In Henrik Ibsens, A Dolls House, Nora struggles to achieve justice and her rightful place as a woman, mother, and wife, despite the hardships and mistreatment of her husband Torvald and her father. Throughout Noras life, she has faced hardships in order to survive as a normal person because of the mistreatment she received from the two men in life she ever loved; her father and her husband. The mistreatment of Noras father and husband has caused Nora to become and be an extremely weak individual. Nora is fearful to live the way she wants to because she no longer has an identity of her own.
Despite the hardships and mistreatment Nora encounters, she still has extreme hubris. She wants everyone to recognize and believe that she is living a joyous and wealthy life. In search for Noras rightful place as a wife, mother, and woman, she must also search for her quest for justice. [ ] When her image of herself and her domestic life is shattered she does what she feels she must to become a true person. (Clurman154) Nora encounters many struggles in achieving justice and finding her rightful place in society. Throughout Noras life, she has been mistreated and viewed as a doll not as a human.
Noras father, it transpires, an irresponsible spendthrift, brought her up with no sense of social obligations or serious thought for the morrow, while her husband, finding her a delightful companion like this, did nothing to repair the omission and treated her with a playfulness of a teen not a mother. (Beerbohm147) As a result, Nora realizes that she has been mistreated and treated unfairly. Nora, however, protests that she has been treated unfairly in being denied the opportunity to participate in her marriage and in society as an informed adult.
Gosse219) Torvald and Noras father both viewed Nora as if she could not make decisions on her own. The transformation from her carefree days as a girl to marriage meant no more to her than a change from a small dolls house to a larger one. (Salome226) In the play A Dolls House, Nora is not oblivious to her mistreatment; she soon becomes very much aware of it. Nora states, I was simply your little songbird, your doll [] (Ibsen230) Nora has never been taken seriously; not by her father and now not by her husband.
They do not take her thoughts or her comments in to any considerations what so ever; she is in a sense a child to them not an adult. It soon becomes evident that Nora has never been taken seriously, but rather has been treated like a delightful child, first by her father and then her husband. (Gosse219) Nora strictly plays a role of a wife and mother; being submissive to her husband she could influence home policies and decisions only indirectly by suggestions to her husband.
Hardwick241) Torvald alternately indulges and admonishes his wife in the manner of an authoritarian parent. (Gosse219) Torvald questions Nora about buying macaroons and tells her not to eat them and that she is going to ruin her teeth with them. [] His little sweet tooth, his little squirrel, she with her flaunting of macaroons, her petty ways, answering to an image he has made for her. (Gray1429) Noras purpose in life is to serve, live, and be happy for her husband and her childrens sake. Archers perception of A Dolls House and his view of women is closely related to Nora.
A woman cannot be herself in the society of to-day, which is exclusively a masculine society, with laws written by men, and with accusers and judges who judge feminine conduct from the masculine standpoint. (Archer1) Torvald and Noras father have taken away her identity and left her with no power over herself. Therefore, Nora is a very weak mother, wife, and woman. She is very weak and vulnerable because she is scared to live the way she wants to because she has no identity of her own. Nora does not profess to be an intellectual companion to her husband, even if he wanted it. Scott221) Nora was to act, listen, and do what her husband said, even if she disagreed or did not have an urge to do as he wished. [] Helmers correct bearing and rectitude most surely intimidate Nora. (Salome227)
She lives in them and by them, without moral instincts of her own, or any law but their pleasure. (Gosse220) Nora is very weak and never did, as she wanted because never wanted to disagree or go against something her husband may not approve of in fear of loosing him. ] She worships her husband, believes in him implicitly, and is sure that if ever her safety should be menaced, Torvald, her idol, her god, would perform the miracle. Goldman1) Nora suffers a great deal of weakness towards Torvald, Ms. Linde, and especially Krogstad.
Nora wants everyone to believe she is perfect and can do no wrong. Nora is extremely intimidated by Torvald because she was never able to tell him of the forgery and the truthful way she received the money. Nora for a moment never trusted Helmer. If she had done so she would have long ago have told him about her troubles. (Hardwick241) Nora is feeble towards her friend Ms. Linde; she is fearful of telling her the truth about her life. She wants Ms. Linde to believe she lives the perfect life.
For this reason, Nora does not want to tell Ms. Linde the truth; she wants to be superior to her and appear better than she appears. Nora is not able to experience love and marriage in Ms. Lindes way-full of rationality, habituation, renunciation, and sober duty- a love and marriage without the element of wonder. Salome230) Noras relationship with Krogstad shows the same complexity of character in which she showed with Torvald and with Ms. Linde. Nora fears Krogstad because he is the only person who knows of her irresponsibility, which led to the crime, she committed, therefore; she becomes very vulnerable towards him.
Noras overgrown irresponsibility on the other hand, permitted the forgery []. (Beerbohm147) Nora is irresponsible and frivolous, not only because the serious element in her nature have never received encouragement, but also because she has inherited from her father a disposition towards frivolity and irresponsibility. Beerbohm148) Krogstad takes advantage of Noras weakness and the dependency and love she has for her husband, and uses her crime of forgery as blackmail and insurance on his job. []
Noras glee on learning that Krogstad is now dependent on her husband; [] dramatic irony was an after-thought. Archer3) Noras forgery of her fathers signature on the bond being used as blackmail against Helmer who has dismissed him from his minor clerical post at the bank. (Salome228) Nora wanted to please her husband and her father above all things; this was her way of achieving something in life. As a result, of her placing the well-being of the ones she loves above what is acceptable and what is not she is very weak-minded and chooses the wrong in order to please her loved ones.
When a woman loves as Nora does, nothing else matters; least of all social, legal, or moral considerations. Goldman1) Therefore, When her husbands life is threatened, it is no effort, it is joy for Nora to forge her fathers name to a note and borrow 800 crohen on it, in order to take her sick husband to Italy. (Goldman1) She has committed forgery, and it is her pride; for she did it for love of her husband, and to save his life. Archer2) Nora not only shows weakness towards Torvald, Ms. Linde, and Krogstad, but also towards her children. She loves her children and plays with them, but never does she act as parent towards them; she leaves the parenting duties to the families nanny.
Oppressed and bewildered by belief in authority, she loses her faith in her own moral right and ability to bring up her children. (Archer2) Nora is fearful of being a parent towards her children because Torvald did not allow her to share in any family responsibilities or troubles that may have come along. Noras weakness and vulnerability towards the people in her life comes consequently, as a result of, the mistreatment she received throughout her entire life as a daughter, wife, and mother.
Despite the mistreatment Nora faced, which caused her to become extremely weak and vulnerable, she still has extreme hubris and excessive pride. Nora manifests to everyone that she is loved and cherished by her husband; when in reality he views her stickly as a doll. Nora does in fact realize that the love her husband has for her will eventually end, however; she makes it not seem as bad as it really is because of her pride. ] Someday when Torvald is not so much in love with me as he is now []. (Archer3) Nora is a romantic dreamer whose dream in life is to be rich and live a perfect life.
Nora tells Ms. Linde of how her and Torvald are rich and have extreme happiness, but she does not mention to her the troubles that occurred in her life. Its really wonderful to have lots of money, and never need to worry. (Ibsen155) Noras emphasis is on being rich, wealthy, and having the best. Her real problem is money- at the beginning and at the end. (Hardwick241) Noras extreme pride causes her to lie and tell Ms. Linde that she saved her money to pay for the trip that saved Torvalds life. When in reality she committed a crime to receive the money.
Of course. After all, it was my own doing. So whenever Torvald gave me money for new dresses and things, I never spent more than half of it- I always bought the simplest, cheapest things. Thank goodness anything looks well on me, so Torvald never noticed. But, oh Kristina, it hasnt been at all easy, because its so nice to be beautifully dressed, isnt it? (Ibsen162) Nora gives Ms. Linde the impression that she is a perfect and honest woman, and that she does all good; while in the meantime making Ms. Linde feel as if her life was a complete failure.
