essay in a doll's house

A Doll’s House Essay

A Doll’s House was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879. A Doll’s House is not only one of Henrik Ibsen’s most famous plays, but it has also been seen as the starting point for realist drama. A Doll’s House, along with Brand and Peer Gynt, are often considered to be the first modern plays written in Europe. A Doll’s House is a play about power, money, guilt, duty, and family relationships.

A Doll’s House starts with Mrs. Nora Helmer who decides that her family should have an evening at home to celebrate Torvald’s birthday even though there are various outside activities planned earlier on that day. After getting all the children to bed Nora makes some coffee and brings some cake for herself and Torvald. She notices that the maid is not coming in to clear the table, despite several requests. As it turns out, Aune (the maid) is sick and unable to come to work. Nora remarks on Aune’s “poor condition”, saying she will take up Aune’s duties while Aune is ill.

Eventually, Nora forgets about Aune entirely as she becomes engrossed in her own thoughts of how their life together has become stifling; all play rather than essential sustenance of family life had ceased, with Torvald preferring to read newspapers alone in his study each evening rather than engaging with his wife or children. Nora decides she must break free from the chains that bind her. Aune, who turns up at one point is too sick to help with Nora’s children. Nora promises Aune that she will hire a nurse for Aune once Aune has recovered from her illness.

Aune leaves and Torvald enters. He asks about Aune, not believing that an important event would prevent Aune from attending work. The two converse until Nora suggests that they go out to visit Mrs. Linde (who had earlier announced temporary departure due to poor health). Torvald becomes irate over this suggestion as he does not have time to waste on “unimportant” people currently immersed in newspaper reading. He complains of the dinner being cold, further displaying his ignorance of his family and Aune’s conditions.

Nora sees past Torvald’s narrow-mindedness and decides to sit down and play the piano without his permission. He becomes even angrier because Nora has lost track of time while playing; instead of taking up Aune’s duties, she should be finishing the housework such as what Aune would typically do. Nora sees that her husband is quite ignorant in not understanding why Aune is unable to come into work, yet he will not allow Aune a few days’ leave when needed. She tells Torvald about Aune’s illness, but he does not believe it to be a serious affliction.

Not wanting to argue with him so late night, Nora decides to postpone Aune’s endeavor to find a nurse for Aune. The play moves to the following morning, as Nora narrates her daily routine (how she is to be “the perfect wife”). She is aware of Torvald’s explicit caresses every time he returns home from work, but his attentions are merely symbolic gestures signifying their financial arrangement. Aune enters, having recovered from her illness enough to return to work.

Aune relates that one of Mrs. Linde’s family friends has offered Aune a better-paid position in another town. Aune asks Nora whether she believes she is doing the right thing by leaving Nora in need of help with the children and housework. Aune also asks Nora if Torvald will speak to Aune about her departure. Aune requests that Nora not mention Aune’s leaving to Torvald, because Aune does not want him to feel obliged to give Aune a reference. Aune also discloses why she has taken the position, stating she is leaving for “personal reasons”.

Mrs. Linde enters, stating that an old friend of hers who works as a lawyer in Rome has offered her well-paid work caring for his motherless daughter. She requests permission from both Aune and Nora before accepting the job offer. The two are supportive; they will need help while Aune is gone. Mrs. Linde remarks on how overjoyed she is by the prospect of finding employment once again after such a long period of unemployment. Aune also shares her plans of finding a nurse for Aune, but Nora is reluctant to share the news, Aune, leaving with Torvald because he will be disappointed at Aune’s departure.

Aune warns Mrs. Linde that she must not mention Aune’s departure to Torvald either. Aune leaves and Mrs. Linde takes over Aune’s duties in the kitchen while Nora continues playing the piano. Torvald once again returns from work, ruining his routine when he finds no one in the sitting room waiting for him. He calls out “Nora”, and Nora responds by going into her bedroom where Torvald sits on a chair reading a newspaper. She tells him about Aune having left the house. Aune, Nora points out, will definitely provide a reference for Aune.

Torvald begins to worry about Aune leaving, citing that Aune’s work has been outstanding and she would be an exceptional nurse even to his children. He accuses Nora of not being considerate enough towards Aune in allowing Aune the choice of whether or not to stay. Torvald proceeds with his newspaper reading while Nora returns to playing the piano; he comments on how well-played the piece is and praises her talent at playing it so excellently together with such speed and agility. Torvald remarks that Nora never ceases to amaze him (“”Det star mig sa n? som for/Og det driver mig saa forf? rdeligt til vanvidd””).

Aune returns from the kitchen, where Aune has been packing her belongings. Aune asks Nora if she could have a few moments alone with Torvald to say goodbye. A few minutes later Aune asks Mrs. Linde to take a peek at Aune and Torvald to see whether they are finished talking yet because Aune cannot hear anything from Aune’s bedroom. Mrs. Linde enters first before calling for Aune; she tells Aune that it would be best for Aune not to come inside as it appears that there is trouble between them.

Aune stays anyway, deciding that enough time should have passed by now as Mrs. Linde re-enters Aune’s room. Aune enters the bedroom to see Torvald embracing Aune; they are back in love. Aune overhears that Torvald has no idea Aune is leaving until Aune hears Torvald describe how it feels like Aune has left him all alone with three children—he knows exactly how much Aune means to Nora (and vice versa); he wants Aune to stay, even though he can offer her very little except for his gratitude and admiration of Aune’s work.

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

Analysis of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 27, 2020 • ( 0 )

Whether one reads A Doll’s House as a technical revolution in modern theater, the modern tragedy, the first feminist play since the Greeks, a Hegelian allegory of the spirit’s historical evolution, or a Kierkegaardian leap from aesthetic into ethical life, the deep structure of the play as a modern myth of self-transformation ensures it perennial importance as a work that honors the vitality of the human spirit in women and men.

