...world perceives that strength". Women have always been overlooked no one has really taken the chance to stop and admire all the things that they do. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen Nora plays the role of a mother, a wife and most importantly a women these three views have all changed over the years. The audience varying responses to Nora’s actions in the play A Doll’s House, reflect the changing role of women in the past 100 years. The first main point is how Nora and her actions as a mother are looked at over the last 100 years on the views of women. In the earlier years women were to stay home and watch after the children they were not expected to go out and help support the family. Kathryn Hughes points out “Not only was it their job to counterbalance the moral taint of the public sphere in which their husbands laboured all day, they were also preparing the next generation to carry on this way of life”.The main job of a mother was to make a good role model for the kids and to educate them while they are at home. Over the years the idea of a stay at home mom has faded away due to the...
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...character that has not changed throughout the entire play. Torvald, in the beginning of the play, is a controlling narcissistic middle aged man who plays and controls with his wife, Nora, and his three children to conform to the ideals of him and the society. As Nora is pleading to Torvald for Krogstad to keep his job at the bank, Torvald tells Nora, “And just by pleading for him you make it impossible for me to keep him on. It’s already known at the bank that I’m firing Krogstad. What if it’s rumored around now that the new bank manager was vetoed by his wife.” This shows that Torvald makes a lot of his decisions based on the opinions of his peers. Also this is showing that he wants to make all the decisions and does not want Nora calling any of the shots. Because Torvald is controlling, no matter what Nora told him he would not change his mind and let Nora control him. Towards the end of the play after Torvald gets the second letter from Krogstad, explaining that he is no longer going to blackmail the Helmers anymore. After Torvald reads this his is stricken with joy and tells Nora, “For a man there’s something indescribably sweet and satisfying in knowing he’s forgiven his wife- and forgiven her out of a full and open heart. It’s as if she belongs to him in two ways now: in a sense he’s given her fresh into the world again, and she’s become his wife and his child as well.” Even after everything that Nora has went through, all that matters to Torvald is how he feels and how he forgives...
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...unusual for the time- wanted to differ from other writers to make an impact- mainly because he thought men and women should live as equals. Firstly, we experimented with how to play Nora and Torvald together in a scene. The interpretation of Nora being a vein doll and Torvald being a predator worked in Act 3 page 57, as it made their relationship seem more alive and normal, perhaps enhancing Darwin’s ideas. In Act 1 page 25 however, this didn’t work, a withdrawn Nora and bully Torvald worked as their relationship became more typical of the time, Nora was doing all the house work and shouldn’t be seen by the husband. Furthermore, we created adverts for what Torvald wanted in a perfect wife. In my group we decided to do a version of “Take Me Out” where each girl had an influence on Ibsen, for example Mary showed Freudian theory, she inherited her mothers intelligence, Liri showed Darwins theory of survival of the fittest - she wouldn’t live long enough to provide a family-, Anoa showed the attitudes towards women in that she would be a house wife and provide a healthy family, Bonnie however tried to show all of these as well as romanticism which Torvald ended up choosing as he looked for adventure. This activity allowed us to explore how finding the perfect wife in the Victorian era was difficult to find, Nora has her flaws which brings her marriage to an abrupt end, even if she did have to face societies consequences, but Ibsen had to change this ending as it created a large amount...
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...Independent Nora (looking at her watch). It’s still not very late. Sit down here, Torvald. We have a lot to talk over. (She sits down at one side of the table.) Helmer. Nora — what is this? — That hard expression — Independent Nora. Sit down. This’ll take some time; I have a lot to say. Helmer (sits down at the opposite side of the table). You worry me, Nora! — and I don’t understand you. Independent Nora. No, that is exactly it. You don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either — until tonight. No, don’t interrupt. You must simply listen to what I say. Torvald, this is a settling of accounts. Helmer. What do you mean by that? dependent nora. You have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it was fun when you played with me, just as they thought it fun when I played with them. Independent nora. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald. Helmer. There is some truth in what you’re saying — under all the raving exaggeration. But it’ll all be different after this. Playtime is over, now for the schooling. dependent Nora. Whose schooling? Mine, or the children’s? Helmer. Both yours and the children’s, dearest. Independent Nora. Oh, Torvald, you are not the man to teach me to be a good wife for you. Helmer. And you can say that? dependent Nora. And I— how am I equipped to bring up the children? Helmer...
