Literary Analysis Essay on The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

Introduction

The book was written by Henrik Ibsen, and it involves a drama of a woman named Nora Helmer who secretly borrowed some money for the sake of her husband who was very ill. She did it without the husband’s permission and as a result, she never revealed the fact that she had taken a loan and was paying it in small installments. The act was out of love, but the husband thought that her actions were inconsiderate and naive. Nora had borrowed money from Nils Krogstad who is later relieved for the disgrace of forging the signature on the document.

If this sample essay on"Literary Analysis Essay on The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen" doesn’t help,
our writers will!

Trust an expert

How Does Nora Deal With Conflict in the Doll House?

Krogstad later identified that Nora had faked the signature of her father to get the money. Krogstad blackmails Nora and claims he would shame her and her husband unless if he gets fired. Nora persuades her husband to reconsider firing Krogstad but he only thought of her as a child who could not comprehend the importance of business. Nora’s husband learns of the fraud she has committed and he is prepared to renounce her as his wife although she went for all that trouble to save him.

Ibsen confines a stereotypical social role whereby by personifying Nora, the doll tries to become a self-motivated human in a world full of woman-denying men. Ibsen regards feminist and the drama, The Doll House is written under the impression of how conduct is done in the masculine world. The men do not believe that women can play a role in society. Ibsen tries to make the reader understand the fact that they do not need to live in a world of intimidating women.

Nora comes back to her wit in the end and decides what is wrong and what is right. She eventually frees herself from the captivity of her husband who thinks of her to be nothing but a baby. She prefers not to live with her husband who does not appreciate her and the things that she does. She could no longer live with a husband who could not bridge a mental gap and bring to his understanding that women also thought business and great things too.

Ibsen is trying to show the sacrificial Role of women in all the economic realms. The play’s female characters exemplify Nora’s assertion. She spoke in act three saying that even though the men refuse to sacrifice their integrity, more women have. In the drama, more women have sacrificed their integrity so that they can do what they see is right including support and economic growth. Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad who was her penniless love and instead got married to a rich man. The nanny who worked for Nora abandoned her child to support herself by working for Nora.

The author uses imagination to help the reader understands. All throughout the play, Nora imagines that her freedom would come to pass only if she pays the debt that she had borrowed for the sake of her husband, but after her husband’s reaction, she feels that she needed another kind of freedom. At the end of the drama, Nora wished to be relieved of her familial obligations to pursue her ambitions, beliefs, and also identity.

What Does the Christmas Tree in a Doll House Symbolize?

The use of symbols like the Christmas tree to indicate Nora’s position in the household is also used to enable the reader to understand the length of the stereotype about women. Her husband considers her as a plaything who is good-looking and someone who adds charm to the house just like the Christmas tree. Several parallels are drawn between Nora and Christmas tree. She tells her children that they should not see the tree until it was decorated and the same way does she tell her husband that he cannot see her in her dress until the evening dance.

How Does Each Character in a Doll House Help Nora Find Her Position in the Marriage?

The Doll House is a combination of marital relationships investigating the development of self-awareness in character and eventually all the false values that the society has made denying the worth of individual personality. Ibsen shows how every accomplishment of each character is a product of the individual experiences in the earlier life of a person, whether in childhood, education, or the genetic environment. The author reveals that Nora’s carelessness with money is the quality that she inherited from her father. It is clear that Torvalds way of life is only devoted to maintaining appearances at the expense of the inner truth.

Conclusion

With Krogstad showing Nora the deceptive quality after he blackmails her to pass the good word to her husband not to fire him, Nora began to confront the reality of the world in which the new knowledge and freedom were supposed to be inevitable. Nora’s role remains to be repulsive for a long time allowing her husband to use her as a pet or a plaything and not an independent person. Ibsen imagines the world where people used to treat women as objects and that their opinion could not be considered due to how inferior they appeared to be. The author, however, uses the drama to indicate that only women can free themselves from their captivity and make a choice to be free from the stereotype.

Famous Quotes From the Dolls House

• “You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.”

• “You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.”

• “I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.”

• “With me, you could have been another person.”

• “When I lost you, it was as if all the solid ground dissolved from under my feet. Look at me; I'm a half-drowned man now, hanging onto a wreck.”