—Errol Durbach, A Doll’s House : Ibsen’s Myth of Transformation

More than one literary historian has identified the precise moment when modern drama began: December 4, 1879, with the publication of Ibsen ’s Etdukkehjem ( A Doll’s House ), or, more dramatically at the explosive climax of the first performance in Copenhagen on December 21, 1879, with the slamming of the door as Nora Helmer shockingly leaves her comfortable home, respectable marriage, husband, and children for an uncertain future of self-discovery. Nora’s shattering exit ushered in a new dramatic era, legitimizing the exploration of key social problems as a serious concern for the modern theater, while sounding the opening blast in the modern sexual revolution. As Henrik Ibsen ’s biographer Michael Meyer has observed, “No play had ever before contributed so momentously to the social debate, or been so widely and furiously discussed among people who were not normally interested in theatrical or even artistic matter.” A contemporary reviewer of the play also declared: “When Nora slammed the door shut on her marriage, walls shook in a thousand homes.”

Ibsen set in motion a transformation of drama as distinctive in the history of the theater as the one that occurred in fifth-century b.c. Athens or Elizabethan London. Like the great Athenian dramatists and William Shakespeare, Ibsen fundamentally redefined drama and set a standard that later playwrights have had to absorb or challenge. The stage that he inherited had largely ceased to function as a serious medium for the deepest consideration of human themes and values. After Ibsen drama was restored as an important truth-telling vehicle for a comprehensive criticism of life. A Doll’s House anatomized on stage for the first time the social, psychological, emotional, and moral truths beneath the placid surface of a conventional, respectable marriage while creating a new, psychologically complex modern heroine, who still manages to shock and unsettle audiences more than a century later. A Doll’s House is, therefore, one of the ground-breaking modern literary texts that established in fundamental ways the responsibility and cost of women’s liberation and gender equality. According to critic Evert Sprinchorn, Nora is “the richest, most complex” female dramatic character since Shakespeare’s heroines, and as feminist critic Kate Millett has argued in Sexual Politics, Ibsen was the first dramatist since the Greeks to challenge the myth of male dominance. “In Aeschylus’ dramatization of the myth,” Millett asserts, “one is permitted to see patriarchy confront matriarchy, confound it through the knowledge of paternity, and come off triumphant. Until Ibsen’s Nora slammed the door announcing the sexual revolution, this triumph went nearly uncontested.”

The momentum that propelled Ibsen’s daring artistic and social revolt was sustained principally by his outsider status, as an exile both at home and abroad. His last deathbed word was “ Tvertimod !” (On the contrary!), a fitting epitaph and description of his artistic and intellectual mindset. Born in Skien, Norway, a logging town southwest of Oslo, Ibsen endured a lonely and impoverished childhood, particularly after the bankruptcy of his businessman father when Ibsen was eight. At 15, he was sent to Grimstad as an apothecary’s apprentice, where he lived for six years in an attic room on meager pay, sustained by reading romantic poetry, sagas, and folk ballads. He later recalled feeling “on a war footing with the little community where I felt I was being suppressed by my situation and by circumstances in general.” His first play, Cataline , was a historical drama featuring a revolutionary hero who reflects Ibsen’s own alienation. “ Cataline was written,” the playwright later recalled, “in a little provincial town, where it was impossible for me to give expression to all that fermented in me except by mad, riotous pranks, which brought down upon me the ill will of all the respectable citizens who could not enter into that world which I was wrestling with alone.”

Largely self-educated, Ibsen failed the university entrance examination to pursue medical training and instead pursued a career in the theater. In 1851 he began a 13-year stage apprenticeship in Bergen and Oslo, doing everything from sweeping the stage to directing, stage managing, and writing mostly verse dramas based on Norwegian legends and historical subjects. The experience gave him a solid knowledge of the stage conventions of the day, particularly of the so-called well-made play of the popular French playwright Augustin Eugène Scribe and his many imitators, with its emphasis on a complicated, artificial plot based on secrets, suspense, and surprises. Ibsen would transform the conventions of the well-made play into the modern problem play, exploring controversial social and human questions that had never before been dramatized. Although his stage experience in Norway was marked chiefly by failure, Ibsen’s apprenticeship was a crucial testing ground for perfecting his craft and providing him with the skills to mount the assault on theatrical conventions and moral complacency in his mature work.

In 1864 Ibsen began a self-imposed exile from Norway that would last 27 years. He traveled first to Italy, where he was joined by his wife, Susannah, whom he had married in 1858, and his son. The family divided its time between Italy and Germany. The experience was liberating for Ibsen; he felt that he had “escaped from darkness into light,” releasing the productive energy with which he composed the succession of plays that brought him worldwide fame. His first important works, Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867), were poetic dramas, very much in the romantic mode of the individual’s conflict with experience and the gap between heroic assertion and accomplishment, between sobering reality and blind idealism. Pillars of Society (1877) shows him experimenting with ways of introducing these central themes into a play reflecting modern life, the first in a series of realistic dramas that redefined the conventions and subjects of the modern theater.

The first inklings of his next play, A Doll’s House , are glimpsed in Ibsen’s journal under the heading “Notes for a Modern Tragedy”:

There are two kinds of moral laws, two kinds of conscience, one for men and one, quite different, for women. They don’t understand each other; but in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman but a man.

The wife in the play ends by having no idea what is right and what is wrong; natural feelings on the one hand and belief in authority on the other lead her to utter distraction. . . .

Moral conflict. Weighed down and confused by her trust in authority, she loses faith in her own morality, and in her fitness to bring up her children. Bitterness. A mother in modern society, like certain insects, retires and dies once she has done her duty by propagating the race. Love of life, of home, of husband and children and family. Now and then, as women do, she shrugs off her thoughts. Suddenly anguish and fear return. Everything must be borne alone. The catastrophe approaches, mercilessly, inevitably. Despair, conflict, and defeat.