Noras overasservative personality causes her to emphasize on money and beauty. [] Then I use to sit here and imagine that a rich old gentleman had fallen in love with me- wait a minute-and that he died, and when they read his will, there it was, as large as life: All my money is to go to the lovely Mrs. Nora Helmer- cash down. (Ibsen162) Despite the mistreatments and weaknesses Nora faces, she still has extreme pride. Nora imagines the world different from the way it really is in order to make herself and the others around her happy and joyous.
The hardships Nora has faced throughout her life, along with the struggles that her father and husband placed upon her made her stronger-willed and strive even harder to win in her quest for justice. Nora searches for her rightful place as a woman. Noras departure is no claptrap but a journey in search of self-respect and apprenticeship to life. (Shaw143) Nora has no identity of her own, therefore; she takes the risk and leaves all she has in search for her identity and rightful place in the world. [] I believe that before everything else Im a human being- just as much as you are [] or at any rate I shall try to become one.
Ibsen228) Nora, however, protests that she has been treated unfairly in being denied the opportunity to participate in her marriage and in society as an informed adult. (Gosse219) Nora must leave the life she knows of and loves in order to find herself. Nora, it was said, might feel that the only way to develop her own individuality was to leave her husband []. (Gosse221) The crime Nora committed is justified because she did not know of right or wrong; she knew only to serve and please her husband and her father.
Her crime of forgery is justifiable because she did it to spare the worry of her dying father and to save the life of her ill husband. She had no intention of defrauding Krogstad, and though it is an intesting point of casuistry to determined whether, under the stated circumstances, she had a moral right to sign her fathers name []. (Archer2) That a woman shouldnt have the right to spare her old father on his deathbed or to save her husbands life! (Ibsen228) The technicality of her legal offense and her impulsive generosity makes her seem almost innocent, as stock heroines tend to be.
Gray1428) She to whom love is everything, above the letter of the law, public opinion, even religion, of which she knows as little as most things learned by vote []. (Clurman153) When Nora leaves the sheltered and unjust life, she had with her husband; she is also leaving her children. Nora leaves her children because she believes that it is in their best interest for her to leave because Torvald tells her, Just think how a guilty man like that must have to lie and cheat and play the hypocrite with everyone. How he must wear a mask even with those nearest and dearest to him- yes, even with his children- thats the most dreadful thing, Nora.
Because an atmosphere of lies like that infects and poisons the whole life of a home. In a house like that, every breath that the children take is filled with germs of evil. (Ibsen179) Nora feels that if she stays with her children, she will be harming them more than she would be if she left. [] She loses her faith in her own moral right and ability to bring up her children. (Archer2) For Nora worthiness means to do right by everyone, she protected her father, she tries to shield Helmer in every way, she cares for her children, she gets a job for Ms.
Linde [] and when her image of herself and her domestic life is shattered she does what she feels she must to become a true person. (Clurman154) In order to be a good mother to her children she must find herself as a person first. For this reason, she announces her intention to leave her husband and children in order to educate herself. (Gosse219) Throughout Noras life, she has never received the right to live her life as she wished; neither her father nor her husband allowed her the justice she deserved as a woman. Noras rights, it is essentially a comedy rather than a tragedy.
Archer1) Nora, it seems that she had been reduced to a lapdog which was whipped and then restored to grace, or that she had been treated like a doll which one discards and then picks up at the dictate of whim. (Salome230) In Noras quest in finding her rightful place in life she realizes the truth about Torvald and the love he claimed to have for her. [] but no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves. (Ibsen230) In Noras discovery of the life she lived and the mistreatment she received, not only does she discover the love Torvald had for her was false, but also the love she had for him was false also.
Nora needed Torvald for stability and dependence because she has never known or encountered independence. Torvald, I realized that for eight years Id been living here with a strange man, and I that Id borne him three children. (Ibsen230) She is an oppressive and terrible enigma, and his only possible solution is expressed in the cry, so, only one explanation is possible: you dont love me anymore []! (Salome230) Nora telling Torvald that she no longer loves him is not an act of meanness, but brings her one step closer in her quest for justice and finding her rightful place as a woman.
