First Analytical Essay on Drama

Assignment 2: First Analytical Essay on Drama

(Revised)

Stacy Padilione

South University

I chose the play A Doll House written by Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1879 but reminds me of a modern day soap opera, filled with love, scandal and selfishness. The play is set around a woman named Nora, who I feel is a very selfish woman, who is married to a very selfish man, Helmer. There were not many characters in the play and all but one showed just how selfish they were. Along with being selfish, they also had to deal with their consequences of being selfish, and the line in the play that sets this into motion came towards the end; “Rank: Oh well, you can’t have anything in this life without paying for it.” (Ibsen, 2011, p. 590)

In that one sentence Rank sums up the whole play with exactly those words and the underlying meaning behind those words. Rank is stating that what you do in your life, you must pay for it. Therefore if you make a million dollars, you are paying for it by the hard work you put in to earn it. If you make a mistake, you will pay for that in a form of punishment, whether it is loss of job, jail time or as simple as a smack on the hand. One way or another you will pay the consequences of what you have done.

This is a very important statement as there is not a single character in the play that has not acted on a selfish whim. Nora, by lying to her husband, forging a signature and walking out on her children. She also shows how selfish she can be while talking to her friend, “Nora: No, you go first. I mustn’t be selfish today. Today I should think only about you. But there is one thing I have to tell you. Do you know we’ve just had a fabulous piece of good luck?” (Ibsen, 2011, p. 590). She shows here that she really does not care what is going on in her friend’s life.

Torvald shows selfishness when he discovers the truth about Nora;

“Helmer: Spare me the speeches. Your father had always plenty of those on hand, too. What good would it do...