Kimmie Pulse
Eng/125
Dr. Alexander Perez
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
In reading this play my first thought in seeing the title I assumed the play was about a doll house. In reality the title had more to do with the life of Nora Helmer. The title represents Nora’s treatment from her husband. The husband Torvald treated Nora as a child with no mind and intelligence. His pet names for her in the beginning demonstrated this. His lack of accepting her as an equal was also demonstrated in his ability to see that Nora was a smart woman and could see and do things for herself. Ibsen used many strategies to get this point across. In one of his strategies he takes a common housewife and made her secretly intelligent he uses metaphors and Irony. In applying that Nora was treated like a doll in her perfect Doll house was really stating that Nora was treated like a doll in her husband’s house. For example Torvalds used pet names for his wife giving her the appearance of a doll. In using Irony Ibsen strategy was to state that what goes around comes around. For example the Irony of Krogstad and his forging of documents and that of Nora forging documents and the reality that both might lose their jobs, his being at the bank and hers being a mother and wife. The devices that Ibsen uses is that of the conventions of a marriage in the 1800’s, and the relationship of husband and wife. Women of this time were depended on their husbands. Most wives did not work, but instead stayed home with the children. Most women were not considered equal to the men of the family. And finally most women were considered simply-minded and lack schooling and understand the way the world really works. In the play for example Nora did not have a key to the mailbox; she was not allowed to take a loan without her husband or father present to sign for it. In considering all of these things Nora was much smarter than what Ibsen wanted to reveal in the beginning of