expected that her husband would come to her aid when she was in trouble. She had been waiting for miracles to happen. Nora feared that Krogstad would expose everything and that their family would come undone. Contrary to her expectation, Torvald behaved like a hypocrite concerned more with societies idea of morality and a notion of social prestige, not with his wife's welfare and care. He came out in his true colors. Nora realized that her husband didn't see her as an individual. She wanted to dissolve her ties with him by abandoning him and the children. She thought her duty toward herself was above her duty as a…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An ideal marriage consists of communication and honesty, but in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen the Helmer marriage is quite the opposite. At the beginning of the play, Nora conformed to obeying her husband and she was naïve in hoping that her husband would sacrifice his reputation for her. She even forged a check to borrow money from the bank to help Helmer with his illness. She thought that this would be a good way to show her love and ability. Their weak marriage later revealed that Helmer never really understood her and he was ashamed that she had concealed this secret. This event awakened Nora’s true personality and she finally realized that their marriage was fake and weak. In the play A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen uses symbolism to portray how Nora is forced by societal norms to mask her true personality through her lies and secrecy, which shows her transition into an independent woman, further emphasising that self knowledge is needed for an authentic life.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A women was not capable of taking on serious issues especially without a higher education. Women were only seen as the caretaker of the household and not the moneymaker. Nora’s decision at the end of the play, played a big role, Nora realizes that she needs to find herself, and not her husband Helmer. The play does not tell us where Nora goes at the end of a play, it leaves us in awe. Maybe Nora left because she wanted a higher education, and in Norway that wasn’t permitted at that time. Nora wants to start a new life without her husband Helmer, she has no money because Helmer was taking care of her. Nora just wants to have her own life, and maybe that means for her to get a higher education and get a job where she doesn’t have to depend on Helmer. I never thought about it in that way until I researched, the question about women’s role in Norway in the 19th century. Many women were dependent on their husbands, or a male figure in there life. Nora was always dependent on Helmer and her father, “I mean that I was simply transferred from Papa’s hand to yours . You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you or else I pretended to. I am really not quite sure which I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other” (Ibsen, 66). Ibsen created the character Nora as woman who wasn’t following the social marriage norms. When Nora leaves the house, she becomes a symbol for all women, and the article by Largueche shows us how women fought for their education and social norm rights. Some questions still remain, where did Nora go? And did she leave because she wanted a higher education or did she just want to find her true identity? If I were to explore the topic further, I would want their to be a second part to the play “A Doll’s House”. I want to know where Nora went and if she ever got back with Helmer.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I agree with Nora’s decision to abandon her husband and children, she didn’t do it out of selfishness but more of a sacrifice. Nora loved her husband and children very much, but she felt she needed her freedom and independence. Nora didn’t want her children to be like her, she thought by her being immorality that it will pass down to her children, like it passed down to her from her father. Also, Nora realized she had a lot of growing up to do, because she acted like a child more than an adult. She was too dependent on her husband, so she wasn’t independent as a women and wasn’t capable of doing things on her on. Nora husband treated her like a play toy, more than a wife. I think by Nora leaving was a selfless thing to do, because she wanted…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • 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
  • Better Essays

    A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

    • 7391 Words
    • 30 Pages

    Being claimed and lauded by propaganda feminist, some critics argued that Ibsen’s intention in writing the play is not to resolve gender inequality and to liberate women in the society but rather just to illuminate it and reveal a moral issue faced by every person in his life (Cliffsnotes).…

    • 7391 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora's Manipulation

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In desperate times to save a loved one, would you be willing to break the law? In a Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen presents the character Nora and her risky secret of having to forge her father’s signature to save the life of her husband. Accordingly, once Torvald discovers the illicit crime his wife has committed, his repugnant reaction triggers a sense of dysphoria in Nora. Inadvertently, the argument with Torvald makes Nora realize the lie of a life she has been living by just being a vessel for those that manipulated her to put their beliefs in. Granted that Nora’s point of view has tremendously been refined, it juxtaposes who she was before her awareness, causing the plot to have a turn of events.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora's Patriarchy

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To be or not to be. That is the questions that plagues Nora’s whole existence. On the one hand should she be who she feels she is, despite her being wrong in the world’s eyes, or should she just give into society's expectations of her and be a naïve mother and wife who doesn’t have much purpose but the ones that were given to her by her dominant male figures in her life. Since an early age Nora felt like a doll or something less. Nora remembers the times her father would play with her, “He used to call me his doll-child, and he played with me the way I played with my dolls” she is aware the position she holds in the patriarchy. Torvald and Nora appear to share a idealistic marriage and family life. This perfect image is terrorized when Nora's act of forgery is in jeopardy of being disclosed. The following episodes that take place leads Nora to slowly realize that…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora's Individualism

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Women in the 19th century live in the shadows of men. They don’t have occupations. Their gender role was to cook, clean, shop for the household, and to care for the children. They were expected to find a suitor; this man would take care of the family financially. Women were submissive to their husbands back then. They didn’t stand up for their rights or voice their opinions. Women catered to their husbands. Nora is submissive to Torvalds’s needs. The play is about Nora’s behavior to her husband. She submits to him and is a mother to their children. She is unhappy as a caretaker. She over enthusiastic personality throughout the play seems forced. She feels she has no purpose in life, being a mother or housewife isn’t fulfilling her needs. She lacks being a mother the nannies constantly look after the children. She is searching for her true self subconsciously in the beginning of the play. Due to her upbringing, Nora has been raised to live under a man, to be submissive to them.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora becomes more and more rebellious as the story goes on. One of the first acts of rebellion is when Nora proceeds to eat Macarons behind is Torvalds back. Nora knows this is forbidden for her to eat sweets by Torvald because it will ruin her teeth. Torvald confronts her about it and Nora says “ I wouldn't dream of going against your wishes”. Right after that Nora shows another rebellious trait by swearing. Nora swears just to go against the social standards. This is really important because this is when Nora is starting to become her own person and not the person society expects of her. The biggest act of rebellion is when Nora forged her father's signature to save her husband's life, knowing torvald would not approve of that. It was unheard of during this time period for a women to go against the law and commit a crime like this one. This is showing how independent Nora is becoming. This proves that Nora is not the “ poor…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays