A House House

A Doll House

Introduction to Literature

Jennifer Hacker*

Nora

From The Play A. Doll House By Henrik Ibsen

Scott DalryMple Instructor

Eng205

In the play, A Doll’s House it immediately puts an emphasize on money which is a big part the conflict, as it draws lines between genders, classes, and moral standers. In the opening lines, Nora owes the porter fifty ore (a Norwegian unit of currency). Nora likes to spend money and her husband Trovald does not. Trovald is more of what you would call an investor in money. After Trovald falls sick, Nora and money plays a big role in this dramatic piece. In some ways it helps destroys her marriage and separates her family.

Nora serves as a symbol for women of her era, when women were taught to be content with the luxuries of modern society with no thought or care of the world in which they lived. As the play goes on, Nora gets delights out of material things, having been labeled a spendthrift at an early age. She demonstrates the attitude that money is the key to happiness. By presenting this theme of the relationship between women and their surroundings at the beginning, Ibsen indicates to the readers that women and parental obligations is the most basic and fundamental idea at work in the play. Torvald's treatment of Nora as a small helpless child only contributes to Nora's isolation from reality which demonstrates Ibsen’s theme showing the treatment of women during this era. Just "as" Nora relates to the exterior world primarily through physical objects, Torvald relates Nora as a possession; “A trophy wife”. Though Torvald's attitude pervades every word he speaks to Nora, his objectification of her is most evident in his use of cute nicknames for her. He refers to her as his little "lark" and "squirrel. Similarly, Torvald calls Nora his "little one" or "little girl." Nora is truly dependent on Torvald because in Nora’s time growing up she was taught to be completely dependent on her...