To tell his modern tragedy based on gender relations, Ibsen takes his audience on an unprecedented, intimate tour of a contemporary, respectable marriage. Set during the Christmas holidays, A Doll’s House begins with Nora Helmer completing the finishing touches on the family’s celebrations. Her husband, Torvald, has recently been named a bank manager, promising an end to the family’s former straitened financial circumstances, and Nora is determined to celebrate the holiday with her husband and three children in style. Despite Torvald’s disapproval of her indulgences, he relents, giving her the money she desires, softened by Nora’s childish play-acting, which gratifies his sense of what is expected of his “lark” and “squirrel.” Beneath the surface of this apparently charming domestic scene is a potentially damning and destructive secret. Seven years before Nora had saved the life of her critically ill husband by secretly borrowing the money needed for a rest cure in Italy. Knowing that Torvald would be too proud to borrow money himself, Nora forged her dying father’s name on the loan she received from Krogstad, a banking associate of Torvald.

The crisis comes when Nora’s old schoolfriend Christina Linde arrives in need of a job. At Nora’s urging Torvald aids her friend by giving her Krogstad’s position at the bank. Learning that he is to be dismissed, Krogstad threatens to expose Nora’s forgery unless she is able to persuade Torvald to reinstate him. Nora fails to convince Torvald to relent, and after receiving his dismissal notice, Krogstad sends Torvald a letter disclosing the details of the forgery. The incriminating letter remains in the Helmers’ mailbox like a ticking time-bomb as Nora tries to distract Torvald from reading it and Christina attempts to convince Krogstad to withdraw his accusation. Torvald eventu-ally reads the letter following the couple’s return from a Christmas ball and explodes in recriminations against his wife, calling her a liar and a criminal, unfit to be his wife and his children’s mother. “Now you’ve wrecked all my happiness—ruined my whole future,” Torvald insists. “Oh, it’s awful to think of. I’m in a cheap little grafter’s hands; he can do anything he wants with me, ask me for anything, play with me like a puppet—and I can’t breathe a word. I’ll be swept down miserably into the depths on account of a featherbrained woman.” Torvald’s reaction reveals that his formerly expressed high moral rectitude is hypocritical and self-serving. He shows himself worried more about appearances than true morality, caring about his reputation rather than his wife. However, when Krogstad’s second letter arrives in which he announces his intention of pursuing the matter no further, Torvald joyfully informs Nora that he is “saved” and that Nora should forget all that he has said, assuming that the normal relation between himself and his “frightened little songbird” can be resumed. Nora, however, shocks Torvald with her reaction.

Nora, profoundly disillusioned by Torvald’s response to Krogstad’s letter, a response bereft of the sympathy and heroic self-sacrifice she had hoped for, orders Torvald to sit down for a serious talk, the first in their married life, in which she reviews their relationship. “I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child,” Nora explains. “And in turn 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. That’s been our marriage, Torvald.” Nora has acted out the 19th-century ideal of the submissive, unthinking, dutiful daughter and wife, and it has taken Torvald’s reaction to shatter the illusion and to force an illumination. Nora explains:

When the big fright was over—and it wasn’t from any threat against me, only for what might damage you—when all the danger was past, for you it was just as if nothing had happened. I was exactly the same, your little lark, your doll, that you’d have to handle with double care now that I’d turned out so brittle and frail. Torvald—in that instant it dawned on me that I’ve been living here with a stranger.

Nora tells Torvald that she no longer loves him because he is not the man she thought he was, that he was incapable of heroic action on her behalf. When Torvald insists that “no man would sacrifice his honor for love,” Nora replies: “Millions of women have done just that.”

Nora finally resists the claims Torvald mounts in response that she must honor her duties as a wife and mother, stating,

I don’t believe in that anymore. I believe that, before all else, I’m a human being, no less than you—or anyway, I ought to try to become one. I know the majority thinks you’re right, Torvald, and plenty of books agree with you, too. But I can’t go on believing what the majority says, or what’s written in books. I have to think over these things myself and try to understand them.

The finality of Nora’s decision to forgo her assigned role as wife and mother for the authenticity of selfhood is marked by the sound of the door slamming and her exit into the wider world, leaving Torvald to survey the wreckage of their marriage.

Ibsen leaves his audience and readers to consider sobering truths: that married women are the decorative playthings and servants of their husbands who require their submissiveness, that a man’s authority in the home should not go unchallenged, and that the prime duty of anyone is to arrive at an authentic human identity, not to accept the role determined by social conventions. That Nora would be willing to sacrifice everything, even her children, to become her own person proved to be, and remains, the controversial shock of A Doll’s House , provoking continuing debate over Nora’s motivations and justifications. The first edition of 8,000 copies of the play quickly sold out, and the play was so heatedly debated in Scandinavia in 1879 that, as critic Frances Lord observes, “many a social invitation in Stockholm during that winter bore the words, ‘You are requested not to mention Ibsen’s Doll’s House!” Ibsen was obliged to supply an alternative ending for the first German production when the famous leading lady Hedwig Niemann-Raabe refused to perform the role of Nora, stating that “I would never leave my children !” Ibsen provided what he would call a “barbaric outrage,” an ending in which Nora’s departure is halted at the doorway of her children’s bedroom. The play served as a catalyst for an ongoing debate over feminism and women’s rights. In 1898 Ibsen was honored by the Norwegian Society for Women’s Rights and toasted as the “creator of Nora.” Always the contrarian, Ibsen rejected the notion that A Doll’s House champions the cause of women’s rights:

I have been more of a poet and less of a social philosopher than people generally tend to suppose. I thank you for your toast, but must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for women’s rights. I am not even quite sure what women’s rights really are. To me it has been a question of human rights. And if you read my books carefully you will realize that. Of course it is incidentally desirable to solve the problem of women; but that has not been my whole object. My task has been the portrayal of human beings.

