Henrick Ibsen's A Doll House

Henrick Ibsen's A Doll House
Begin: 03/3/07
End: 03/03/07
Quality: Ten Out of Ten.
Reason: Random
Genre: Drama. Women's Literature.
Number: Third?
Thoughts:

Wow. No matter how many times I read this play, it just keeps moving me. It always has something new in it, something brilliant and thought provoking.

Nora, our protagonist, is seemingly happily married to Torvald Helmer. We learn however that a few years ago she secretly borrowed money in order to go to Italy for her husband’s life. She is blackmailed in the beginning of the play because she forged her father’s handwriting.

Her husband discovers the truth eventually. He freaks out and is paranoid over the effect this will have on his reputation and standing in the community. The blackmailer recants but Nora’s whole world has changed at this point and she decides to leave her husband.

It’s so crazy to my mind that this play was written in 1879 by a man. I mean, this is a serious slap in the face to a lot of the marriage conventions of that time period. I realize that to someone raised in today’s culture, it’s really nothing but we live in a completely different world. The Victorians took marriage very seriously. It was so shocking that the lead actress in Germany refused to play the part of Nora, unless Ibsen changed the ending.

Here are some juicy quotes that I pulled out of the text.

“I’d gladly work nights and days for you, Nora-endure sorrow and want for your sake. But nobody endures sacrifices his honor for his love.” Helmer, Act III, 41

“Nora!-No, I must read it again-Yes,yes; it is so! I’m saved! Nora, I’m saved!” When he receives the letter from Krogstad recanting the blackmail. Helmer. Act III, 39

"I don't believe that any more. I believe I am first of all a human being, just as much as you-or at any rate that I must try to become one. Oh, I know very well that most people agree with you, Torvald, and that it says something like that in all the books. But what people say and what teh books say is no longer enough for me. I have to think about these things myself and see if I can't find the answers." Nora, Act III

One day I might, yes. Many years from now, when I’ve lost my looks a little. Don’t laugh. I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him. Nora. Act I, 17

Free. To be free, absolutely free. To spend time playing with the children. To have a clean, beautiful house, the way Torvald likes it. Nora. Act I, 18.

From now on, forget happiness. Now it’s just about saving the remains, the wreckage, the appearance. Helmer, Act III, 39.

I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life. Nora. Act III, 40.








Damn! It’s such a well crafted play. Nora really is nothing more than a doll to her husband. He refers to her always as some little pet name…”my squirrel” , “my wastrel” or “my litte songbird”.
Even her friend Mrs. Linde says to her, “Nora, Nora, when are you going to be sensible?”
Her husband only seems to value her as a trophy of his. He says at one point, “Am I not to look at my most precious possession? All that loveliness that is mine, nobody’s but mine, all of it mine.”
He never really takes her seriously. He doesn’t see her as a fellow human being, as a partner. In fact, all of their dialogue is very paternal. He treats her as you would expect a doting father to treat a spoiled daughter.

This play is viewed as the first feminist play and although Ibsen denied this, one can easily see the feminist overtones in this play. A woman leaves her husband because he treats her as a piece of property. Yet, I also see a more universal message in the play.

Here we have a woman who was locked into her role as trophy to her husband. Her husband didn’t care about her expect as a trinket, as a possession. She thought that they loved each other and when her “reality” was shattered by the truth, she left.

I think a lot of us get locked into roles. We get stuck in ruts in relationships, in our jobs, in our friendships. I see human beings as constantly evolving, changing, growing but sometimes its hard to get that across to people who have know you for long periods of time. How do you explain to your family that you’re not that boy of fourteen who put olives on their fingers? How do you get across that you are a constantly evolving person whose interests and concerns and very personality are not to be pinned down.

And I am very concerned about the way in which work changes us all. Mrs. Linde says, “One has to live, Doctor” but I think that sometimes we distract ourselves with all of these things, these expenses that we don’t really need and we force ourselves to work all of these hours and do all of these things which we do not want to do, and for what?

I would also like to talk for a minute about the character of Mrs. Linde as well. She is worlds apart from Nora. Mrs. Linde is much more aware of the world. She is aware of hard choices. She had made them. She broke it off with Krogstad because she had a sick mother and two younger brothers to support. She works for a living now. She ends up marrying Krogstad. She is tells him “give me someone and something to work for.” I think there is a contrast here between the relationship of Helmer and Nora and the future relationship of Korgstaad and Mrs. Linde. They are going to have a mutual partnership. She tells him “Two on one wreck are better off than each on his own.”

Okay. I think I have talked about this play far too long. I will leave it off here. But damn, it’s fucking good.