¶ … Doll House
Noted Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen composed his resound opus, "A Doll's House." Ibsen's "A Doll's House" is a dense and intriguing work that continues to vigorously engage readers and audiences after more than a century after his composition. Ibsen composed this play while in Italy, during the last quarter of the 19th century. He composed this play during and slightly before several significant global changes including industrialization and the emergence of American feminism during the Progressive Era of American history. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Ibsen channels these changes and harnesses them into a creative and well-crafted meditation upon many social and class aspects of society. While the paper will reference narrative aspects and literary devices within the text, the paper will analyze aspects of this "problem play" such as setting, character development, and symbolism to penetrate the depths of meaning present in "A Doll's House."
The primary setting of "A Doll's House" is the home of Nora and Torvald Helmer, two primary characters of the play. Nora Helmer is the protagonist of "A Doll's House." They live in an unidentified town or city sometime during the last quarter of the 19th century...
The Helmer house is the dollhouse in the play. An actual dollhouse is an
exercise in
imagination. An ideal dollhouse is pristine; there are many rooms with many details. Yet all dollhouses are not real; they are playthings. They come alive with the interaction of a real person who uses the dollhouse as an expression of desires and fantasies of which the user(s) may be only unconsciously aware. Dollhouses are both superficial as they are
toys that are fake representations of actual homes for real people, and dollhouses are real -- they are as infused with as much reality as the user(s) projects while engaged in play. Ibsen is aware of these aspects and
plays with the concept of an ideal, pristine dollhouse in several ways such as the title, in the protagonist, Nora, and the narrative situation that plays out over the course of three acts. Nora and Torvald pretend to enjoy their roles in the
lifestyle afforded by their class, status, and
wealth. Their whole life and household is a superficial representation, a dollhouse, for the lifestyle and existence of their class.
As with any great narrative, the main characters of "A Doll's House" are compelling and traverse dramatic character arcs. At the play's commencement, Nora is a dependent wife and
mother. By the play's end, she…
