The struggle to harmonize with society’s expectations can destroy relationships. When one strives to conform into the set regulations of his environment, he is bound to interact with the world through appearances rather than reality, and that creates a harmful impact on his relationship with his spouse. In “A Doll’s House”, Henrik Ibsen demonstrates this notion through his character, Torvald Helmer, a husband who dissipates his relationship with his wife because of his determination to stick to the moral code that he entirely derives from society’s expectations. Torvald’s relentlessness to follow society’s regulations- his fixation on maintaining a high status in the eyes of others- causes him to lose sight of the values that matter, and he isn’t able to save his relationship with his wife- to be her hero (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
For the author, Torvald stands for all the individual-denying social ills against which Ibsen has dedicated all his writing….Ibsen, however, drives home the loathsome qualities of such a character by attributing to him a personal decadence. Implying that Torvald considers Nora merely an ornamented sex object, the author shows how he maintains amorous fantasies toward his wife (Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010).
The play, “A Doll’s House”, emphatically stresses upon the status of women how their roles should be perceived in the context of the social norms, related with marriage and motherhood. The character of Torvald Helmer is portrayed in displaying the specific roles of women how they should perform their sacred duty as faithful wife and loving mother. Ibsen also focus on the roles of women how the women are liable to develop ethical sense of morality in the minds of their children (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
Ibsen portrays the characters of women as childlike, powerless and helpless creatures who have no concerns with realistic approach of life but there is influential role of women to develop a sense of sincerity, purity, morality and responsibility in the children. Torvald is not much award about the conflicting pressures on the manhood powers rather than the incompatible pressures on the performance of the women in the society. Torvald has viewpoints about the manliness as it has great significance of total independence. He disregards the very idea of financial or moral dependence upon anybody else and his this passion of entire freedom keeps him out of the social circles where there is need of human interaction or interdependence in real life (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
The major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men (Johnston, 2000).
Torvald is always seen in amassing wealth and indulging in materialistic pursuits rather than the human relationship, depicting the social interaction of the people in the modern society. Torvald assumes the role of Nora as diminutive character and calls her with different names like “little songbird,” “squirrel,” “lark,” “little featherhead,” “little skylark,” “little person,” and “little woman (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).”
Ibsen’s concerns about the position of women in society are brought to life in A Doll’s House. He believed that women had a right to develop their own individuality, but in reality, their role was often self-sacrificial (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).
Light is used metaphorically for the illustration of self-journey of Nora. When Torvald claims to do everything by himself in the presence of Dr. Rank, the light begins to diminish into darkness as “Nora sinks to new levels of manipulation (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).” Nora comes into her sense of reality rather than living in her fantasy, when Dr. Rank exposes his love for her, she insists to bring lamp into the room. Light is emblem of enlightenment, used as metaphors for developing understanding of the readers by Ibsen. The fancy dress of Nora is also symbolism of her role in married life when she puts on such fancy dress. She changes herself by choosing such gorgeous costumes and at end of the play, she leaves Torvald and is ready to play role as new women of the modern society (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
Nora’s final exit away from all her traditional social obligations is the most famous dramatic statement in fictional depictions of this struggle, and it helped to turn Ibsen (with or without his consent) into an applauded or vilified champion of women’s rights and this play into a vital statement which feminists have repeatedly invoked to further their cause (Johnston, 2000).
The play focuses upon the clash between the real life and moral ideals as his other famous play, The Wild Duck also depicts same themes of human life. At the end of the play, the glorious victory of individualistic success reveals through the character of Nora how it would be foolish or idealistic decision to end up happy moments in the life of Nora (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
In A Doll’s House, portrays a depressing picture of the sacrificial role of women in all societies of the world and his heroine, Nora is exemplified with all women of the world how they have to sacrifice them while men deny to sacrifice their veracity, “hundreds of thousands of women have (Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).” Ibsen displays the theme of incestuous relationship of the husband and wife in the portrayals of Nora and Torvald. How Torvald takes his wife as show piece for sex only and encourages her to dance like pretty doll or Capri fisher girl in order to arouse his sexual passions. It is with this ultimate touch of falsification that Ibsen portrays the character of Torvald systematically culpable to the audience (Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010).
Marriage was a trap in another sense, too. Though divorce was available, it carried such a social stigma (not just for the woman, but also for her husband and family) that few women saw it as an option. This is why Torvald would rather have a pretend marriage, for the sake of appearances, than a divorce or an amicable parting (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).
The theme of the play is related with the moral concerns of the individuals and society, a suffocating moral climate which is criticized so harshly in A Doll’s House. How Nora plays a heroic action in her life to safeguard her life as unpardonable misdemeanor and dutifulness as illegal action and it is not astonishing end of the play when her journey of self-recognition starts to probe into the reality of life, “who is right, the world or I (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).”
Cited Works
A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010, retrieved from:
http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll’sHouse/themeanalysis.html
A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010, written by Henrik Ibsen, retrieved from:
http://www.gradesaver.com/a-dolls-house/study-guide/major-themes/
Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010, retrieved from:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/A-Doll-s-House-Character-Analysis-Torvald-Helmer.id-80,pageNum-155.html
Johnston, 2000, On Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, published by Ian Johnston,
[This is the text of a lecture delivered, in part, in Liberal Studies 310 at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. References to Ibsen's text are to the translation by James McFarlane and Jens Arup (Oxford: OUP, 1981). This text is in the public domain, released July, 2000], retrieved from: http://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/introser/ibsen.htm
Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen,
Retrieved from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/themes.html
