a doll s house

Yen Chun Lee
Theatre 200

A Doll’s House

“A Doll’s House”, the name of the play, certainly straightforwardly points out Nora’s position at home. This play critically shows how low women’s position is in the nineteenth century. One of the biggest ironies is the attitude that Nora’s husband has towards her when he finds out what she’s done for him. From the modern perspective, it’d be considered really considerate of Nora to borrow money from other people for her husband. When there’s a challenge, couples help each other and work their way through. That’s how we look at it nowadays. The other irony that I found is that the person whom Nora turns to when the family has a financial problem is the person that her husband fires. If that happened in nowadays, Nora’s husband might have rehire Nils, the person who gives him a hand when he’s in need. On the contrary, Nora’s husband is not only ungrateful but also puts the blame on Nora, a smart, considerate wife who pulls it through for him. In this play, you can see from the interaction between Mr. Helmer and Nora that Nora’s position is lower. Mr. Helmer calls Nora “little squirrel”, and Nora makes little squeaking noises to please him. However, that might be considered a sweet interaction between couples. Kristine, Nora’s best friend also shows how helpless and dependent women are at that time period. She leaves her true love and marries someone she doesn’t love because she needs a wealthy husband who can take care of her family. From Kristine’s story, there’s also a controversy. I believe that at that time, most rich men should know that a lot of women just marry so they could have their families financially taken care of. In Kristine’s case, she leaves her husband after her younger brothers are grown up with a job, and her mother dies because there’s no “need” to stay with him. If most men are aware of the fact that some women just marry them for their money, is it still acceptable or ethical of women to leave them when they don’t need their help? I think Kristine and Nora are two women with a modern soul living in the wrong time. Kristine could’ve stayed with her husband so she would never have to worry about money anymore. On the contrary, she decides to follow her heart, and find a job to take care of herself. Moreover, she looks deep into Nora’s marriage and sees the problem, which any other women at that time wouldn’t have noticed. If she were a traditional woman, she would’ve helped Nora keep the secret, and let her blindly live in a marriage that a traditional woman would want. Nora’s husband’s reaction to the bust out truth really upsets me, or I’d say, most women in the classroom. Slapping a woman just seems so repulsive nowadays. That shocking moment truly blows our minds. I’d say Nora made the right decision because she starts to realize what she really wants for the first time. Feeling the need to learn is one of the most valuable things in this world. However, abandoning her children seems really irresponsible. The play makes Nora very insistent about leaving the home, like she’s never coming back. I hope Nora can still come back once in a while to visit the children. After all, the children are innocent. You can stop being a wife, but once you have children, you can never stop being a mom. Other than that, Nora is definitely a brave, wise woman living in 1870’s.