DOLLS_HOUSE|CHARACTERSTHE CHARACTERS (IDOLCHAR)-(Spelling of the characters’ names may vary according to thetranslation.)-NORA HELMERNora is a fascinating character for actresses to play, and for youto watch. She swings between extremes: she is either very happy orsuicidally depressed, comfortable or desperate, wise or naive,helpless or purposeful. You can understand this range in Nora, becauseshe wavers between the person she pretends to be and the one she maysomeday become.At the beginning of the play, Nora is still a child in many ways,listening at doors and guiltily eating forbidden sweets behind herhusband’s back. She has gone straight from her father’s house to herhusband’s, bringing along her nursemaid to underline the fact thatshe’s never grown up. She’s also never developed a sense of self.She’s always accepted her father’s and her husband’s opinions. Andshe’s aware that Torvald would have no use for a wife who was hisequal. But like many children, Nora knows how to manipulate Torvald bypouting or by performing for him.In the end, it is the truth about her marriage that awakens Nora.Although she may suspect that Torvald is a weak, petty man, she clingsto the illusion that he’s strong, that he’ll protect her from theconsequences of her act. But at the moment of truth, he abandons hercompletely. She is shocked into reality and sees what a sham theirrelationship has been. She becomes aware that her father and herhusband have seen her as a doll to be played with, a figure withoutopinion or will of her own- first a doll-child, then a doll-wife.She also realizes that she is treating her children the same way.Her whole life has been based on illusion rather than reality.The believability of the play hinges on your accepting Nora’s suddenself-awareness. Some readers feel that she has been a child so longshe couldn’t possibly grow up that quickly. Others feel that she isalready quite wise without realizing it, and that what happens iscredible. There are lines in the play that support both arguments.It’s up to you to read the play and then draw your own conclusions.There is a parallel to the story of Nora in the life of one ofIbsen’s friends, a woman named Laura Kieler. She, too, secretlyborrowed money to finance a trip to a warm climate for a seriously illhusband. When she had difficulty repaying the loan, she forged anote but was discovered and placed in a mental institution.Eventually, she was released and went back to her husband for herchildren’s sake. The story outraged Ibsen, and he fictionalized itin A Doll’s House, although rewriting the ending.-TORVALD HELMERProbably all of you know someone like Torvald. He’s astraight-laced, proper man, and proud of it. At first, he seemsgenuinely in love with Nora, even if he does tend to nag and preacha bit. But as the play progresses, you discover more disturbingparts of his character.Like anyone who doubts his own power, Torvald must frequentlyprove it. He keeps tight control over who comes to his study andwhom he speaks to at work, and over everything affecting Nora. He evenhas the only key to their mailbox.During the third act, you see his need for dominance increase. Hisfantasies always have Nora in a submissive role. He is happiest whentreating her as a father would a child. This gives an incestuous tingeto their relationship, which Nora comes to realize and abhor at theend of the play.On the other hand, Torvald is not a bad man. He is the product ofhis society, one who seems to fit well in the middle-class mold.It’s only when he’s tested that his well-ordered house of cardscomes crashing down.Some readers question the believability of Nora’s love forTorvald. How could she have been blind to the obvious faults of thisdull, petty man for eight years? He must have qualities that makeNora’s love credible, but at the same time he must become odiousenough at the end for her to break all ties and leave immediately upondiscovering his true self. What kind of marriage relationship wouldput a premium on Torvald’s good qualities?Besides being Nora’s weak and unsupportive husband, Torvaldrepresents a “type” of thought and behavior that contrasts with Norain several effective ways. He represents middle-class society andits rules, while Nora represents the individual. He stands for theworld of men and “logical male thinking,” while Nora’s thinking ismore intuitive and sensitive. Can you think of other ways that Torvaldand Nora are compared?In light of these comparisons, how would you interpret Torvald’sdefeat at the end? Certainly at the play’s start, Torvald appears tobe in command in contrast to Nora’s weakness. But by the end of ActThree their roles have been reversed: he is the weak one, beggingfor another chance, and Nora has found strength. Does the authormean to suggest that the ideas of male supremacy and middle-classrespectability were changing?