Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, was unconventional in its themes and in the way in which they were presented. Ibsen questioned contemporary Norwegian society’s conventional male and female roles, the morals of marriage and challenged all human beings, particularly females, to strive to be one’s self and to be responsible for themselves. The tragedy he wrote also had technical originality. The characters were ordinary people, who spoke simple, everyday language and the play was a first in that it didnt have the traditional theatrical happy ending. It can be understood that this 1879 drama was excessively criticised by its audience. At the time the play was produced, Norwegian society was undergoing social and political reform. Throughout the 1860s there had been growing agitation for legal rights for women. The rights for women to work on the same terms as males had been granted only in 1866.
However, it was a patriarchal society. Men still had authority over their wives. Women were commonly regarded as superficial objects, whose main concerns were with their family and home. The small towns that had developed in Norway lead to women, in particular, leading a lonely, shut-off life. The people suffered from ‘small town claustrophobia’ and prying neighbours. Ibsen was subject to narrow-mindedness and selfishness from his culture and this prompted him to reconsider ‘old certainties’.
Ibsen once wrote, “that a marriage was not sacrosanct, that a man’s authority should not go unchallenged. ” In Act 3 of A Doll’s House, Nora realises that over the eight years of marriage to her husband, Torvald Helmer, she had never talked with him frankly and equally about anything serious. Throughout Nora’s life she has needed a man to protect her and disclipline her as if she were a child. Before her marriage this was her father and for the past eight years, her husband. The influential power the men in her life have had over her is evident when Nora says, “When I lived at home with Papa, he told me all his opinions, so I had the same ones too; or if they were different I hid themthen I went from Papa’s hands into yoursand so I got the same taste as you.” Nora’s fate had been left in the hand’s of the influential men in her life. Another example of this power held solely by the husband is when Nora is insulted when Krogstad suggests that she may have power over her husband.
The Essay on Interactions Between Men And Women At Workplace
Interactions Between Men and Women at Workplace The present paper is devoted to the discussion of the problems between men and women and their relations at workplace. For a long time this topic has been the subject if active discussion and this work will look at the problems in men and women's relations at work from the two different viewpoints the viewpoint of romance at work and the viewpoint of ...
She speaks, “I! How can you believe that I have any such influence over my husband?” All these values are challenged when Nora comes to the realisation that she has been acting out the role created for her by society’s accepted values. Throughout her life, Nora has had no chance to develop into her own self. She gains insight into her unequal marriage to Helmer and consequently leaves to ‘discover herself’. Ibsen is highlighting that men and women are interdependent and that everyone is indebted to each other in a myriad of ways. For example, Nora plays that she is totally dependent on Torvald, yet he is indebted to her for borrowing the money to save his life. He also criticises the conventional roles for women and what are considered to be their duties.
Helmer can’t understand that Nora’s duties to herself are just as important as the duties to her husband and children. He says, “Before all else, you’re wife and a mother”. Ibsen’s exposure of the need for equality of women to men is part of a much deeper necessity, self-liberation. That is to take control of your life, whether you are male or female, and strive to be the person you wish to be. This is exactly what Nora is doing when she leaves her family. In Norwegian society at the time, it was common that a woman would forgo everything for her family.
The Essay on The Importance Of Play And Leisure For Children
Describe the importance of play and leisure for children and young people. Wales is the only country in the world to have a policy about play, part of it says; “play is the elemental learning process by which humankind has developed. Children exhibit a behavioural imperative and instinctive desire to play. It has contributed significantly to the evolutionary and developmental survival of our ...
The character of Ms Kristine Linde is an example of this. Ms Linde didn’t marry the man she loved in order to marry a man with enough money to care for her ill mother and her younger brothers. Another example is when Nora considers suicide instead of telling her husband of the borrowed money to save him the embarrassment. Nora says to Torvald, “When I am gone from this world, you’ll be free.” This also suggests that Nora believes that Torvald values reputation and status over his love for her. The famous door slam at the end of the play hardly fits into a traditional happy ending. A Doll’s House differed from other plays because the ending was open.
It offered no answers or resolution between the characters. This increases the complexity of the play and the social issues. Although the play seems simple and naturalistic on appearance, the play is also rich in symbolic detail. Throughout the play, Helmer uses terms of endearment for Nora related to the animal world such as “skylark” and “squirrel”. This is symbolic of the power Helmer holds over Nora and shows how he treats her as a child. Ibsen uses techniques such as irony and foreshadowing to contribute to the revelation of themes. When Helmer speaks of Krogstad, “Because an atmosphere of lies like that infects and poisons the whole life of a home.
In a house like that, every breath that the children take is filled with the germs of evil,” he is unaware that Nora is suffering from guilt because she has lied about the borrowed money. In another example, the audience draws parallels between the equal and healthy marriage between Krogstad and Ms Linde at the end of the play, and the marriage between Nora and Helmer, in which Nora must act child-like and completely dependent on Helmer for it to remain stable. Techniques such as these means the play differs from the Romantic period, ‘well-made’ style play to be more like a 19th century Realistic play. It is unreasonable to expect that a play that presents such commonly accepted morals as flaws in the society be able to change people’s views easily and without calamity. In a certain production of the play in Germany, the actress playing Nora refused to play the written ending and the story was adapted so that Nora stayed at the thought of her children. Considering that Ibsen wrote in a style that audiences were not aware of or appreciative of, reconciliation was never a possibility. However this play, not intended to be a plea for woman’s rights, but a call for all humans to be free, has made a significant contribution in constructing the society in which we live in today. Ibsen knew his play would prompt chaos and as he wrote in a poem, “I have never been one for shifting pawns.”.
The Essay on Analysis Of Nora Helmer A Dolls House
... women, occurring about the same time A Doll's House was written. Nora Helmer's character change from a na vet to a wise woman ... the same way a child would, when he does not obey. However, with the arrival of Mrs. Linde, Nora finds a person to ... Ibsen's portrayal of a fairly simple, spoiled "girl" (her childish play had pointed the reader to come at such opinion) becoming ...