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...toward the 19th Century Marriage norms. There is lots of controversy that talks about protagonist, Nora, Leaving her husband and children because she wanted to find out who she is as a person. Metaphors are use all the time in writing. The Pet name that torvald uses for Nora are metaphors for how women were treated during the Victorian era. I feel that the main idea of the author Ibsen’s work is all about metaphor that he uses in this drama The Doll’s House. In the begging Nora follows her childlike or housewife role that she plays. After sometime Nora speaks to Torvalds and realizes that he feels that Nora should only be the housewife and mother of his children. She should not be able to know or find out who she is as a person. Nora goes from a very immature person or just went along with what she was told to a very dependent, and very self-sufficient person. She now shows the idealized “doll” role of a woman but also keeps away from the limitations and social constraints of that time period. In the beginning of this drama Nora is a house wife and very childish person that she feels she needs to be. Growing up she had a father that was very dominant. She then married Torvalds who was also very dominant towards Nora. With the way Torvalds was it showed Nora’s Physical growth but her immaturity and emotional dependence hasn’t changed of a small child. For example, While Nora puts up the Christmas decoration, the audience realizes the “Her childishness creates her charm, her...
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...As a set and/or lighting designer, what effects would you want to create for your audience in Act 1 and Act 2? Explain how your set design/lighting design would change from Act 1 to Act 2. A Doll’s House by Henrick Ibsen is an iconic play expressing harsh truths on social rules and etiquette in the late 1800’s. The play allows a simple yet symbolic set and lighting design – forcing the audience to think and question the play writes intentions as well as the interpretation of the director. The play is over a period of three days; Act 1 is on Christmas Eve and Act 2 being over Christmas day –the set changes over both acts in small but significant ways allowing the audience to understand the detrition of the perfect reality in which Nora lives by. As a set or lighting designer, I would want the audience to experience a tense, chilling and abrupt atmosphere that illuminates the distorted reality, which is being broken slowly. As women during the late 1800’s where not meant to become involved with the dealings of money and business – it was the man’s job. By doing this Nora has brought on a sense of shame and disgrace to her family, as Helmer is lead to believe by the influence of society that he can no longer control his wife. In Act 1, Ibsen indicates to the set and lighting designers how he wishes the play to be set up. From the stage directions I am able to understand that the atmosphere within the opening scene of the play should be ‘comfortable and tasteful’ but ‘not...
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...2011 Nora, the Aristotelian Tragic Hero Along with many great theories, Aristotle left the world with his own set of guidelines to defining the tragic hero. Many protagonists have been put through his test and been placed as tragic heroes or just heroes, but where they truly belong is up for debate. In A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, many characters could be put through the rigors of an examination based on Aristotle’s qualifications. According to Aristotle, Nora Helmer, the play’s protagonist, is a tragic hero, because her character traits are perfect examples of what contributes to a tragic hero. As defined by Aristotle, a tragic hero must be of noble stature and radiate greatness. In this instance, Nora fits the bill quite well because she is part of the upper echelon of society. She also has a burning desire to be in that group of people and remain there. She wants to be a part of this group and she puts that highly within her ideals. Her husband’s recent promotion to the manager of the bank shows that Nora indeed is part of this upper echelon. Nora exclaims, “Look, here is a new suit for / Ivar, and a sword; and a horse and a trumpet for Bob; and a / doll and dolly’s bedstead for Emmy” (I, 7). This shows that she has the money of a high status person and that she is virtuous in her spending. She may be wealthy, but she is a good person because she is considerate of others. Although Nora seems to be a great person, the tragic hero is a flawed individual. Nora may appear...