Despite Ibsen’s disclaimer that A Doll’s House should be appreciated as more than a piece of gender propaganda, that it deals with universal truths of human identity, it is nevertheless the case that Ibsen’s drama is one of the milestones of the sexual revolution, sounding themes and advancing the cause of women’s autonomy and liberation that echoes Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and anticipates subsequent works such as Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.

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Nora’s True Identity

      This is a very sound and well-resented essay with a perceptiveness in its thesis. There are a few glitches in some of the sentences, but not enough to detract for the overall impression of intelligent commentary. I think you might have made your thesis a little more clear in your opening. For instance, you might have said: "Even in the life she lives with Torvald, there are signs that beneath the "twitterbird" and "squirrel," there is a strong and capable woman functioning in secret. It is this secret Nora who emerges in the end, ready to openly seek an independent life where her attributes needn't be concealed." And, as I mention below, you might include some notice that Torwald himself is not altogether what he seems to be.

     Again, some fine thinking through the implications of the play and a clear exposition. This is a good example of an A paper. I would probably give it in the vicinity of a 96.

A Doll's House

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Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Throughout the play, Torvald refers to Nora in relation to different objects, animals, or images in their conversations.

• What is Nora’s general response to this Objectification ? ( topic sentence )
• Find 3 examples of Objectification throughout the play and explain the context and given circumstances of each.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize the ways in which these examples of Objectification demean Nora as an individual.

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2. Many of the characters touch upon the importance of possessing financial freedom within the play.

• Select one character and share their position on financial freedom. ( topic sentence )
• Find and discuss 2-3 examples in which their opinion on financial freedom informs their decisions.
• Does this character achieve financial freedom at the end of the play? Why or why not? Explain in your concluding sentence or sentences.

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Henrik Ibsen – A Doll’s House: Setting

Setting in a doll’s house: summary, a doll’s house setting: essay main body, setting in a doll’s house: analysis conclusion, works cited.

The play ‘The Dollhouse’ was written in 1879. In this work, Henrik Ibsen criticizes Victorian marriage and the secondary roles of women in society. The freedom and independence of the main character, Nora, is limited by her husband and father. Ibsen skillfully uses settings to reflect and unveil the feelings and thoughts of the main characters. The settings help Ibsen to create a unique atmosphere in the play and symbolically portray inner feelings, emotional experience, and changes in the main characters.

The description of the house and Torvald’s apartments shapes the atmosphere of the play and reflects changes in family relations. Its description is put at the very beginning of the story, so it is possible to say that Ibsen underlines the significance of this symbol for the entire work and plot development attracting the attention of readers. The family house reflects the life of Nora and her husband Torvald. “Certainly Torvald does understand how to make a house dainty and attractive” (Ibsen). Throughout the play, the setting and symbol of a house reflect the inner physiological state of Nora and her life. It seems Nora is comforted by the world around her but despair continues to attack her. “Listen, Torvald. I have heard that when a wife deserts her husband’s house, as I am doing now, he is legally freed from all obligations towards her” (Ibsen). This setting plays a symbolic meaning shaping atmosphere of despair and family tragedy. The house symbolizes happy family life and close relations between the spouses. Using the setting of ‘the Dollhouse’, Ibsen underlines that Nora’s freedom is limited by this setting and the surrounding.

Using unique settings of the room and furniture, Ibsen misleads readers creating an atmosphere of wealth and happiness. All events take place in one room. The room represents rosy dreams and life hopes, a positive atmosphere, and friendly family relations. Although, because the social role of the wife is predetermined, Ibsen underlines that Nora feels miserable and depressed. This symbolic meaning helps readers to grasp the idea at once shaping the atmosphere of the play. Also, this setting contemplates nature, both the natural world around the narrator and her own inner nature. Another unique setting is Torvald’s study. Ibsen mentions only a door leading to this room. It is possible to say that this setting symbolizes men’s world and financial power outside women’s control. Ibsen comments in one of the remarks: “comes out of HELMER’S study. Before he shuts the door he calls to him” (Ibsen). In contrast to this setting, Ibsen includes the setting of the room where Nora dances. “[Nora] had danced her Tarantella, and it had been a tremendous success, as it deserved” (Ibsen). Both settings reflect two different worlds which separate the husband and wife. Specific detailed descriptions of these settings force readers to go beneath the surface and reinterpret the life and family roles of the spouses.

The setting of Christmas-time supports an atmosphere of mystery and life hopes. Torvald asks Nora: “Do you remember last Christmas? For a full three weeks beforehand you shut yourself up every evening, making ornaments for the Christmas Tree” (Ibsen). On the other hand, this remark depicts that the family has some financial problems and Nora has no money of her own depending upon her husband. This is the main reason why Ibsen discusses an important issue concerning the low status of women in society and the moral issues connected with it. Christmas-time symbolizes love and family relations as a vein sacrifice that is painful and sorrowful lasting for decades and causing terrible sufferings and emotional burden.

The settings unveil family relations and symbolically portray the roles of the husband and wife. Through the settings, Ibsen records the changes in Nora’s nature and her desire to overcome her husband’s oppression and become free from him. The settings unveil contractions between old and new values and ideas.

Ibsen, H. A Doll’s House . 2002.

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Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House Essay

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A brief overview of A Doll’s House

Standard conventions and adaptations of the time, the author’s intent, reception of his work and change, tone, mood, pace and internal thoughts, annotated bibliography, works cited.

