“A Doll’s House”: Child's Play, by Beatbox Jones

                                                                 

            Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play “A Doll’s House” is about a typical Norwegian 1800’s housewife and her ultimate decision to leave her family.  Over the course of the play we see the relationships Nora has with old friends, her family and people she interacts with in her day to day life. At the end of the play her the “scandalous” action she took to save her husband’s life comes to light. During the confrontation when her husband learns of the suicide plan involved should her actions come to light, Nora is a called a child. At this moment Nora realizes that her husband is correct and like a child she knows next to nothing of the world that she lives in.

In the first act of the play, Nora has just paid a delivery boy to move something into her home, a particularly interesting note made by Micheal C. Wiseman in his article “Nora as a Doll in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House”, Nora letting the delivery boy keep the change is a sign of her “…fiscal irresponsibility” (Wiseman). Wiseman points out that Nora has begun burning money to fill the void in her life “… rather than doing anything meaningful with her life(Wiseman). The childish view on money is seen once again when Nora is given money to buy Christmas presents for their children, “Ten shillings--a pound--two pounds! Thank you, thank you, Torvald; that will keep me going for a long time(Ibsen). The writing of this comment has the tone of a child expressing thanks over a few dollars. Torvald, Nora’s husband, asks the question “What are little people called that are always wasting money?” to which Nora replies ‘Spendthrift’ this terminology is almost used in a derogatory manner to his wife. You haven’t any idea how many expenses we skylark, and squirrels have, Torvald.” (Ibsen). By playing this up she is effectively able to use the societal view of women to leave her motives as little more than “Them women folk and their frivolous whims to buy things like dresses and toys for children. Will they ever understand how money works?” This  idea is only further perpetuated because in the play’s setting along with the stigma against women having jobs and it being illegal for women to take out loans, leaving Nora with no real way to learn about money. As a result of being unable to take about a loan legally, Nora commits fraud to obtain a loan in her father’s name to acquire the funds to finance the trip that saved Torvald’s life. These examples set the stage for Nora’s economical knowledge as being not that different from that of a child

            The relationship between Nora and husband is very much like that of a father and daughter rather than that of a husband and wife. A prominent note is the in the first act when Nora casually eats maroons, despite as Dr. Rank pointing out how he “…thought they were forbidden here” (Ibsen). To this Nora replies why they are forbidden, “[Torvald] is afraid they will spoil my teeth. (Ibsen).” Another hint towards this relationship between the Helmers is that despite being given several occasions to refer to Nora by name he instead uses the names, such as little squirell, skylark and spendthrift as seen in the previous paragraph. This action mirrors that of parent referring to their children by a nickname rather than their given name even if this does appear to be more of a term of endearment.

           

An interesting point in the second act is when Nora asks the question “Do you think they would forget their mother if she went away altogether.” While this might seem strange at first but it quite possibly Nora alluding to her suicide plans. This gives the idea that she doesn’t consider herself to have a role of  any importance in the lives of her children, effectively showing that she doesn’t get to play the one role she is expected to have in her life, that of a mother. Another thing that Nora says regarding her friend Mrs. Linde is “When you have three children, you get visits now and then from--from married women, who know something of medical matters, and they talk about one thing and another.”(Ibsen) The tone of this statement suggests shows that she doesn’t seem to view her life as having any influence in the life of her peers, holding little value much like that of a doll. During this second act Dr. Rank expresses his love of Nora to her, his further interaction with her shows that he views her as little more than an object. Nora is also shown to be manipulative of others in her life as pointed out by Wiseman “Nora, having grown up as a manipulated tool of others, is under the impression that manipulation of others is a societal norm.” (Wiseman). Wiseman’s claim that Nora manipulates people in her life mirrors how she has been manipulated most of her own life, giving the similarity a child mimicking a parent.  The manipulation this can be seen in her manipulation of her husband’s views of her as pointed out earlier, getting Krogstad to help her to take out the loan, attempting to get Dr. Rank to perform some unknown task, leaving Mrs. Linde to fix her dress, and leaving a nanny to raise her children.