-DR. RANKDr. Rank is an old family friend, whose relationship to theHelmers is deeper than it appears. He always visits with Torvaldfirst, but it is Nora he really comes to see. Both Rank and Noraprefer each other’s company to Torvald’s.Although Nora flirts with Rank and fantasizes about a rich gentlemandying and leaving her everything, she never acknowledges her truefeelings- the attraction she feels for older, father-figures. Rankat least is honest in declaring his love for Nora.The doctor serves several important functions in the play. Hisphysical illness, inherited from his loose-living father, parallelsthe “moral illness” shared by Krogstad and Nora. The hereditary natureof Rank’s disease, although it is never identified, suggests thepossibility of immorality passing from generation to generation.Rank’s concern with appearing normal despite his illness parallelsTorvald’s concerns with maintaining the appearance of a normalmarriage after he discovers Nora’s moral “disease.”Dr. Rank helps Nora on her journey to self-discovery. He forcesher to face the reality of his death, which prepares her for the deathof her marriage. He also forces her to look behind appearances tosee the romantic nature of her and Rank’s relationship. Nora refusesto deal with both of these issues in the second act, but by thethird act she and Rank are through with masquerades and are bothopenly preparing to die. At the end, Rank realizes and accepts hisapproaching death, while Nora realizes and accepts the death of hermarriage.-KRISTINE LINDEMrs. Linde, Nora’s old friend, is the first “voice from the past”who affects the future. On the one hand, she is like Nora becauseshe’s gone through what Nora is about to face. Kristine has come outof a marriage that was socially acceptable and emotionally bankrupt.On the other hand, she is different from Nora because, havingalready been disillusioned, she has now gained a firm grasp onreality. She has hope, but it’s based on knowing and accepting thetruth about herself and about Krogstad. Kristine is the first to seeNora’s marriage for the pretense it is. It is Kristine who decides,for better or worse, that Torvald has to know the whole truth aboutNora’s forgery.Kristine and Krogstad’s compassionate and realistic relationshipcontrasts with Nora and Torvald’s playacting. While the Helmers’socially acceptable relationship crumbles because it’s based ondeceptions, Nils and Kristine’s relationship is renewed andstrengthened because it’s based on truth.-NILS KROGSTADNils Krogstad, a clerk in Helmer’s bank, is called immoral byseveral other characters in the play, but is he? We usually think ofan immoral person as someone who has no regard for right and wrong.But Krogstad is concerned with right and wrong. He’s alsoconcerned about his reputation and its effect on his children.Although he has been a forger, he wants to reform and triesdesperately to keep his job and social standing. Once they’re lost, hedecides to play the part of the villain in which society hasimprisoned him. His attempt to blackmail Nora sets the play’s actionin motion.Through his blackmail letter he forces Nora into self-knowledge.He also affects some of the other characters in ways that reveal notonly the truth about him, but the truth about them as well. Forexample, you discover much of Torvald’s pettiness from the way hereacts to Krogstad as an inferior. Despite his superficial role as avillain, Krogstad understands himself and the world. Although somefind his conversion in Act Three hard to believe, he (together withKristine) offers that message of hope that gives promise to Nora’sfuture.