A Doll’s House drama has been regarded as a composition whose performance in art has a social significance of mapping out life’s issues. It presents an in-depth development of emotional themes which realistic characters are going through. These characters are trying to deal with dramatic experiences in their lives.

According to Butler and Watt, characters in the play are facing myriads of conflicts that are arising from among themselves, the natural phenomena and society at large (181). Those themes include corruption, violence against women, class division, sexuality and moral dilemmas. Numerous examples of key themes, expression of character and practice have been clearly depicted in the drama A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen.

The position of a person based on the established sacred institutions usually indicates an individual’s status in a social group. In addition, social mobility describes the ability of an individual to comfortably fit among the popular people in society. This paper analyses the position of a woman in society, the aspect of social life as well as the importance of responsibility in the drama A Doll’s House .

Henrik Ibsen was born in March 1828 in a family of six children (Ibsen 5). His birth took place in skien, Norway. At the age of 23 years, he began working in theatres. By this time, he had written Catiline which was his first five-act tragedy play (Ibsen 15). In 1866, he wrote more dramas such as the Brand and Peer Gynt . In 1878, he wrote the Doll’s House which portrayed the classical tragedies of marriage and marriage institutions, human rights and particularly women’s rights.

It is imperative to note that Henrik Ibsen’s three-act play A Doll’s House is a significant drama which tends to critique the marriage norms and attitudes that were very popular during the 19 th century. The drama was composed by Ibsen in 1878. It has characters and themes reflecting the occurrence of tragedies during that period (Ibsen 55). He was drawn by the gender bias that explained the inability among women to stand out in society that was male-dominated.

Gender stereotype in society has been in existence for a long time. In the 19 th century, the position of a woman on the male dominated society, her roles and duties in marriage depicted how low they were regarded compared to men. According to Butler and Watt, this was due to the intensively conventional practices and persuasively convincing reference to what the society saw as acceptable at the expense of others (108).

Though these stereotypes were adopted by majority of the people during this period, Ibsen felt that it was wrong. Having married and treated his wife on an equal platform, he felt that such a culture was supposed to be discouraged as it was highly generalized and it gave wrong perceptions on women and discouraged full capacity building among women (Butler and Watt 108).

They are greatly adoptive in different regions of the globe. During the 19 th century, the differences between men and women in the society were very critical and the act of marriage was defined in terms of their roles and position in marriage and society (Calasanti and Slevin 16).

In this historic time, the events in the play are relevant to the occurrences in society. According to the events taking place in the life of Nora, she is a feminine gender who has been socially disregarded in society compared to men (Ibsen 65). She was considered to be inferior and thus unable to hold major positions in leadership and even perform any vital role in the community.

Besides, established institutions of this time gave less regard to women in society and denied them chances to head or participate in any major decision making procedures in their communities or marriages. The roles of women as exemplified in the play were described and determined in their absence since they were not allowed to hold major positions in the leadership structures (Ibsen 35). This factor prompted them to sacrifice their roles, a consideration that men could not undertake.

This would assist in saving their marriages and become economically stable. Currently, majority of the third world countries still give preference to male children with the females being denied chances to get better education and facilities. Until recently, reports showed that the practice is still practiced because land and other types of property ownership in certain areas of the world has been a reservation for men only as opposed to women (Calasanti and Slevin 16).

In their publication, Butler and Watt argue that art has been widely used for artistic purposes as well as for social purposes such as education and acquisition of general knowledge in life skills (67).

Drama has been one of the media being massively used as the key tool in promoting positive attitudes towards different gender while denouncing the stereotypical behaviors. As indicated earlier, Ibsen’s describes a society that was marred by gender issues and conventions that sidelined and oppressed women (Ibsen 45). Male dominance and institutions played the greatest role in spreading stereotypes in society due to its great availability and massive persuasive and convincing power.

Ibsen’s intention was to use his work to shed light on these issues and also educate the society on the importance of treating women in a fair manner. His drama A Doll’s House highlighted several negative attitudes towards women’s roles and the negative outcomes of the gender stereotypes (Ibsen 45). He aimed at showing both sides of the story, the feelings of the womenfolk and the menfolk with regards to their positions and pointed towards the society making informed decision.

One of the key significances of Ibsen’s work of the A Doll’s House is that he wrote it in the middle of the gender issues and appeared to criticize the systems of the that era. His work received varied receptions with many critiquing its role in fighting institutions of marriage.

Over the years, analysts have sought to establish the best method of addressing resistance to change in behavioral studies. In their argument, Butler and Watt pointed out that most plays and drama aimed at changing societal behavior were defined on the basis of the received response strength (47). Response of individuals is often measured through analysis of aspects such as the willingness to adapt to change demands and flexibility.

It is notable that the play received sharp criticism from his community and some analysts who suggested that actual response to change should be used as the correct measure of the employed mechanism. As time passes by, the drama has become widely accepted due to the calls for change by institutions that fight for human and women’s rights.

Besides, democracy as described in the classical theories of change has been a major pillar towards equating the roles of women to those of men. It has acted as a major platform for total participation in all developments in the society. Increasing democratic space for women in various decision making activities and work has been widely accepted as the call of the drama A Doll’s House . This has massively changed the earlier perception that men are unique and hold positions of advantage than women.

The play A Doll’ House by Ibsen presents important moods and tones from its stage directions, settings and characters. Analysts indicate that Ibsen sets the moods of the characters in the play by using tones. The pacing and alternate agendas are clearly seen by the symbols such as the Christmas tree and the New Year’s Day, the settings of the residence and the chaos witnessed at the end of the play (Ibsen 45).

One of the attitudes seen by the lack of arguments is misunderstandings at the start and progress of the play. The jovial tones of the characters betray the coming pain and frustrations of gender problems faced by women.

