A Doll’s House -Henrik Ibsen

November 27, 2012

This play, “A Doll’s House”, is one that I honestly wasn’t too interested in. I enjoyed listening and watching my classmates act it out, though. I think they made it more interesting for me. Basically, It was specifically about a woman named Nora who borrowed money and faked the signature of her father. The money was used for a life saving trip with her husband, Torvald. Her husband treats her as a child, calling her a lark and a squirrel. A lot of things happen and in the end, Nora ends up leaving.

At the end, when a letter that Krogstad wrote to Torvald was read, Torvald flipped and was very upset over what Nora had done. He was ready to essentially disown Nora, but keep up a fake relationship as a show. She wasn’t going to be able to raise her children anymore as well. He told her that she needed to be taught as a child. The fortune turns, however, because Krogstad also gave Torvald he document that Nora signed. He isn’t upset anymore and he forgives Nora, but Nora is in shock. She believed that as much as Torvald loved her, that he would forgive her right away after reading the letter, in a display of his love for her. She turns on him and says that she is leaving. He starts to panic. She is leaving because she sees that she does have to learn. Torvald never let her be a person. He always treated her like a child, demeaning her. She wanted to leave in order to become the person she was supposed to be. Sh even told him that she didn’t love him. That he was always nice to her, but she didn’t have any love for him.

It is sad really, how the play ended. It is like a lot of the short stories that we read that had feminist undertones. I understand that women wanted their rights to be equal with men and to an extent, I am grateful for it. I am not one for these kinds of plots though.

I found Ms. Linde and Krogstad intriguing characters in the play. I liked how there was  a sort of double plot going on. One between Nora and Torvald and one going on between Ms. Linde and Krogstad. It was like the relationships were going in opposite directions. As Nora and Torvald’s relationship started to break, Ms. Linde and Krogstand reunited and ended up getting back together, perhaps (and most likely) stronger than they had been before.

I sort of saw Nora as selfish in the play. I know that she risked her neck by taking a loan behind her husband’s back for his sake, but in the end she left him. She left him and their children behind. I felt like I was on Torvald’s side the whole time in a way. She seemed ungrateful and maybe even manipulative towards the love that Torvald had for her. I know that Ms. Linde really wanted someone there for her and for her children, but Ms. Linde was different from Nora. Nora had it all and walked out on a man who loved her in order to pursue herself. Ms. Linde wanted love and she made a man very happy in rejoining with him.  Like I said before, there is that element of opposite directions in the two relationships.

I also found the whole situation with Dr. Rank to be tragic. He had a deeper friendship with Nora than Torvald did. Not having Dr. Rank there anymore, Nora was that much more inclined to leave, I think. Nora no longer felt anything for Torvald. Perhaps she never did at all. Maybe it was Dr. Rank keeping her here, making her marriage with Torvald bearable.

Like I said, I wasn’t too interested in this particular play, but there were some interesting aspects to it.

Written by Christine Posted in Uncategorized