There are major opposing moral views between characters in Henrik Ibsen 's dramatic play A Doll 's House. One moral trail leads to the conclusion that once someone commits a bad deed, there is no saving them; that person is now a low-life degenerate with no redemption in sight.
A Doll's House is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It concerns the lives of a group of middle class Norwegians in the 1870s, and deals with themes such as appearances, the power of money, and the place of women in a patriarchal society.
Both Helmer and Rank use the metaphor of corrupt behaviour as moral sickness. For Helmer its source is the home, and the sickness invariably spreads. He lectures Nora about 'mothers who are constitutional liars', who infect their children with 'the germs of evil' (Act One, p.
Written in 1879 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, "A Doll's House" is a three-act play about a housewife who becomes disillusioned and dissatisfied with her condescending husband. The play raises universal issues and questions that are applicable to societies worldwide.
The doll's house itself is a symbol of the Burnell family's societal position. When it is brought into the Burnell courtyard, it becomes, literally, a house within a house, a mirror of the Burnell's home.
She's come to the conclusion that she's not a fully realized person. She has to spend some time figuring out who she is as an individual or she'll never be anything more than someone's pretty little doll. This would be impossible under the smothering presence of Torvald. She must force herself to face the world alone.
Another important character trait in Torvald is his exalted sense of self. He sees himself as an idealistic, morally upright individual whose morals are unquestionable. He dictates the same morals to his wife, and also to his friends.”A songbird must have a clear voice to sing with-no false notes.”
The play was so controversial that Ibsen was forced to write a second ending that he called “a barbaric outrage” to be used only when necessary. The controversy centered around Nora's decision to abandon her children, and in the second ending she decides that the children need her more than she needs her freedom.
The first instance of female sacrifice is seen in Act 1 through the interaction between Torvald and Nora, where Nora sacrifices her opinions and desires to satisfy her husband. Nora puts on a submissive façade, whose characteristics are similar to a child.
Nora Helmer once secretly borrowed a large sum of money so that her husband could recuperate from a serious illness. She never told him of this loan and has been secretly paying it back in small installments by saving from her household allowance.
When Torvald accuses Nora of not loving him anymore, Nora says his claim is true. She then explains that she realized that she didn't love Torvald that evening, when her expectation that he would take the blame for her—showing his willingness to sacrifice himself for love—wasn't met.
"Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen," she answers. They must both be so changed that "our life together would be a real wedlock." She turns to go, leaving Torvald, face in hands, repeating her name. Then he rises as a hope flashes across his mind.
A Doll's House ends with a woman slamming a door. It shocked its first audience in 1879 – not just because the woman was walking out on her marriage, but because of the sort of woman she was. Nora Helmer, a middle-class housewife, was exactly the sort of character dramatists did not put on stage.
Ironically Ibsen sets up Torvald according to the same representation. For the author, Torvald stands for all the individual-denying social ills against which Ibsen has dedicated all his writing. As a victim of his narrow view of society, Torvald inspires sympathy rather than reproach.
Nora talks joyfully about her love for Torvald, and Torvald refers to Nora using affectionate pet names. Their loving marriage stands in stark contrast with the lives of the other characters: the marriages of Krogstad and Mrs. Linde were based on necessity rather than love, and were unhappy.
Perhaps Torvald's most dislikeable quality is his blatant hypocrisy. Many times throughout the play, Torvald criticizes the morality of other characters. He trashes the reputation of Krogstad, one of his lesser employees (and ironically the loan shark that Nora is indebted to).
Yes, we have more rights and opportunity than Nora, but we often grapple with the same difficult choices that Ibsen throws at Nora's feet. A Doll's House is about the breakup of two people who thought they were in love. For modern society, the specter of divorce looms large, even for couples that stay together.
Particularly its focus is on women's status in the society and their behaviour of patriarchal thinking, the lack of true love and affection, value and respect for a wife by a husband and the lack of inequality, injustice and dignity in the treatment of women in the society.
Ibsen finalizes the play by depicting all the women characters as feminists who abandon their 'doll' lives to leave like free, significant, and responsible in their societies. Nora, Linde, among others, begin as slaves but end a feminists. This renders Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' a feminist essay.
Nora believes herself to be a doll because the men in her life see her more as a toy than a human being.
In the end, Else smiles her rare smile because she, too, has seen, and appreciated, the perfect little lamp. Kezia and Else each share their love of the lamp despite their obvious class differences, and Mansfield seems to suggest that friendship and empathy can overcome class prejudice.
In his A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen employs dramatic and situational irony to highlight the contrast between Nora's true independent personality and her obsequious facade around Torvald, demonstrating the restraints of a typical Victorian marriage that inhibits women's individuality.
What secret has Nora been keeping from Torvald? She was in love with his brother before she married him. She borrowed the money they used to take a trip to Italy. She had an affair with Krogstad five years earlier.