Symbolism Of A Dolls House Essay, Research Paper
In A Doll s House, a female protagonist seeking self-worth strikes up controversy. A Doll’s House introduces women as having their own purposes and goals. The protagonist, Nora Helmer, develops throughout the play to eventually conclude that her way of living needs to change and that she must develop characteristics of her own. In other words, she realizes that she needs to be an individual.
Distinct characteristics of the women’s inferior role in a relationship are stressed through the contradicting actions of Nora. Her obsession with buying nice clothes and the buying of expensive Christmas gifts for the kids opposes her ingenuity in freeloading and buying of cheap clothing for herself, so that she can save money to repay her fraudulent loan. Another example of contradiction would be when she defied Torvald by snacking on Macaroons and then denying it when he confronts her about them. This action contradicts the compliance of her opinions. Lastly, Nora’s engaging nature disagrees with her monogamous relationship with her husband. Nora is a friendly woman who is very flirtatious with many other men. These three examples highlight the surface of a relationship in which women play a dependent role. Ibsen gets our attention to these three examples to draw attention to the overall role that a woman plays compared to the roles of their husband.
It can be suggested that women have the choice to choose which rules to follow at home, but not in the workplace. Nora doesn t come to terms in the beginning to realize that the rules in the real world apply to her. This is shown in Nora’s meeting with Krogstad. In Nora s opinion, it wasn t illegal for a woman to risk it all for the life of ones husband. Nora also thinks that her illegal activity will be disregarded in the eyes of the law, due to the fact that she was in a situation of total desperation (Ibsen p.1133). Her problem was the she overlooks that the law doesn t care why she committed her crime of forgery, but the fact that she still committed the crime. This example shows that Nora has no experience or knowledge of the real world. It also shows that she plays an inferior role in the real world, compared to that of man.
Nora, in A Doll s House, plays two important, but separately equal, parts. One is in describing of her role as a woman. The other, in pointing out the force of this role on a woman. Nora’s defiance and need of responsibility correlated with her lack of complexity. This example further stresses the inferior role that women had in this time period and is apparent as she eventually reflects back to realize that she is an uninformed person when it comes to a role outside of her norm. She realizes that she was never happy in Helmer’s dollhouse but was just having fun (A Doll s House, online). She also realizes that she isn t a good mother or wife for that matter. He tries to forbid her from leaving and persuade her to stay in order to fulfill her “sacred duties” to her husband and her children. She replies by saying that she has an equally important duty to herself and leaves him(A Doll s House, online). All of these observations by Nora create a specific mood. When conditions change and Nora is put into a responsible position, she has nothing to give. This is also evident when her moral judgment is needed. This type of inadequacy has produced a class of women who cannot handle responsibility, and the consequences of their judgments.
The playwright, Ibsen, has an impact upon the views of the inferior position of women in society. By telling this role of woman, elaborating its result, and forecasting a change in modern observation, he underlined the magnitude of woman’s understanding of this assumed inadequacy. The examination of Nora exposes that she relies on her husband and presents no individual characteristics. Her development of insight suggests that women of the future may have a possible comprehension of their troubles. Nora s reflection of her ignorance at the play s end is evocative of the start of humanity to the renovating of the role of women.