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...“Ibsen’s Nora is a perfect vehicle for an exploration of self-determination, as she embodies the repression of women, as well as the suffocating bourgeois life style” A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen portrays a metaphoric life of individuals confined in a “doll’s house”. The text, written by Henrik Ibsen, produces a point of view seen in the society at the time, where women were expected to be the dutiful young wife and mother. Although Ibsen denies that it is a feminist play, many critics believe otherwise. The characterisation of Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the play, becomes a perfect vehicle for an exploration of self-determination as she embodies the repression of women as well as the suffocating bourgeois lifestyle. Her role in the play unravels as she starts off as being a part of an expected duty of women in the society and flourishes into an independent courageous woman. Ibsen portrays this through the use of symbolism, dramatic techniques and language forms. As being the perfect vehicle for self determination, Nora, in the play, disguises her true self. This ultimately shows the repression she endures to meet the expectations of society as well as her husband, Torvald. Society’s outlook on the role of women is for them to be completely devoted, to husband and to family. Nora’s duty is to be adoring, reliant on Torvald and perhaps childlike through her ways of handling money, spending it on useless things such as macaroons. Outwardly, Nora is seen to fulfil her husband’s...
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...title in this play narrates the theme that symbolize the "contrast between realistic and idealistic". (English Literature & Grammar) The plot this play shows a seemingly perfect happy family but later starts to go bad when Krogstad shows up. The speaker also used the title as a symbol that conveys into the story. The main character Nora, is play as a "Doll" and living in a "Doll's House". Ibsen also used several symbols to relate the expected meaning of his audience, such as: Christmas tree, tarantella, and masquerade. In act I Nora quotes, " Hide the Christmas tree well, Helene. The children mustn't get a glimpse of it till this evening, after the it's trimmed". The tree represents Nora. She and the tree has to be dress up and ready for people to admire, most especially her husband. Also, Nora is not to be exposed in her party dress until she looks completely dress and decent. Throughout the play, it is clear that Nora and the tree are one in the same. As the tree becomes untidy so as Nora. The speaker reveals that Nora was control by her husband and even treated like a child relatively than a wife. Nora was demanded to eat certain food. Nora Husband calls her by nicknames such as, songbird, squirrel and skylark." These nicknames are representative of Nora's false image she portrays. She is shown as a mindless woman who innocently lives her life according to her husband and wastes her time on frivolous things."(EL&G). Act II talks about the tarantella dance. Tarantella...
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...his wife, Nora, coming to grips with the fact that their marriage is not exactly what society hypes it up to be, while The Darling is about a woman, Olenka, whom struggles to find her own identity through the midst of her ongoing relationships with her numerous husbands. Both women overcome their own personal obstacles in their own ways, while one ultimately succeeds in at least wanting to find out who and what her own personal identity is, and the other failing, still succumbing to living her life with the need of a strong, male figure. In the first act of A Doll’s House, the reader can see that Torvald and Nora’s relationship is anything but perfect. Nora, a woman who’s never had to work a day in her life, relies solely on her husband to meet her and her family’s financial needs. As the title of the play portrays, Nora lives the life of a doll by constantly living in Torvald’s shadow, being his perfect trophy wife, and doing whatever she is told; she relies solely on her husband for happiness and support throughout every little thing she does. In the beginning of Act One, Nora has just come home from buying Christmas things when Torvald begins to badger her about the money she has been spending only to end up giving her more. This is the first instance in which the reader can also see that Torvald treats Nora as his own property rather than his wife through the names he calls her—“my little lark,” or “my little squirrel” (1.4). Another instance showing that Nora and Torvald’s...
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...wife, Nora Helmer, after her returning from a pre-Christmas shopping trip. At first he greets her with affection, but then scolds her for spending too much. Their conversation reveals that the Helmers’ in the past, had to be careful in how they spent their money. But, since receiving a new position at the bank he works for, Torvals reveals that they may now begin living a more comfortable lifestyle. The family maid announces that Dr.Raid (Torvald’s friend) and Kristine Linde (Nora’s old school friend) have unexpectedly arrived. Mrs. Linde tells Nora that when her husband died, she was left with no money and no children. Nora then shared about the hardships the Helmer’s had faced during the first year of their marriage, Including about how their family was poor and Torvald had become sick and needed to be sent to Italy to recover. Nora promises to speak to Torvald about getting Kristine Linde a job at the bank and then reveals a great secret to Mrs. Linde—without Torvald’s knowledge, Nora illegally borrowed money for the trip that she and Torvald took to Italy; she told Torvald that the money had come from her father. For years, Nora reveals, she has worked and saved in secret, slowly repaying the debt, and soon it will be fully repaid. Once Torvald has finished meeting with Krogstad, Torvald comes into the living room and says that he can most likely hire Mrs. Linde at the bank. Krogstad is revealed to be the supplier of Nora’s illegal lend and Krogstad black-mails Nora into keeping...
