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- Herausgeber: BookRix
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
Various book reviews and essays on famous plays, novels from European authors. Themes: sci-fi, colonialism, WWI, history, WWII, love and
relationships, satire, paranormal, adventure, foreign customs.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Book Reviews
BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 MunichEssay on a Doll's house by Ibsen (play)
Essay on A Doll’s House by Ibsen
By Georgina H Brandt
Cuba (1958- )
June 6, 2004
Word count: 697.
The play ” A Doll's House” received its name because the main character Nora refers to her home and life as places in which she plays with her children as dolls, in the same way her father and husband played with her as if she was a doll. In fact, she indicates this in Act III when she says: "When I was at home with papa, he called me his doll-child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls." Later, she adds: “our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, and here the children have been my dolls."
In “A Doll's House” Nora breaks away from her role of wife and mother imposed on her by society. In the 19th century, society frowned upon women asserting themselves; which Nora does at the end of the play by abandoning her husband and children for total independence, to find her true self and be able to understand the world. The role of women (imposed by society) was: to support their husbands by raising and educating the children, while converting the home into a comfortable abode for all members of the family. All decisions, especially those concerning
finances were left to the males, the breadwinners. Women, represented by the character Nora, were subservient to the men, yet judged equally by their laws, protected from the harshness of the world by their fathers and then their husbands, which deemed them ignorant of them and their consequences. Women were not allowed to borrow money without their husband's permission, but Nora does this by forging her father's signature to save her husband's life, she simply thinks she did nothing wrong because she did it for a good reason' (as she tells Krogstad at the end of Act I); in fact, she was totally unaware that this was a crime until Krogstad pointed it out to her. She deceives her husband into thinking she is pure or lacking evil, as he thinks is also his dollhouse. He calls her names of pets: my little lark', my squirrel', and fantasizes her as being carefree and childish. In ritual and in the theater, the black mask across the eyes of the lark, represent a hidden identity (Nora's double face). At the end of the play, the mask is also figuratively removed and Nora realizes her dollhouse' and therefore her marriage have been a delusion. Helmer says: "is that my squirrel rummaging around?" when she nibbles on macaroons; squirrels hide and bury food, as Nora hides the truth about borrowing money.
In Act III, Ibsen questions the institution of marriage, thru Nora's statement, by saying that they had never truly sat down to discuss anything serious. Her husband who had promised earlier to save her from any trouble that may occur in the future which he will bear on his broad shoulders', turns into a coward, fully preoccupied with his image and reputation alone, her motives of love which prompted her forgery in order to save his life, do not matter at all to him; and only that he will be considered an accomplice to such a crime is his ultimate torment and fear. Nora changes from an intelligent yet childish and naive woman into a strong willed, independent thinker.
She also points out that "when the whole thing was past, it was exactly as if nothing had happened. Exactly as before, I was your little sky-lark, your doll, which you would in the future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile." She leaves him and her children since she agrees with him that she is not fit for the task of motherhood, because: "There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate myself." The play is called “A Doll's House”, because Nora (representing all women) begins to realize that her actions of playing with the children and dressing them nicely as if they were her dolls in a dollhouse does not make her a suitable parent.
Bibliography
A Doll’s House, by H. Ibsen