Nora’s manipulation can be seen with Dr. Rank she is aware of the feelings that the doctor holds for her and as she attempts to manipulate him to her own means as “… a big proof of friendship-“ “…a tremendously big favour.”, while this favor is never directly stated it is can be assumed it has something to do with the Krogstad situation (Ibsen). Similarly, there was a dual manipulation on the sides of both Krogstad and Nora as, Nora enlisted the help of Krogstad to save Torvald in exchange for a favor later. Krogstad upon being fired attempts to manipulate Nora into getting him his job back, at this point she reveals that she is willing to commit suicide, so that in a way she can escape responsibility.

In the third act Nora’s suicide plans expressly come to light but it seems that she doesn’t consider her own life to have enough importance to have any significant impact in the lives of her family, giving her chance re justify the action. The belittling of Nora occurs once again as her husband forces her to leave a party ignoring her request to stay just a little while longer, showing his disregard to her wishes upon the assumption she can’t make her own decisions.  During this act Torvald discovers she took out a loan to save his life and much to her surprise he expresses outrage rather than the thanks she expected. Nora hoped that by committing suicide it would allow Torvald the opportunity to appreciate her actions while at the same time being free of the shame of having a scandalous wife. This moment is when Nora realizes everything she thought she understood about her world is false. At this moment is when Torvald calls her a child and she realizes that she knows so little of the world. She then realizes how little her absence would affect her family before leaving her husband and children to fulfil her “…duty to [herself]” (Ibsen).

The following paragraph will cover a few points from the article “Man-Woman Relationship in Henric Ibsen’s “A Doll’s house” by Shan Mohammad Sanaul Karim, Fawzia Fathema, Abdul Hakin. The first thing the trio talk about is how Ibsen uses Nora a female character to drive the plot of the play, something that at the time would have been unique and captivated the audience, something “…considered as a taboo in many cultures” (Karim, Fathema, Hakin).  The trio talk about how the play carries a theme of female emancipation from males. They point out with a main example being Nora leaving her family to find out more about herself and the world she lives at the cost of leaving her family behind. If one expounds the idea of the fact that women need to be emancipated it gives the impression that the are in a sense slaves to their husband or can’t exist without them. This idea I supported by how Nora doesn’t seem to do much outside her her daily affairs involving the role society assigned to her. It is also interesting how the trio points out that while that the characters are fictional, they would have spoken to the female audience of the time that saw their live as having little meaning. The writers also mention “…Ibsen points out how the male-female relationships function, focusing the male-female roles played in society or family.” The article points out that the role of women at the time was to play a subservient role of a damsel needing to be saved while men played the dominating role of the knight in shining armor saving the women. Uni Langass states, “my overall view is that this drama is not so much about Nora’s struggle to find herself as a human being, as it is about her shocking experience of being treated as a woman because of the acts she performs”. I find it interesting as this shows a parallel to the fact that Nora isn’t treated as a human but rather as an actress in a play or a doll’s in a child’s game. In the end the trio point out that Nora is not portrayed as a sinner but rather as a person attempted to simply to learn more about her world.

