The Importance Of Reputation In A Doll's House

The play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen works with the ideas of an 1800’s home containing transformations, the fight for individuality, and reputation. Reading the play at first makes it seem as if it is about a women who goes behind her husband’s back because he is too controlling, but there is a much deeper interpretation of this play. Really it is talking about a woman trying to create her own individual personality in the confinement of social expectations and roles. This play characterizes a woman trying her best to create her own identity in a time where such things were non-existent. Individuality among women in the 1800’s was an extremely rare thing. Women were told what to do and how to do it by their husbands or fathers. Man was …show more content…
If someone had a bad reputation, they were not hired, they would not make money, and they would not be able to supply themselves, or their families. In the play, Ibsen shows the need for a good reputation through Torvald. Torvald is asked by his wife Nora if he would hire Krogstad, the man Nora owed money to, but he refuses, claiming that he could not hire a man of such quality and expect to keep his new position at the bank. It would ruin his social reputation, and his chances of having a good job that paid well would be out the door. Money and reputation went together hand-in-hand. Borrowing money from someone meant that that person had no money. They were either in-debt or they did not have a sufficient enough job to pay the bills. Torvald tells Nora not to borrow money, but in a time of need, Nora went to Krogstad and borrowed money from him, knowing that she now owed him. If she did not pay him back in time, or did not get him a new position at the bank, he would tell Torvald and that would not turn out well for Nora. She went against Torvald’s wishes, and who knew what he would do learning the truth of what Nora had really done.
Respect, reputation, and money were all important in that time, and the play portrays the image of the priorities perfectly. To have respect, money needed to be somewhere in the picture, and the same was needed to have a good reputation in a town. It was similar to today’s society. If someone has …show more content…
She was married to Torvald, her controlling and seemingly self-centered husband. In the beginning of the play, Torvald had secured a new position at the bank. Krogstad, another man in the play allows Nora to borrow money from him, but he threatens to tell Torvald of her past crimes if she does not give him what he wants, which is a position at the bank that Torvald had recently joined. The conflict between the two characters is one of the major conflicts throughout the story and it carries on for quite some time. Nora has many struggles with men in the play, another being with her husband. Torvald is a selfish, stifling, and oppressive man and Nora struggles for her independence from him. Krogstad writes a letter to Torvald telling him of the situation, causing Torvald to burst with anger. He had told Nora not to borrow money and she did not listen to him. Nora betrayed Torvald, one of the worst things a woman could do to a man. Women had a sort of sacrificial role to men, and betraying that role was a big no in society and a big no to the man she betrayed. After Nora finds out that Torvald is not in love with her, but is rather in love with the idea of her needing him, she abandons him. He does not care about her, he cares about the fact that she ‘needs’ him to survive and to make it through life. That realization was the final push she needed to leave him for her independence. Nora’s motive has been to leave him behind in