Through out the play, Ibsen uses every day object, and their relation with the character, to externalize the characters inner problem. Using symbolism, he creates a story in parallel, where unspoken matters are brought to the surface. A Doll’s House is set during Christmas period; a period of festivity and changes. The first symbol that Ibsen uses is a decorative object very closely related to this period: a Christmas tree. This Christmas tree symbolises Nora’s position in her households as a plaything who adds charm to the home and who is pleasing to look at. There are several parallel drawn between Nora and the Christmas tree in the play.
Hide the Christmas tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it till this evening, when it is dressed. (Ibsen 12).
just as she tells Torvald that no one can see her in her dress until the evening of the dance: NORA. Yes nobody is to have the chance of admiring me in my dress until to-morrow. (Ibsen 51).
It also indicates the state of Nora’s psychological conditions after it has begun to decline; the stage direction at the beginning of the second act ndicates that the Christmas tree is correspondingly “dishevelled”: STAGE DIRECTION. The Christmas tree … stripped of its ornaments and with burned- down candles-ends on its dishevelled branches. (Ibsen 35).
As the action of the play is set at Christmas time, Nora and Torvald both look forward to New Year’s as the start of a new phase in their lives. In the New Year, Torvald will start a new job, and he anticipates with excitement the extra money and admiration the job will bring him. Nora also looks forward to Torvald’s new job, because she will finally be able to repay her secret dept to Krogstad.
The Term Paper on Christmas Tree 3
“Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.” Christmas songs like this one and many, many more were stuck in my head for the upcoming holidays. I was December 19, 2001, and these songs from television shows to radios and even from Christmas shopping music at stores were played over and over again until I was humming them myself. With Christmas break coming right around the ...
By the end of the play, however, the nature of the new start that New Year’s represents for Torvald and Nora has changed dramatically. They both must become new people and face radically changed ways of living. Hence, the New Year comes to mark the beginning of a truly new and different period in both their lives and their personalities. NORA. Both you and I would have to be so changed that — … (Ibsen 72) NORA. That our life together would be a real wedlock. … (Ibsen 72) To reveal the tension and difference of opinion between husband and wife, Ibsen uses an everyday item; a ball dress.