The following paragraph further follows a few additional points made in Micheal Wiseman’s “Nora as a Doll in Henrik Iben’s a Doll’s House” by Michael C. Wiseman. An interesting note is how “Nora Helmer spends most of her on-stage time as a doll: a vapid, passive character with little personality of her own. Her whole life is a construct of societal norms and the expectations of others.” (Wiseman)  This expresses how Nora is little more than a stereotype rather than a fully fleshed personality, this is used to help further cement her role as a doll rather than person. An interesting note is that Wiseman uses how Nora doesn’t bother to wait to receive her change, mirroring how a child would act when playing with a doll, expressing a misunderstanding how money works and a lack of care for material possessions. Wiseman also makes note of Dr. Rank, suggesting that Nora go to the party as herself with Torvald as an unviewable character and not be a doll with an unseen person controlling her. In Wiseman’s words “If this interpretation is Rank’s intended meaning, it would corroborate Nora’s judgment of his character when she explains how she always feels at ease around Dr. Rank because he does not have any expectations or demands of her.”(Wiseman) An interesting point brought up by Wiseman is that after being blackmailed Nora believed that her husband would be willing to defend her honor from this travesty, however the idea is shattered at the end of the play Torvald. Anther example of the depiction of being lesser given to Nora is as pointed out earlier the relationship between Nora and Tovald being that of a daughter and Father rather than that of a Husband and Wife. When Nora’s suicide plans are revealed to her husband Wiseman points the immature behavior of Nora on a serious topic when she,

 “…immaturely shuts her ears to unpleasant thoughts, placing her hand on her mouth and exclaiming, "Oh! Don't say such things!" when Torvald presents a hypothetical tragedy” (Wiseman).

 This immaturity can similarly be seen when while Krogstad is blackmailing her, she believes that there is something in the law to allow people to commit a forgery to save a life. While one could say that in the eyes of a jury it is possible that the case could be dismissed. The audience can be easily expected to want to sympathize with Nora as one would expect Nora to not want to lose both her father and husband in a short period of time as it would result in her being unable to support her family.

William A. Johnsen write of “Modern Sacrifice” has this to say on the subject of the reveal of the loan  and Nora’s belief “…that Torvald will honor his standing promise to take the whole weight of any blame(back) upon himself…” (Johnsen).  Protecting her from the controversy included taking the fall upon himself before her suicide however his reaction is what not only saves Nora’s life but leads her to begin making her life more meaningful. This is worth notice because this is a point that causes both the reader and Nora to reconsider why she put so much effort into something that wasn’t going to appreciate.

At the end of the story Torvald confronts Nora about having taken out a loan to save his life. Uni Langass states, “my overall view is that this drama is not so much about Nora’s struggle to find herself as a human being, as it is about her shocking experience of being treated as a woman because of the acts she performs” (Langass). I find it interesting as this shows a parallel to the fact that Nora worldview isn’t that of an adult but rather that of a child playing a game. In the end the trio point out that Nora is not portrayed as a sinner but rather as a person attempted to simply to learn more about her world.

This moment is when Nora realizes everything she thought she understood about her world is false. At this moment is when Torvald calls her a child and she realizes that she knows so little of the world. She then goes to point out how little the lives of her family would be affected by her absence before leaving her husband and children to fulfil her “…duty to [herself].” A rather interesting note in relation to this is that Torvald states Nora is “. Before all else … a wife and a mother.” A rather interesting note regarding this is that Torvald sees Nora first and foremost as a wife and mother a role defines who she is rather than a part of her character. Nora on the other hand sees herself a potentially much more and decides to walk out on the life she currently lives into something new to being in an attempt to give her life meaning.

Citation

Wiseman , Micheal C. “Nora a Doll in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.” Inquiries Journal, vol. 2, no. 03,  2010, pp. 1–1., www.inquiriesjournal.com/archives/2010/2.3.

Karim, Shah Mohammad Sanaul, et al. “Man-Woman Relationship in Henric Ibsen's ‘A Doll's House.’” Internal Journal of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015, pp. 22–26., www.multidisciplinaryjournals.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Man-Woman-Relationship-in-Henric-Ibsen’s-“A-Doll’s-House”.pdf.

Johnsen, William A. “Modern Sacrafice.” Religion & Literature, vol. 43, no. 3, 2011, pp. 194–200. Jstor.org, www-jstor-org.byuh.idm.oclc.org/stable/23347099?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=a&searchText=modern&searchText=sacrifice&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=a modern sacrifice &refreqid=search:1e1570ab67e9df6400edd4eb34d1bb3c&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll's House.” 21 Dec. 1879, Copenhagen, Denmark.