A Doll's House

a doll's house

By Henrik Ibsen

Tldr/Opinion: 6/10

As an audience it is difficult to decipher Nora’s characterisation and the layers of the character's personality especially related to the extent of her submission and the extent to which she is merely feigning an idealised role. The ambiguity and coquettishness of characterisation is perhaps correlational to her lack of like-ability as a character. However, perhaps this is a deliberate move by Ibsen to invoke introspection amongst the contemporary audience - whose households mirror that of the stifling claustrophobia of Nora's Doll's House and whose housewives mirror the cloyingly doctored behaviour of Nora. The ability of the book, with its controversial plot trajectory, to send shockwaves into a highly insular, conservative society of the era, is highly commendable. It is novels like this that are necessary to spark social change - sadly this was one greater appreciated after its time what with audiences of the time demanding a less polemic (and therefore less impactful) ending.

Power Dynamic
Marriage
Women's Obligations
Gender Stereotypes
Money
Defiance/Rebellion
Facades/Duplicity
Corruption/Heritability

Themes:

blurb:

However, for me, the majority of the brownie points earned for this book originate in its message rather than its plot, which, for me, was lacking somewhat. Along with the irritation induced by the characters, I wouldn't exactly dub the book an enjoyable read.

A naturalist 3-act play produced by Ibsen to enhance the realism of his portrayal of 19th century Norway and display the institutional, psychological and sociological restraints on women. The female protagonist, Nora, portrays the prototypical doting wife figure to her prototypical bread-winning husband, Helmer. However this is where the stereotype of their marriage ends, particularly with relation to their atypical power dynamic, the illegal acts Nora commits and the finale, all of which give an honest appraisal of the performance that marriage consisted of in conservative Norway.

analysis:

GENDER STEREOTYPES - The male trope of control, Helmer seemingly appears to have supremacy over Nora coinciding with the Norwegian laws prohibiting women from doing things without their husband’s permission during the 19th century. However through the play Nora’s rebellion appears as a recurrent theme suggesting to an audience that perhaps there is more of equilibrium of power than first implied.

MARRIAGE - Throughout the play Ibsen depicts Helmer as a figure of dominance in the romantic masquerade that is his marriage, consistently impressing his superiority over his wife particularly due to his moralistic constitution. Furthermore when constructing the dialogue between Helmer and Nora, Ibsen frequently reiterates the strangeness of the dynamic between the two; Helmer repeatedly nicknames Nora demeaning pet names, which may superficially strike as terms of endearment but appear to disparage her character and belittle her being his wife. Her status in relation to him apparently grants him this right. This not only displays the undercurrent of discord within their marriage but also highlights the control he is attempting to exert over her by suppressing her with thinly veiled insults, which reduce her to almost a domesticated entity that he presides ownership over, ‘a creature’ of his adaptation and his sculpting. However Nora repeatedly conforms to her role, deferring to Helmer and his names for her and assuming whichever performance he lays out for her, seemingly never acting against his wishes.

MONEY - Helmer displays certain vehemence whenever money is mentioned. He maintains her status by constantly reminding her of her faults and also takes care to reiterate his senior position as the monetary provider. She attempts to ask for money in a whimpering manner as though pretending to be more subordinate will earn her greater favour with him, playing exactly into the simpering maternal figure expected during the era.

MACAROONS - Nora is displayed as evidently fearful of Torvald’s chastisement when she enters furtively with contraband macaroons, indignantly denying their existence, as though this small act of insurgency would devastate the marriage thus showing not only her dislike for showing defiance but also the fragility of their partnership.

THE DOLL'S HOUSE METAPHOR - Moreover Ibsen has cleverly crafted the play to appear as though a woman is incarcerated in her own home with Nora rarely if ever leaving the house and the emphasis being on the ‘exits’ and ‘entrances’ of the other characters yet not her own. Ibsen further reiterates this sense of entrapment through the title of the play, ‘A dolls House’ as though the book were an allegory for Nora being a doll, controlled to each and every whim of her master or proprietor in this case her husband. With the doors of a dolls house only opening at the control of the owner, Helmer is also represented as almost Nora’s keeper, allowing her only certain excursions and actions - the puppeteer.

POWER DYNAMIC - Contrarily Ibsen portrays Nora in a way that implies to the audience the flattery and hyperbole is, in essence, a manipulation tactic, that she is using her feminine wiles and supposed meekness to influence Torvald into doing her bidding. Thus showing who is really in control in the relationship. It is clear to see, when Nora explains she orchestrated the plan which supposedly saved her husband's life, her outward naivety is replaced with an almost Machiavellian nature, particularly in the way that she had secretly enacted a plan which due to Norwegian law was illegal.

PRETENSE - This façade of innocence of Nora’s continues throughout the play particularly at the beginning where we are introduced to this seemingly vacuous woman who uses almost childlike vocabulary. However the nature of this pretence as that of a falsehood is steadily revealed throughout the play as the length of her speech increases, demonstrating her true eloquence which she chooses to cleverly disguise in his presence in order to further their wavering veneer of perfection.

CORRUPTION - The theme of corruption and deceit play principal roles in Ibsen’s three-act play, A Dolls House, interweaving the paralleled main plot and sub plot and recurrently undermining the supposedly pleasant nature of the Helmer’s marriage. Corruption itself is portrayed in several ways, with the nature of its transmission varying; an apocryphal contagion which Torvald seemingly adopts a paranoia or hypochondria against being stained or infected by corruption as well as the hereditary form of corruption predominantly from father to child. Ibsen conveys corruption as having a dual form of transference, an almost reflection of the psychological concept of nature vs. nurture; Torvald, when referring to Nora’s characteristics and her supposed culpabilities/downfalls, refers to them as being down to her fathers shortcomings as if he has passed on his inability to handle money to her. This is represented in her own desperation for monetary gratification. Another example is of genetic corruption physically manifesting is Dr Rank’s ‘syphilis’, apparently originating from his father's terrible exploits. This is association with corruption is seemingly enough to deter Nora from breaking out or changing her marriage throughout the play, as Torvald's emotional blackmail about a corrupt mother and the negative repurcussions on her children is enough to guilt trip and trap her. Corruption was a stigmatised anathema in society, as shown by Torvald's abject terror and adverse reactions at the mention of it.