New York City, February 18, 2014
A Doll’s House
“A Doll’s House” is a drama story about Nora, a woman who for love to her husband, forged her father’s signature for a loan, and saved her husband Tovaldo’s life. In 1879 in Norway, a conventional marriage as the Helmers, is the image of a happy co-existence. Henrick Ibsen sets the play on Christmas Eve. The scenes illustrate what its hiden under the harmony of family life, not of romantic love, but of marriage. Nora Helmer will break the family ties to carry out her dream, and find her independence as a human being. Nora takes off the mask of perfect woman, and ends the farce of the marriage relationship. Never again she will be the woman who dedicated only to her home and her family, or she be limited in her thoughts and in her actions than demanded the society of the 19th century. Nora is seeking a equality with man, to struggle against the role of the woman in a masculine society.
Ibsen in “A Doll’s House” portrays a middle-class family in Norway, creating characters that represent social hypocrisy, political corruption, patriarchy and the subordination of women. The character Nora, who wantes to go out to work, or go out with friends. Helmer would have never allow it under any circumstances because the women in those times did not have the right to personal opinions and had to do what their husbands says. Nora is Torvald’s victim, but she does not know what say to confront her husband whom she loves, but he disappoints her. However, later, Nora becomes a heroine after suffering the lack of freedom; she takes action with courage, thinking of herself and not in what others say. Proof of this is when Torvald and Nora are discussing about what she will do with her life now that she is free. “Helmer: You talk like a child. You don’t know anything, of the world you live in. Nora: No, I don’t. But now I’ll begin for myself. I’ll try to discover who’s right, the world or I” (Gardner, 905). Currently, there are many women like Nora who still lives in “a doll’s house”, without having the right to be who others want to be.
Women practically in the late 1800s had no power of decision. In the past, marriages in the majority of cases, were performed for convenience and love was not necessary to find a partner. Women could not be alone. Therefore, once they stopped relying on their fathers, they passed into the possession of their husbands. A case like this, is Mrs. Linde, a character opposite of Nora. Mrs. Linde gradually reveals the shameful decision of her past; she abandoned the man she love and wanted to marry but choose another that only offered her security. Now, she has been widowed and returns to the misery of which try to fly. . Mrs. Linde wants to be dependent on a man. She feels that she is not able cope with without the help of a man, and she prefers the role of a doll, a bird, a lark enclosed in a cage, to be fed, get presents, and provide care in the home.
In this modern world, there are social campaigns and even laws against women's discrimination. The statistics of abused women have not decreased much, because still prevails male with force and aggression, and femininity with weakness and submission. A house of dolls is the place where women are considered as a decoration, with no other skills or brains and whose only job is the same as furniture, and without any other role than a doll, with a man can play when he wants, and laugh at her grace and beauty, but otherwise they are nothing.
Ibsen creates as an opposite to the character of Nora to Mrs Lined. She appears as a free and confident woman. A woman who is looking for her economic independence. Also, Mrs. Linde is a connoisseur of housework, she can sew with needle and thread. She is looking for a job She is not part of the group of women who are like a trophy for men. Beauty does not matter to a woman like Mrs. Linde who is not pretty, she has other skills peorque Nora does not. She knows how to care for their children, she can sew and also looking for a job in a banck. Hardly, she could not suffer some abuse from a man. The author proposes a non-stereotypical relationship, here Mrs. Lined is who decides about her life.
In the end, Nora learns that it is important to value herself and refuses to be used as a doll. Nora expected Torvald defends her in society against those who will accuse her of forgery, but her husband blames her, and does not even thank her for running such a risk for him.. Now, she is aware that she has brains and deserves the same respect and treatment as men. She decides to educate herself, and chooses to do it alone, without accepting help from Torvald. She decides to leave the house, his family, and no longer be tied to a fictitious marriage, which is manipulated by her husband Helmer. She never again will be a bird, or a doll and she can eat macaroni without hiding and without asking permission. Nora makes the decision to change the role that women occupied in that patriarchal society, and, though her attitude is judged as daring in those days, Nora feels realased! The farce of a happy marriage can destroy dreams. Dreams make life worth living, but often these dreams must be postponed. Nora goes in search of her dreams, but my mother never left the doll's house. Now she is aged and her dreams are withered.
Works Cited
A Doll’s House. Dir. Patrick Garland. Perf. Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliot, Anna Massey, and Edith Evans. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1973. DVD.
Gardner, Janet E., Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel, eds. Literature: A Portable Anthology. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s. 2013. Print.
