Puppet on a String Realism is a way people move and talk that are like everyday behavior, a reflection of real life. In the late 19th century realism came to theatre with remarkable theatrical innovations such as, playwriting, political, and social ideas. Rather than a platform, realism holds the image of a stage as a setting. (Jones). An example of realism can be seen in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House with the identity of Nora, social expectations, and individualism.
Ibsen portrayed Nora, as a woman who thinks of herself as a “doll”. Her husband, Torvald, treats her as a toy with childish pet names like: skylark, squirrel, and songbird. Nora is young and beautiful, there for she is treated like a play toy. Ibsen shows the audience that Nora feels as if she were being controlled by her father and her husband, and needs to learn to be her own person. Nora tells Torvald, “You and papa have committed a great sin against me” (Ibsen 1386). The great sin against her is believing that she must do everything to please the men in her life. Every woman’s desire is to make sure her husband or significant other is happy or pleased but not at the cost of losing her identity. Ibsen shows that with Nora’s attempt to please her husband, and in the past pleasing her father, she is following the social expectations of a woman.
The social expectations of a woman …show more content…
Ibsen shows the audience one example of Nora trying to explain to Torvald why she feels like his doll when she asks him, “Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, Husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?” (Ibsen 1385). Finally, wanting more in life and wanting that independence, Nora makes the choice to leave her husband, and children to start a new life on her own terms. Free from the doll house, free from trying to be the perfect wife, free to decide her own
Ibsen portrayed Nora, as a woman who thinks of herself as a “doll”. Her husband, Torvald, treats her as a toy with childish pet names like: skylark, squirrel, and songbird. Nora is young and beautiful, there for she is treated like a play toy. Ibsen shows the audience that Nora feels as if she were being controlled by her father and her husband, and needs to learn to be her own person. Nora tells Torvald, “You and papa have committed a great sin against me” (Ibsen 1386). The great sin against her is believing that she must do everything to please the men in her life. Every woman’s desire is to make sure her husband or significant other is happy or pleased but not at the cost of losing her identity. Ibsen shows that with Nora’s attempt to please her husband, and in the past pleasing her father, she is following the social expectations of a woman.
The social expectations of a woman …show more content…
Ibsen shows the audience one example of Nora trying to explain to Torvald why she feels like his doll when she asks him, “Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, Husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?” (Ibsen 1385). Finally, wanting more in life and wanting that independence, Nora makes the choice to leave her husband, and children to start a new life on her own terms. Free from the doll house, free from trying to be the perfect wife, free to decide her own