The play, A Doll’s House, was written by Henrik
Ibsen during the Enlightenment Era in 1879. That was a time when people tried to
understand better who natural laws governed human society. Logic and reason of
the Enlightenment era succeeded the idealism and flattery of the romantic era.
Significant themes like realism, individualism, the middle-class, and reasoning
were prominent in the literature.
A Doll’s House, written in three acts, was penned to criticize
marriage norms, social and gender stereotypes, and male domination in Ibsen’s
time. The play is about Nora and her husband, Torvald Helmer, a bank lawyer.
They have three children and live in a modest house. Nora is a caring and
loving woman who tries her best for her husband and children. When Helmer gets
sick, Nora attempts illegal forgery to gain money and plan a trip to Italy
which improves Helmer’s health. When Helmer finds out about this, he thinks of
it as a blow to his self-respect and degrades Nora. She realizes that her
husband does not love her, and all her sacrifices have been in vain. Nora
leaves the house and her family on a journey of self-discovery. This play
appeals to the audience’s logic, thoughts, and reasoning, as male dominance is
still very much a part of today’s society.
Helmer best represents the theme of self-respect in this
play. He lives in a male-dominated society and takes pride in providing for his
family. Although he is not financially well-endowed, he still wants to care for
his wife and family. He thinks of women as helpless and delicate, dependent
upon men, as shown through his title for Nora, “little skylark” (Ibsen,3).
In this play, Helmer seems controlling, and in the name of
self-respect, he likes to control his wife’s life. She is not even allowed to
eat macarons because Helmer has forbidden her to eat sweet treats. Helmer
believes that Nora should not do anything without his permission.
Krogstad is Helmer’s co-worker, and he is also the man to
who Nora owes money. AsKrogstad, at one point, talks to Helmer in a “familiar
tone” (Ibsen, 48), and Helmer takesoffense. He thinks that co-workers talking
to him in such a friendly manner is disrespectful and there must be no
frankness between two employees. With Helmer’s promotion, he thinks of himself
as superior to others, calling it self-respect, but in truth, it was pride.
Living in a society where women were not allowed to succeed
without a man’s help and guidance, Helmer felt insulted when Nora earned money
without his permission. He was horrified as the person who had gone against his
control, was his wife, and thus, he wanted to keep it “hushed up at any cost”
(Ibsen, 85) to save his face. And when Helmer receives the bond and Krogstad
letter, he says, “I am saved” (Ibsen, 86), not even mentioning Nora, his wife,
his life partner who had given up everything for him and made herself a
criminal. This was not self-respect but rather a self-centered attitude.
On the other hand, Nora presents an example of individualism.
During the English society of that time, individualism was not something for
women. They were not allowed to own businesses, take out loans from banks, or
do about anything remotely independent by themselves. But in A Doll’s House, Nora is her independent
being. She could not take a loan out for Helmer, so she attempts forgery and
signs for a loan in her father’s name by copying his signatures. She plans a
trip to Italy, lying to her husband that the money was left for her by her
father but had taken it from a loan shark. She did all this behind her
husband's back, breaking the stereotype that women cannot “be” without men. She
risked going to jail for her husband and went through many difficulties without
telling him anything, intending to save her marriage and her husband’s
self-respect.
Nora is an intelligent woman and, in many years of her
marriage, has put up with Elmer's demeaning remarks, which showed how Helmer
believed that Nora was dependent on him. But, in the end, she told Helmer, “You
have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me”
(Ibsen, 89). She had to hide her different opinions from her husband because
she thought that it would not be appreciated to have her thoughts voiced out
loud. If Helmer had ever loved Nora and had even tried to understand her, he
would have asked: “in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of
anything” (Ibsen, 89). Helmer had not had any idea that Nora could ever be her
being, her individual, so he had no idea who Nora was.
Before leaving the house, Nora says that “I am a reasonable
human being, just as you are” (Ibsen, 96), which meant that she is her person.
She was bound to think, make decisions and mistakes, and experience life through
decisions chosen of her choice and not dictated by others. In the end, she put
herself as her first preference.
In A Dolls’ House, Ibsen describes
individualism and self-respect throughHelmer and Nora, two real characters
whose virtues and vices are those of other ordinary people. Helmer wants Nora
to be dependent on him, to be forever under his care and guidance, like a Doll
in his house. But Nora is an individual who discovers that she loves her
family, but not more than herself and that she should always be her priority. She
makes a big decision to leave her well-settled life behind and breaks the norms
of her society by being an individual.
The drama industry
feared viewer backlash if the on-screen play ended with Nora leaving the house,
so they changed the ending to her reluctantly agreeing to stay with Helmer.
Even with the advent of new drama industries, the directors feared that people
would view a woman, who has left her husband and family, negatively instead of
accepting it as her journey to be an individual.
The article is produced by Tayyaba Noor, one of the contributors at the School of Literature.
