Ibsen's Lessons
Whether it be good or evil, breaking up or staying together, french fries or mashed potatoes, humans have to deal with conflicting forces every day of their lives. While the severity and consequences of these decisions vary, everyone knows what it feels like to try and choose correctly. The pressure, the niggling feelings of doubt, and finally deciding. The main character of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, Nora, is torn by conflicting forces. Nora has to decide whether to live miserably in the role that society has molded for her, or be true to what she wants for herself. Ibsen writes this play to teach his Nineteenth Century society that women were not meant to be oppressed and that something needs to be done to change the current situation. Nora's battle with conflicting forces is meant to be a general formula that could apply to any household of the time and, therefore, meant to influence the decisions of citizens of the time. The first conflicting forces that Nora faces are her instincts to save the man she loves and the law. The laws of Nineteenth Century Europe reflected societal views that women were completely incapable of serious matters, and therefore were left bereft of rights. Nora is well awa
Ibsen wanted women to gain more rights by pointing out the absurdity of restricting something so primitive. She realizes the inhumanity of the treatment of women and decides once and for all to follow her own path. Ibsen hoped that the characters could be an example, not only to women to stand up for themselves, but also to men to see the injustices of the current social situations, and change them. This action makes Nora turn her back on the institution that she finally feels has caged her. Nora proves that she is very naive in the begging of the play because she feels that, despite the law, her decision is justified because she has done it to save her husband's life. This conflict illuminates the meaning of the story because it epitomizes every person's secret wish: to be viewed as an equal. Here Ibsen is striving to appeal to his reader's sense of self-worth. While Nora does what she does to save someone she loves, she will still be condemned by society if her secret is ever made public. Nora's reply to this comment, "It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done" (Ibsen 70), speaks volumes to the depth with which Nora finally understands the society in which she lives. Right from the outset, Nora lies to her husband about the littlest things, such as eating macaroons. By the end of the play, Nora has lost all faith in the societal expectations of her time. By making this decision, Nora is willingly isolating herself from everything she knows as well as leaving her children motherless, and yet for the first time in the play, she earns the reader's respect. The last set of conflicting forces that Nora faces is her decision to stay in society and be with her family, or leave and abandon her children. Nora shows this when she is confronted by Nils Krogstad and says, "Is a wife not allowed to save her husband's life? I don't know much about law, but I am certain that there must be laws pertaining to things such as that" (Ibsen 24). Ibsen is hoping that the irony of this situation would appeal to his audience's sense of logic and that they would see the injustice of this situation and do something about it.
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