Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a play about a young wife and her husband. Nora and Helmer seem to be madly in love with one another and very happy with their lives together. Yet the conflict comes into this show when Nora brags to her friend Ms. Linde about how she had forged her father’s name to borrow money to save her husband’s life and how she had been secretly paying off this debt. Helmer finds out about this crime and is furious, until he finds that no one will ever know about it. This entire conflict is written to bring to light the ridiculous social expectations demanded of both women and men. Ibsen expertly leads the audience into accepting that these social expectations are foolish and wrong. The audience buys into this so much that in the end when Nora stands firm and refuses to bow down to what society demands of her, we see her as the hero.
The social expectations of men in the late nineteenth century was of a more patriarchal thought-line then it is today. The man of the house was expected to be the sole provider. This works best for the families of that time, because they believed that by natural design men alone were capable of managing money wisely and carefully. The first s
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Nora constantly is munching on and subsequently hiding candy, she off-handedly lies, and also can’t resist bragging to Ms. She realizes Helmer cannot help her find herself and that she cannot help her children (Lowenthal 143). This belief comes very naturally to Helmer. They are certainly the underclass of the sexes. By natural design, women are not good with money, with planning, or with complicated thinking. Nora knows that she cannot be an equal because she does not know herself or anything of life, except for life as others have arranged it for her and shown it to her (Boyesen 213). ” Nora fits right along with Helmer for she, as well as he, has fit themselves perfectly into what society wants. This entire social condition became an inescapable cycle, since men chose what men should and would be like and they chose as suits them. Boyesen writes that “Nora is the perfect wife, such as the poets and the masculine ideal of all ages have figured her; she is soft, sweet, impulsive, gentle, pouts when she is crossed, and can be cajoled back into good humor by a kiss (201). In the end, because of his treatment and views of her, he failed her and forced her to leave him.
When Nora is faced with the cold reality of the inner feelings of Helmer, she does not move into hysteria, but instead moves into calculated action to stand up for herself (Finney 100). cene of the show we see Helmer and Nora acting out this belief. (Williams 174) This is seen in “A Doll’s House” by the fact that at the conclusion of the show, Nora walks out of the apartment as the strong hero, while Helmer is left standing there weak and destroyed. The wants and desires of women were put aside so that they may better perform the role of pleasing the men in their lives. He “treats her as a spoiled child (Boyesen 201).
Approximate Word count =
1946
Approximate Pages =
8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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