Nora's Awakening

Nora's Awakening #2

Lori D'Angelo

Nora's Awakening

A Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen is a 1879 play that provides insight into the life of a women during the 19th century. While the play takes place over a short period time, it is during this time that Nora Helmer realizes that she is unhappy, and she needs to break away from her husband. Nora feels as though she was never given the opportunity to live the life she wanted, and after seeing what her husband, Torvald, thinks of Krogstad, a man who has committed the same crimes Nora has in order to save Torvald, she can no longer keep her thoughts to herself and resolves to stop being objectified by all the men in her life. In the play, the turning point comes in Act III when Nora compares herself to a doll and explains how she has always been treated as an object and subsequently blames both her father and her husband for not being given the opportunity to make more of herself.

One of the reason's the definitive moment in the play occurs when Nora compares herself to a doll is because it gives Nora is finally able to speak up for herself. In Act III, Nora gets into an argument with Torvald and is shocked to realize that for the first time since they were married eight years ago, they are having an actual conversation, as opposed to the casual pleasantries they have exchanged for years. In Nora's speech, not only does Nora explain how she has been objectified, but she also provides an explanation for the play's title. Nora explains,

When I was at home with Papa he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me his doll child, and he play with me just as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to live with you…I was simply transferred from Papa's hands to yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you -- or else I pretended to (Ibsen, 2011, Act III, p. 590).

Nora compares herself to a doll, because like the toy, she only served to obey the desires of others. She was not allowed to think for herself and had to do and think like others wanted her to think. Nora contends that her father treated her like an object and that he traded her as one when Torvald entered the picture. Nora implies that she was not given a choice to marry Torvald, but instead, she was handed over to be another man's doll, to live in the house he thought would be to her liking, without asking or taking her insights into consideration. In this regard, Nora has been moved from one man's dollhouse into another man's dollhouse without being given the opportunity to protest.