One such expression of joy is witnessed in Nora when she receives the Christmas tree from a young man (Ibsen 75). She expresses happiness at the role of paying for the service given by the young man. According to Ibsen, the settings of this mood as well as the fact that all is well at the house of Helmer creates a cozy and warms feelings in the play (144).

Besides glee, the behavior which Torvald is referring to Nora as his pet or lark creates another mood of shock and disdain among the audience (Ibsen 95). Women are seen to be affected by this type of treatment from men and as such, fail to realize and exploit their main potential in society. In addition, social inequality is being brought out as the main source of internal conflicts.

The reflection of social inequality in the play as expressed by the institutions of marriage acts as a major source of disparagement and depiction of tones used when conversing.

Besides, the play reveals internal thoughts from different characters. One such character is Nora who ends Act One by thoughts that shows she feels she will poison her children by the lies she had been telling in order to save Torvald (Ibsen 65). The thought that Krogstad will reveal her lie to Trovald makes her think suicide thoughts in black water.

From the analysis of the drama, it can be concluded that the author was very keen and focused in addressing the needs and current occurrences in society. While the events in the plot of the play may not necessarily be revealing the extent to which human rights have been violated in society, it is still vivid that an equal platform has hardly be en brought into reality especially when addressing the rights of the female gender.

Butler, Tim and Paul. Watt. Understanding social inequality. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2007. Print.

The rising levels of inequalities in society present a major problem on the roles and development of women. The book highlights social disparities as a major problem that faced the communities that lived during the 19 th century. It raises the concerns that this practice denied women an opportunity to contribute and participate in economic and political matters. The authors lament that the problem may not end soon because certain communities still cling to this practice.

Calasanti, Tony and Kathleen, Slevin. Gender, social inequalities, and aging.Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001. Print.

This book outlines the emerging reality for many communities, families and households of the gender and social dissimilarities affecting society. The authors are of the perspective that this problem ha over the years been reduced through creation of a centralized consideration of ensuring equality for all genders. They also indicate that creating legislations as means of will act as good option in eradication inequalities.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House (SparkNotes Literature Guide). Bloomsbury: Spark Publishing, 2002. Print.

The book by Ibsen presents a critical analysis of the drama A Doll’s House which carefully navigates readers’ minds on the occurrences in the lives of characters. Particularly, it effectively brings out the interconnectedness of the different characters in accomplishing their needs despite social imbalances. The author seek to provide the answers to serious social inequities issues by indicating that participation of women must be encompassed on a larger framework with an aim of giving all genders an equal platform in all levels.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. Rockville, Maryland: Serenity Publishing, 2009. Print.

This book A Doll’s House provides an inclusive review of the scenes of the play in both Act One and Act Two and the major settings, themes and moods of the play. Though written for readers who seek to read the play, it is highly valuable as it digs into historical underpinnings that define the period of the 19 th century.

Butler, Tim and Paul, Watt. Understanding social inequality . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2007. Print.

Calasanti, Tony and Kathleen, Slevin,. Gender, social inequalities, and aging .Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001. Print.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House (SparkNotes Literature Guide) . Bloomsbury: Spark Publishing, 2002. Print.

Ibsen, Henrik . A Doll’s House . Rockville, Maryland: Serenity Publishing, 2009. Print.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House: Shmoop literature guide , Sunnyvale, BA: Shmoop University Inc., 2010. Print.

• Feminism in "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen
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• The play “Waiting for Godot”
• “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett
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• Chicago (A-D)
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IvyPanda. (2019, January 17). Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drama-analysis-a-dolls-house/

"Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House." IvyPanda , 17 Jan. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/drama-analysis-a-dolls-house/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House'. 17 January.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drama-analysis-a-dolls-house/.

1. IvyPanda . "Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drama-analysis-a-dolls-house/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Drama Analysis: A Doll’s House." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drama-analysis-a-dolls-house/.

Holocaust survivor Rose Rosenkranz recalls her…

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Florida teachers will get $1.25 billion in state-allocated raises, desantis says, florida jewish journal palm beach jewish news, holocaust survivor rose rosenkranz recalls her life as a ‘miracle baby’.

“I was born May 2nd, 1944 in Syktyvkar, Siberia. My father’s name was Edward Lefkowitz and my mother was Helen Frankental. I have a younger sister, Sherry. My story is one of resilience and hope. I’m considered a ‘Miracle Baby’ because I was born in a Siberian Slave Labor Camp during the heart of World War II. My parents were originally from Łódź, Poland. My father came from the city and my mother lived in Aleksandrow, a suburb of Łódź. Most of my parents’ family were murdered in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. My father had seven siblings and only two brothers survived the war and eventually settled in the Bronx. My parents spent a majority of the war in slave labor camps including the one I was born in. When I was three months old, Russia made an agreement with the Polish government in exile and moved Polish prisoners (including my family) to Ukraine. This is where my parents and I spent the last eight months of the war. As German forces retreated from Russia, they burned everything in their path. My earliest memory is returning to Poland after the war when I was a year and a half old. Survivors wrote in documents called ‘Black Books’ that they had survived the war. This method was used to help people find family members. We went to my mother’s former home hoping to find out news about her family. My mother knocked on the door and said, ‘Momma, I’m here’. The gardener who was now living in the house opened the door. Jews returning from the camps and ghettos found their homes being occupied by gentile neighbors. The gardener said to my mother, ‘What are you doing alive? Don’t you know that your family is dead’. My mother fainted after hearing the news. That is how she found out about her family’s fate. As we were about to leave the house my mother noticed a familiar item that was being used as a doorstop. It was my grandfather’s kiddish cup. My mother asked the gardener if she could have the cup and he replied, ‘Take it and go’. The kiddish cup along with my grandmother’s candlestick that my aunt in Israel gave me are the only two mementos I have from my family in Europe. They are very precious to me and I use them for special occasions and Jewish holidays.”

