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| A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen (1879) |
A Doll's House is a 1879 naturalist play by Norwegian playwright, Henrick Ibsen. The play revolves around the central characters, Nora and Torvald, and is significant for its critical attitude towards 19th century marital norms. Ibsen was inspired by the belief that "a woman cannot be herself in modern society," since it is "an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint."
When it was first performed, the finale of the play was sensational; the idea that a Victorian woman would abandon her husband and children was considered unnatural. However, the ending of A Doll's House is ambiguous. It is possible to argue for the theory that Nora had a genuine revelation about her happiness and independence, and her restrained and mature dialogue in her final conversation with Torvald suggests a shift in her character which would support this. But it is also possible to read Nora's leaving as another action of a petulant child. Her "hoarse, rapid, broken whispers" and her total refusal to ever so much as write to Torvald or her children could all be perceived as an infantile strop. It is perhaps the greatest achievement of this play that the ambiguous finale says more about the viewer, in light of how they perceive it, than it does about any character or aspect of plot.
Themes and Relevant Quotes:
Appearance vs. Reality
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Gender Roles
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"[She slips the bag of
macaroons in her pocket and wipes her mouth.]" - Stage
Directions (Nora hides 'contraband' from Torvald)
"'Nora, Nora' isn't as silly as you think." - Nora
"Well Kristina, what do you think of my great secret? Am I
still no use?" - Nora
"There'll be no question of happiness, but only the saving
of the ruin of it - the fragments - the mere facade..." - Torvald
[Helmer: What are you doing out there?] "Taking off my
fancy dress." - Nora
"You've never loved me, you've only found it pleasant to be
in love with me." - Nora
"But our home's been nothing but a play-room. I've been
your doll-wife here, just as I was Papa's doll-child." - Nora
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"my little skylark twittering" "little
squirrel" "my little featherbrain" "little
scatterbrain" "my little song-bird" "squirrel
sulking" - Torvald's names for Nora
[carelessly borrowing money] "Just like a woman!" -
Torvald
"Still, it really was tremendous fun sitting there working
and earning money. It was almost like being a man." - Nora
"I shouldn't be a proper man if your feminine helplessness
didn't make you twice as attractive to me." - Torvald
"No you mustn't interrupt - just listen to what I have to
say." Nora to Torvald
"It's no good forbidding me anything any longer." - Nora "I won't see my children - I'm sure they're in better hands than mine." - Nora |
Critical Responses:
- "How Torvald Helmer could by any possibility have treated his restless, illogical, fractious, and babyish little wife otherwise than he did; why Nora should ever adore with such abandonment and passion this conceited prig... are points that... require a considerable amount of argument... to convince the common-sense playgoer." - Daily Telegraph 1889 (Clement Scott)
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| "Yes, William, I've thought a good deal about it, and I'm finding I'm nothing but your doll and dickey-bird, and so I'm going!" - Punch: Ibsen in Brixton Cartoon |
- [any real wife in Nora's situation would] "throw herself into her husbands arms" - Folks Avis review 1879 (M.W. Braum)
- "I must disclaim the honour of having worked consciously for the women's rights movement... [I was interested solely in the] description of humanity." - Ibsen at a Norwegian Women's Rights banquet (Joan Templeton observed in Ibsen's Women that this speech has been widely cited by male critics as an excuse to avoid discussing the feminist issues raised by the play.)
