Henrik Ibsen wrote many dramas and is known as the father of modern drama. Out of his many dramatic plays, he is most recognized for A Doll House. A Doll House was the beginning of Ibsen’s success. The play itself explores the lives of small town folk. Ibsen called his play “a modern tragedy” What is most interesting is the play is based on true events. Whether or not this play was a personal story was not clear, but the play is based on true events, the source of where these events came from is unclear. The play closely paralleled the events with the true story. A wife borrows money to revive her sick husband by making a trip south. The conflict happens when she is discovered for forging a signature on a check. Ibsen describes the issue in
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She sought after freedom and independence from men. She believed if a man can do it so can a women and still do it while wearing high heels. Feminist in the nineteenth century were protesting and speaking out against the voting laws. Nora’s actions did not pertain to voting, but instead to financial business and education. Unni makes an interesting observation about Nora’s actions. Unni says, “. . . fixed ideas of what a woman is are challenged by Nora’s actual performance” (Langås, Unni 156-157) Women were not allowed to deal with finances, none less take loans out from the bank. After the news of her husband’s illness, Nora took up the man’s responsibility to get a loan from the bank by forging her father’s signature. This act marks the beginning of her distancing herself from the typical house wife society expects her to …show more content…
The only time he insist on calling her by her real name is when she is getting scolded at. By calling Nora by her diminutive names only gives him more power over her and she is put back in her place as a woman or as a doll.
Ibsen named his play “A Doll House” because that is exactly what Nora is living in. Her father had treated her like a doll throughout her childhood. Now she has married and is under the control of her husband, Helmer, and has become is “doll-wife” (doll.3.1.936). At some point in her life she decides she does not want to play doll anymore and begins the transformation of becoming human and gaining independence for herself.
Nora is forcibly silenced, she is not listened to, and her words are not heard. Her humanity remains unacknowledged. She is reduced to a thing. Best said by Toril Moi, “A woman in such a position will struggle to signify her existence, her humanity.” (266) this is a very close reality to Nora’s life at home. It is only at the end of the play, after the letter is discovered, is she heard, “We’ve been married now eight years. Doesn’t it occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have ever talked seriously together?” (Doll.3.1.69). throughout the entire play Helmer has seen Nora as an object, a doll, it is not
She sought after freedom and independence from men. She believed if a man can do it so can a women and still do it while wearing high heels. Feminist in the nineteenth century were protesting and speaking out against the voting laws. Nora’s actions did not pertain to voting, but instead to financial business and education. Unni makes an interesting observation about Nora’s actions. Unni says, “. . . fixed ideas of what a woman is are challenged by Nora’s actual performance” (Langås, Unni 156-157) Women were not allowed to deal with finances, none less take loans out from the bank. After the news of her husband’s illness, Nora took up the man’s responsibility to get a loan from the bank by forging her father’s signature. This act marks the beginning of her distancing herself from the typical house wife society expects her to …show more content…
The only time he insist on calling her by her real name is when she is getting scolded at. By calling Nora by her diminutive names only gives him more power over her and she is put back in her place as a woman or as a doll.
Ibsen named his play “A Doll House” because that is exactly what Nora is living in. Her father had treated her like a doll throughout her childhood. Now she has married and is under the control of her husband, Helmer, and has become is “doll-wife” (doll.3.1.936). At some point in her life she decides she does not want to play doll anymore and begins the transformation of becoming human and gaining independence for herself.
Nora is forcibly silenced, she is not listened to, and her words are not heard. Her humanity remains unacknowledged. She is reduced to a thing. Best said by Toril Moi, “A woman in such a position will struggle to signify her existence, her humanity.” (266) this is a very close reality to Nora’s life at home. It is only at the end of the play, after the letter is discovered, is she heard, “We’ve been married now eight years. Doesn’t it occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have ever talked seriously together?” (Doll.3.1.69). throughout the entire play Helmer has seen Nora as an object, a doll, it is not