Rosenkranz reflected on life after the war.

“My family and I lived in a DP camp set up by allied forces in Backnang, Germany. The camp was located in the US occupation zone. While we waited for visas to move to America, I attended Hebrew school established by HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). After three years in the DP camp, my parents and I sailed for America aboard a US Navy ship. It took 10 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Our turbulent voyage included accommodations in the ship’s steerage where we slept in hammocks and ate in a mess hall. On March 22nd, 1949, my parents and I arrived in New York and started our new life. All adult refugees were given $10 each upon arrival. We moved in with one of my father’s brothers in the Bronx but soon looked for other accommodations because my mother and her sister-in-law couldn’t see eye-to-eye. We ended up renting a widow’s second bedroom. My father spoke five languages and had an operatic voice but couldn’t find work. The job market was a challenge because servicemen were returning from overseas at the same time and my father had to compete for employment. He found work in a bakery carrying 100 pound bags of flour.”

Rosenkranz recalled starting school.

“School was difficult because the other children in my kindergarten class made fun of me for looking and speaking differently and no one would go near me. In first grade an incident occurred that affected me profoundly. The teacher asked me to answer a question and the entire class laughed at me. I decided from that moment forward that I would never raise my hand or speak in class ever again. I graduated as an educator from Hunter College and thought, ‘How can I be a teacher if I can’t speak in class?’ I met my husband, Alan Rosenkranz, in my last year of college and we were married in 1965. I became a mother within a year of my graduation and I never became a teacher.”

Rosenkranz shared her involvement in Holocaust education.

“In 1987, when the newly created March of the Living was preparing for its inaugural tour the following spring, my husband encouraged me to use my Holocaust experience and educational skills and get involved in the program. I approached the organizers and became the March’s videographer. What I remember from that first trip was, feeling the presence of my murdered grandmother as I stood in the crematorium at notorious Auschwitz. My grandmother was among the 1 million Jews who died at the extermination camp along with her two young children. I heard my grandmother say, ‘Speak for me and my two babies. I no longer have a voice. You must be my voice’. I came back from that first March with a renewed sense of urgency to teach teens not to hate. The rabbi in the local synagogue asked me to address 500 students in the Hebrew school. I have been on 19 Marches since the first one in 1988. On one of the early Marches I visited Tykocin, Poland. Although no Jews live in Tykocin today, the synagogue remains. Built in 1642,  the synagogue was desecrated and then set up as a warehouse during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The synagogue was thoroughly restored in the late 1970s. The historic wall paintings, most of which are decorative texts of Hebrew prayers, were restored. During my first visit to Tykocin I also discovered the Jewish cemetery (one of the oldest in Poland). I spoke to the school’s principal and asked him to allow me to take the initiative and create an essay contest focused on Tykocin’s Jewish history. It was amazing how little the students knew about European Jewish history, so I created a Jewish library in the town. In 2010, I had the only bat mitzvah ever held in Tykocin. It was memorable because my father was still alive at the time and sang the blessing before I read my Torah portion. He passed away shortly afterwards. I’m proud to say the town’s only bat mitzvah was mine. In the early 1990s I was the national coordinator for the March of the Living in New York. At the time my daughter, Michelle, was studying with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel at Boston University. I called up Professor Wiesel, told him I was Michelle’s mother and invited him on the March. Wiesel accepted the invitation and accompanied the March participants to Auschwitz. 1,500 people lined up at the infamous gate of the concentration camp beneath the sign reading ‘Arbeit macht frei’, a German phrase translated as ‘Work sets you free’. Wiesel noticed my daughter who he did not know would be on the trip and went up to hug her as photographers from around the world captured the moment. After marching to the crematorium at Birkenau, Wiesel faced the crowd to speak. ‘Last time I was here was with my mother and sister who I never saw again’. Wiesel couldn’t utter another word because he was so choked up.”

Rosenkranz shared her most recent project.

“My nephew, Dodd Loomis, a playwright, director, producer and Visiting Assistant Professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, recently created an immersive theater production titled ‘Only Miracles’. My family’s remarkable story served as an inspiration for Dodd’s project. ‘Only Miracles’ has been presented at the historic Touro Synagogue and I have participated in the project by speaking at several schools. ‘Only Miracles’ is a three-part immersive event. The first part is a theatrical experience rooted in the principles of documentary theater. Two interviews with my parents conducted in 1995 by the Shoah Visual History Foundation serve as the dominant source material. Audience members wear headphones in which a voiceover, along with actors, guides them through vignettes. The second portion of the show is a Digital Museum experience accompanied by live music. The production concludes as the audience enters The Reflection Room. My mother always said, ‘It was only by a miracle that we survived’. Dodd based the title ‘Only Miracles’ on my mother’s words. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family. Alan and I were married for 47 years before he passed away in 2012. My daughter, Michelle, is an attorney and past president of the Florida Bar. My son, Howard, is a property manager. I have five grandchildren, including Talia, a New York based actress.”

Rosenkranz shared her words of wisdom.

“Nothing is more important than education. What we teach our children today will translate to tomorrow’s world.”

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Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025

The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.

Donald J. Trump intends to bring independent regulatory agencies under direct presidential control. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

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By Jonathan Swan ,  Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

• Published July 17, 2023 Updated July 18, 2023

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”

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A Doll's House

By henrik ibsen, a doll's house essay questions.

The play is usually considered one of Ibsen's “realist” plays. Consider how far the play might be anti-realist or symbolic.

Answer: Consider the symbols, metaphors, and imagery of the play, and weigh their importance against the elements that seem realistic. It also should be very helpful to define “realism” over against the uses of symbols and elements that are absurd, grotesque, or fantastic. Note that “realism” and “symbolism” have gained specific connotations within Ibsen criticism.