I can hardly beat to, Torvald, because youve always been so kind to me- but I cant help it. I dont love you anymore. (Ibsen229) Noras liberation is not a transformation but an acknowledgement of error, of having married the wrong man. (Hardwick241) Noras irresponsible actions are probable because she is unknowing and unaware of what is right and wrong, therefore; her actions of forgery and her departure from her home, are seen in her eyes, as a brave act of love.
Nora is a child-wife compounded of infantile tricks and capriciousness, a frivolous and irresponsible young person who is condescend to forge; a wife of eight years standing who changes from a grown-up to a woman who, in a fit of disappointment, in spite of appeal to her honor, her maternity, her religion, her sense of justice, leaves the husband she has sworn to love, the home she has engaged to govern, and the children she is made to cherish. (Scott221) Noras actions and her attempts to protect and save the ones she loves and cares for are nothing less than justifiable.
She has committed forgery, and it is her pride; for she did it for love of her husband, and to save his life. (Archer2) Nora sacrifices honor for love, her conscience being still in too rudimentary a state to understand that there can be any honor that is ditiguishable from love. (Gosse220) Nora accomplishes more than just finding her rightful place in life and the justice of her actions; she also accomplished more in such a short time period of being her own person than her husband Torvald has accomplished his entire life of being his own person.
Torvald is more ignorant than Nora, for she has already faced and survived a crisis, taken difficult and dangerous action on his behalf. (Clurman153) Despite the hardships Nora has encountered her entire life of having no identity of her own, she has accomplished her quest for justice and has found her rightful place in life as a woman. The instinctive grounds of Noras final act are thus abundantly justified. (Beerbohm147) As a result of Nora leaving her home, her husband, and her children presents her with the ability and achievement of finding her rightful place in society.
When Nora closes behind her the door of her dolls house, she opens wide the gate of life for woman, and proclaims the revolutionary message that only perfect freedom and communion make a true bond between man and woman, meeting in the open, without lies, without shame, free from the bondage of duty. (Goldman3) In A Dolls House, Noras achievement of discovering her rightful place as a woman, wife, mother, and most importantly as a person despite the harsh mistreatments, extreme weakness, hubris, and a search for Justice shows that Nora has accomplished the unthinkable.
Nora realizes that the perfect joyous life she was living was not in the least bit as joyous as she thought. When she realizes this and becomes less oblivious to her mistreatments, she grows as a person and becomes closer in achieving her rightful place in life. The more Nora learned about being a true person and being treated fairly the more prepared she is in starting the world in complete independence. Noras unheard-of refusal to submit to her husband, even after the blackmailer has changed his tune, and her decision to slam the door on Helmer, abandoning her children as well, to go away and face the world on her own.
Gray1429) In A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen allows Noras crime of forgery and her actions of leaving her family, to be justifiable and the start in the accomplishment for her quest for justice. Noras crime of forgery shows that a womans love for her family comes before all things right or wrong, and her being [] suddenly placed in a responsible position, when circumstances demand for her a moral judgement, she has none to give; the safety, even the comfort, of the man she loves precede all other considerations, and with a light heart she forges a document to shield her father or to preserve her husbands name. osse220). If love and honor were not first to her, she would have still forged the letter because she does not know the difference between right and wrong because she has been shielded from all responsibilities throughout her life. [] Poor Nora, who cannot understand why a daughter has no right to spare her dying father anxiety or why a wife has no right to save her husbands life.
Goldman2) Noras quest for justice and finding her rightful place in society ends in triumph when she comes to realize that the love she had for Torvald was never really love and that the life she thought was perfect was not in the least bit perfect. She was never happy under his roof, only merry. And now when she looks back, it seems to her as if she had lived like a poor person from hand to mouth. She had been impoverished.
Salome230) Noras find act in achieving true happiness, finding herself in society and completing quest for Justice ends with the slam of a door to a life of mistreatment and weakness and opens a door to a new life of independence and true identity. The womans eyes are opened; and instantly her dolls dress is thrown off and her husband left staring at her helpless, bound thenceforth either to do without her or else treat her as a human being like himself fully recognizing that he is not a creature of one superior species, man.
