Doll's House Henrick Ibsen's Work, a Doll's

Doll's House Henrick Ibsen's work, A Doll's House, focuses largely on the theme of obligation, which can be viewed in turn as a basis of the human experience to which all human beings can relate.

In viewing this overarching theme of "obligation" within the text, the reader can not only see the ways in which Ibsen uses specific literary devices to hone in on this theme, but lays the basis for a deeper meaning beyond the words that the reader can gauge in applying their own experiences to those addressed in the text.

A Doll's House has largely been viewed as a work that embodies the need of the individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is, along with the constant struggle one feels within themselves to become that person in every aspect of their lives.

In this, comes not only an obligation to ourselves, but an obligation to those around us, embodying the inner struggle all humans have as to "Who am I?" versus "Who do people want me to be?" The push and pull between these questions can be seen largely in viewing Ibsen's use of the characters Nora, Torvald, and Dr. Rank under the topic of parenthood.

Each of these characters believes that a parent is obligated to be honest and upstanding in his or her actions, largely because immorality can be passed from parent to child like a disease. In fact, the characters believe that the venereal disease suffered by Dr. Rank and passed onto his son, was passed on to Dr. Rank initially because of his father's misdeeds and lacking obligation of morality for his own son in his youth.

Nora notes: "His father was a horrible man who committed all sorts of excesses, and that is why his son was sickly from childhood, do you understand" (Ibsen, 2005, p. 18). This notion is shared also by Torvald, who believes that one's parents determine one's moral character when he says, "nearly all young criminals had lying mothers" (Ibsen, 2005, p.22). It is this notion that forces Nora away from her own children.

After Torvald learned of Nora's deceit, he felt her guilty of breaking the obligation she had toward her children causing her to become a likely source for what he believed would be their ultimate corruption. Ibsen addresses this theme more fully through his use of certain literary devices, particularly with setting and imagery. The play is set during the holidays in a Norwegian suburb that could stand in for many places around the globe in terms of readers' connection to it.

For example, the Helmer's living room is typical of any middle-class living room of the time, allowing the setting to be just generic enough to allow it to be more relatable to the audience. The timing of Christmas and New Year's is also vastly relatable to the audience, as it can be seen as both a time of renewal and a time of frustration, which is apparent not only in the play, but in many individual's own experiences. This largely.