DOLLS_HOUSE|SETTINGOTHER ELEMENTS-SETTING (IDOLSETT)-A Doll’s House takes place in a large Norwegian town. The entiredrama unfolds on one set, a “comfortable room” in the Helmers’ housethat serves both as a drawing room in which to receive guests and as afamily room where the children play and where the family sets up itsChristmas tree. There is a door to the entryway and another toTorvald’s study.Ibsen describes this setting in minute detail. About midwaythrough his career, he adapted a style of drama that has been called”photographic.” Instead of creating various country or city scenesas background for his characters, he “takes a picture” of one roomthey inhabit. Every piece of furniture, every prop reveals thecharacter of the people who live in this place. For example, in theHelmers’ drawing room there is a “small bookcase with richly boundbooks.” What better way to describe Torvald, their owner, than as”richly bound”- someone who looks good from the outside? Also, theChristmas tree serves to represent various stages in Nora Helmer’slife. When her life appears happy, the tree is beautifully trimmed.When her happiness is shattered, the tree is stripped and drooping.Ibsen has described the set and its props precisely, so that everyproduction will reproduce this same “photograph” of the Helmers’living room.Probably the most significant thing about the setting of this playis that it concerns middle-class characters and values. It takes placein an unnamed city, where banking and law would be considered normaland respectable occupations. Banking is the occupation most closelyassociated with money, the symbol of middle-class goals, and thecrimes of the characters- Nora, her father, and Krogstad- are monetaryones. Notice also how Torvald, a lawyer and bank manager, ispreoccupied with Nora’s extravagance, or waste of money.Up until Ibsen’s time, serious drama had been almost exclusivelyconcerned with members of the aristocracy or military heroes. Comedyhad served to depict the lives of the farmers, workers, and lowerclass. But A Doll’s House is a serious drama about the middle class.Some might even say it is a tragedy of everyday life. In light oftoday’s understanding of marital roles and the larger issue of women’sself-awareness, would you call the fate of the Helmers’ marriage atragedy?
DOLLS_HOUSE|THEMESTHEMES (IDOLTHEM)-The major themes of A Doll’s House recur in many of Ibsen’s plays,including Hedda Gabler.-1. THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETYIbsen felt strongly that society should reflect people’s needs,not work against them. In A Doll’s House, society’s rules preventthe characters from seeing and expressing their true nature. WhenKrogstad tells Nora that the law takes no account of good motives, shecries, “Then they must be very bad laws!”At the end of the play, she realizes she has existed in twohouseholds ruled by men and has accepted the church and societywithout ever questioning these institutions. In the third act, Noraseparates herself from the “majority” and the books that support them.”But,” she says, “I can’t go on believing what the majority says, orwhat’s written in books. I have to think over these things myselfand try to understand them.” The individual has triumphed oversociety, but at a heavy price that includes her children. When Norawalks out the door, she becomes a social outcast.-2. DUTY TO ONESELFIbsen seems to be saying that your greatest duty is to understandyourself. At the beginning of the play, Nora doesn’t realize she has aself. She’s playing a role. The purpose of her life is to pleaseTorvald or her father, and to raise her children. But by the end ofthe play, she discovers that her “most sacred duty” is to herself. Sheleaves to find out who she is and what she thinks.-3. THE PLACE OF WOMENThis was a major theme in late nineteenth-century literature andappeared in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Gustave Flaubert’s MadameBovary, and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, to name only afew.Ibsen refused to be called a feminist, preferring to be known as ahumanist. He had little patience with people, male or female, whodidn’t stand up for their rights and opinions.Still, he argued that society’s rules came from the traditionallymale way of thinking. He saw the woman’s world as one of human values,feelings, and personal relationships, while men dealt in theabstract realm of laws, legal rights, and duties. In A Doll’s House,Nora can’t really see how it is wrong to forge a name in order to savea life, but Torvald would rather die than break the law or borrowmoney. This difference in thinking is what traps Nora.However, for Ibsen, the triumph of the individual embraces the rightof women to express themselves. In the end, Nora’s duty to knowherself is more important than her female role.-4. APPEARANCE AND REALITYAt the beginning of the play, family life is not what it seems. Norais Torvald’s “little squirrel”; they appear to have a perfect marriageand their home is debt-free. Nora seems content and Torvald is incontrol. Scandal can’t touch them. Everyone concerned wants to keep upappearances. But, little by little, as the play progresses, realityreplaces appearances.Nora is upset when Dr. Rank shatters the appearance that theirrelationship is innocent. Torvald insists on keeping up the appearanceof marriage even after rejecting Nora for her past crime. He isappalled when Krogstad calls him by his first name at the bank- itdoesn’t appear proper. Dr. Rank wants to appear healthy. Krogstadand Nora want to hide their deeds and are enmeshed in a tissue oflies.Only when the characters give up their deceptions and cast off theirelaborately constructed secrets can they be whole. Ask yourself howall the characters achieve this freedom from appearances by the play’send. Do any of them fail?-5. THE COLLAPSE OF THE PARENTAL IDEALNora seems to be under the impression that her father was perfect,and she tried to replace him- first with Torvald, then with Rank. Whenshe realizes her father wasn’t looking out for her best interests,it’s only a short step to discovering that Torvald isn’t either.