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...Doll's House was written during the movement of Naturalism, which commonly reflected society. Ibsen acknowledges the fact that in 19th century life the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband. Nora Helmer is the character in A Doll House who plays the 19th woman and is portrayed as a victim. Michael Meyers said of Henrik Ibsen's plays: "The common denominator in many of Ibsen's dramas is his interest in individuals struggling for and authentic identity in the face of tyrannical social conventions. This conflict often results in his characters' being divided between a sense of duty to themselves and their responsibility to others."(1563) All of the aspects of this quote can be applied to the play A Doll House, in Nora Helmer's character, who throughout much of the play is oppressed, presents an inauthentic identity to the audience and throughout the play attempts to discovery her authentic identity. The inferior role of Nora is extremely important to her character. Nora is oppressed by a variety of "tyrannical social conventions." Ibsen in his "A Doll's House" depicts the role of women as subordinate in order to emphasize their role in society. Nora is oppressed by the manipulation from Torvald. Torvald has a very typical relationship with society. He is a smug bank manager. With his job arrive many responsibilities. He often treats his wife as if she is one of these responsibilities. Torvald is very authoritative and puts his appearance...
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...Act One Nora and Kristine Linde Henrik Ibsen can be considered one the most key influential figures in the development and motivation of theatre throughout history. An “ardent advocate of selffreedom, self-emancipation, and self-control”¹ Ibsen used his plays as a medium to challenge his audience about the flaws in their society, using his characters to mirror it and show the need for change. A Doll’s House is one of the most significant, and arguably the first, examples of Ibsen’s modernism, the protagonist, Nora, journeys throughout the play to become the ‘New Woman’ torn between society’s traditional values and her “duty to [herself].”² Transformation is one of the most important themes within A Doll’s House, and in fact in many of Ibsen’s plays, but for Ibsen to show his audience the benefits of this metamorphosis they must first witness the stages and reasons for development. Nora, the protagonist of this problem play, is the largest, but not only, character to show change and we can see this by contrasting the girlish Nora seen at the beginning of the play to the woman she has become by the end. One of the most important techniques Ibsen uses is that of “parallelisms”³ , each character appears to be paired with another and they have, essentially, a role reversal. For Nora her foil is Mrs Kristine Linde, an old school friend who has turned up on her doorstep out of the blue secretly in search of a job. MRS. LINDE [subdued and rather hesitantly]. How do you do, Nora? NORA...
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...the women do things they don't want to do, The women do things like want to kill themselves or leave the family because they don't love the men anymore. In both A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, the focus is on women as they exist within the confines of a man-dominated society, and how they respond to the problems that are presented in their marriages.Both stories have a common theme of women who have been controlled by the husband and how the women have no say in the social class. The women in the plays are very similar but they both take different steps to show what they are going to do. And in both plays, there are women that understand that they are getting controlled which they had not understood...
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...PEnglish 102-5 March 29, 2011 A Doll’s House Nora is the main character all throughout the first act of A Doll House. She has several different qualities that both work together and against one another to build up her character in this play. The two most prominent are her as a child, and as both a manipulator and one who has been manipulated. Nora is seen as a “doll” or child throughout this play. She is treated this way because of the way she “acts”. She will clap her hands when she gets excited about something, and is often humming and moving all around. Nora’s character can be controversial. Nora’s attitude toward her husband Torvald Helmer is very young as well. Torvald had always treated her this way because he regarded for her as a squirrel, which demonstrates that he does not believe her capable of dealing with adult matters such as finances and health crises. Instead of treating her as a wife or adult, Torvald lectures her on posturing, child rearing, and even dancing. By the end of the story, when he is hit with the knowledge of Nora’s complicated efforts—to save his life, he chooses to take aim and talk at her, rather than discussing her reasoning and emotional state when she made the choice she did by getting a secret loan. Throughout the play I felt that she couldn’t take care of herself without her husband by her side. I didn’t really know what to think of Nora at the beginning of the play. Nora’s “hidden” strength is shown the most toward her husband. She is...
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