When Nora says in Act One, “I can't think of anything to wear. It all seems so stupid and meaningless,” Ibsen illustrates the symbolism of clothing in the play. Describe how Ibsen’s use of clothing works in the play.

Answer: Consider, especially, Nora's tarantella costume and fancy-dress box, as well as her black dress when taking the clothing is a symbol. Explore the metaphor of clothing as something which covers up, something which disguises, or as something which confers identity. Ibsen also uses clothing to make points about agency and gender. Consider who dresses whom and who wears certain clothes for the sake of personal expression or in order to please someone else.

Why is freedom important in the play?

Answer: Nora sees herself as not free when she is confined in the domestic life of her husband’s home. The direction of the play is to perceive Nora’s awakening as someone who deserves freedom. Consider, too, that Torvald becomes free of his marriage obligations, which also have been oppressive of his own liberties. Finally, consider the ambiguous nature of the freedom Nora wins. She is going from a fairly predictable life into something unknown. Remember that Mrs. Linde would rather be tied to a family rather than alone and on her own. Is that because of human nature or because of her individual choice?

Is Torvald Helmer a deeply abhorrent character?

Answer: To answer this question, perform a detailed character study of Torvald Helmer. Do not jump to a conclusion based on your initial feelings about his words and actions in the play. Weigh both sides of the argument—what specifically is the problem in the marriage and in his choices? If you decide to abhor the character, how bad is he? Consider the ways in which he genuinely loves his wife, earns money for the household, and pays attention to her against his selfishness, oppression of his wife, and ability to handle stress.

How does the play illustrate inheritance, the passing along of traits from parent to child?

Answer: Consider Dr. Rank's illness as attributed to his father’s indiscretions. Krogstad's shame for his own alleged errors is inherited by his children by way of reputation. Consider, most of all, Nora's relationships with her father and her nurse as influences on how she treats her own children.

What is the importance of the title of the play?

Answer: This is a reasonably straightforward question that could be taken in a number of directions. How far is Nora a doll, an object or toy for others? How does her home represent a doll’s house, from which the doll cannot escape on her own? When Nora leaves the house, she is breaking free of the metaphor, though it is unclear what will happen if she is going to return to her earlier family home, where she was something of a doll to her father.

Ibsen once described Mrs Alving in his play Ghosts as a version of Nora in later life. Imagine what Nora’s earlier life might have been like, based on her characterization in the play.

Answer: If up till the last day, Nora has been living in a fantasy world, she must have been even less self-aware or independent when she was younger. She probably married by being enthralled by her society’s ideas of love and marriage. Under her father and nurse, she seems to have had few opportunities to get anything like a liberal education; instead, she seems to have learned only how to be a traditional girl and a traditional woman.

To what extent is the play a comedy?

Answer: As well as considering smaller touches, such as individual lines, or jokes that might be funny or comedic, it is worth learning about the theatrical definitions of comedy and tragedy to consider how the structure of the play and the main plot elements might count as part of the tradition of comedy. Consider the roles of marriage, death, friendship, self-awareness, irony, family, holidays and parties, and the various themes of the play in this context.

Is A Doll's House a feminist play?

Answer: Ibsen claimed that his play was about liberation in a more general, human sense, rather than specifically about female liberation. If feminism focuses on both men and women, it is reasonable to see the mutual liberation of Torvald and Nora as a feminist goal, liberating people of both sexes from social and cultural limitations based on gender. Consider the various women in the play as well. How are we to know whether Ibsen wants us to approve or disapprove of their various choices in relation to men and to their own goals? How do the characters themselves exhibit any goals or points that could be described as feminist?

How does Ibsen provide suspense in the play?

Answer: The audience wonders when Torvald will read the letter and what will happen when he does. We also do not know if Nora is going to decide to kill herself, leave, or stay home, but we do know that the pressure on her is building and that something in her is going to burst. Foreshadowing contributes to these issues, such as when Nora tells Mrs. Linde that she has plans Mrs. Linde cannot understand.

Compare the relationship between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad with that of Nora and Torvald.

Answer: Nora and Torvald have lived in something of a fantasy marriage for years, and finally they are separating. Meanwhile, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad have been apart, thinking about one another, and finally they are getting together with a larger degree of self-understanding and maturity.

A Doll’s House Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Doll’s House is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Explain why krogstad says he would ask for his letter back

The music of the tarantella is heard above, and Mrs. Linde urges Krogstad to be quick. Krogstad now grows suspicious, questioning whether she is saying all of this simply on behalf of Nora. She denies it, and he then offers to take the letter...

Meaning of Excesses with regards to A Doll's House

What act are you referring to?

Mrs Linde States "i want to be a mother to someone, and your children need amother. We two need each other. Nils, I have faith in your real character I can dare anything together with you ?Based on this reading What does she want from life?

Ultimately, Mrs. Linde decides that she will only be happy if she goes off with Krogstad. Her older, weary viewpoint provides a foil to Nora's youthful impetuousness. She perhaps also symbolizes a hollowness in the matriarchal role. Her...

Study Guide for A Doll’s House

A Doll's House study guide contains a biography of Henrik Ibsen, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Doll's House
• A Doll's House Summary
• Character List

Essays for A Doll’s House

A Doll's House essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House.

• Influence of Antigone on A Doll's House
• Burning Down the Doll House
• Ibsen's Portrayal of Women
• Dressed to Impress: The Role of the Dress in Cinderella and A Doll's House
• A Doll's House: Revolution From Within

Lesson Plan for A Doll’s House

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to A Doll's House
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• A Doll's House Bibliography

E-Text of A Doll’s House

A Doll's House e-text contains the full text of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.

• DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Wikipedia Entries for A Doll’s House

• Introduction
• List of characters
• Composition and publication
• Production history