DOLLS_HOUSE|STYLESTYLE (IDOLSTYL)-After finishing an earlier play, Ibsen wrote a letter saying, “Weare no longer living in the age of Shakespeare… what I desired todepict were human beings, and therefore I would not let them talkthe language of the gods.” This doesn’t seem unusual to us todaybecause we expect the major characters in contemporary plays andmovies to speak in everyday language. But in Ibsen’s day the use ofcommon speech was shocking. Writers in the mid-1800s were largelydevoted to the tradition requiring plays to be aboutlarger-than-life heroes who spoke grand and noble language. EvenIbsen’s early plays were about heroic events and contained dialoguefilled with poetry.But later he wanted to do something different. He wanted to writerealistic plays about the average middle-class people who made uphis audience and who spoke the way they did. In A Doll’s House, thecharacters use everyday vocabulary and colloquial expressions. Theyinterrupt each other, correct themselves, and speak in incompletesentences. This switch to realistic dialogue is considered one ofthe major breakthroughs in the development of modern drama.It’s also important to note that Ibsen was writing inDano-Norwegian. For centuries, Norway’s art and literature had beenheavily influenced by Denmark. Even when a group of authors finallystarted a Norwegian writers’ society, they met in Denmark. Then in the1800s, Norwegians became very nationalistic. They wanted their own artand their own language. In those days there were only two languages tochoose from: a mixture of peasant dialects or a refined mixture ofNorwegian and Danish. Ibsen was part of the first generation who hadgrown up speaking and writing Dano-Norwegian. (Today in Norway, evenIbsen’s language sounds old-fashioned and stilted because the languagehas reduced the amount of Danish and increased the amount ofcolloquial Norwegian.)There are several notable differences between Ibsen’s originallanguage and English translations. English has many synonyms anduses many modifiers. Dano-Norwegian, on the other hand, tends to besimpler, using fewer words and adjectives. It will use a few verybrief, strong images, instead of effusive descriptions. This isevident in A Doll’s House in several ways. There are very fewmetaphors (elaborate word comparisons) or descriptive adjectives.The sparse language lends itself to understatement and to multilevelmeanings for single words. Much of the humor comes fromunderstanding the layers of different meaning. Ibsen adds his ownstrict control of language to this natural Norwegian economy. Noneof the dialogue is superfluous; it is all packed with meaning. Infact, often the dialogue means more than the character knows it means!An example of this “loaded” dialogue occurs when Torvald talks abouthow an immoral parent poisons the whole family. He is referring toKrogstad, but Nora’s replies refer to herself.The differences between English and Norwegian make Ibsen’s playssomewhat difficult to translate. Ibsen’s own wish was “that thedialogue in the translations be kept as close to everyday, ordinaryspeech as possible.” One difficulty, for example, is that Norwegiandoesn’t use contractions, but English without contractions soundsdry and stilted. Most modern translators try to keep Ibsen’s textclose to everyday English and the spirit, if not the word, of theoriginal. This means that phrases may change from earlier to latertranslations depending on current usage. Also, be aware that someversions available in America are British and use distinctly Britishspeech patterns.