A Doll's House: theme, plot, structure, and character analysis

¶ … Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen)

The title of Ibsen's masterpiece -- A Doll's House -- doesn't lack meaning or symbolism; that is to say that the house in which Nora, the protagonist, lives is a house, which, for all intents and purposes, is one that has been constructed for the sole purpose of keeping her a kept woman (i.e. A doll in a doll's house). Like a play thing, Nora makes up dances to please her husband, wears seductive outfits and exists, for the most part, to entertain those around her. She is often whimsical and spontaneous -- downing five macaroons in a sitting if she feels like it. The poignancy of this play comes with Nora's realization that sometimes women think for themselves. This happens when Nora forges her father's signature, takes out a loan without asking her husband, Torvald, and then leaves him and her children in order to find herself. Becoming her own person is not possible for Nora if she is to live inside the confines of her gilded cage.

Within the context of this play, it is easy to see the impact of a rigid and paternalistic culture on an everyday woman. Along those lines, the message of the play has long been speculated upon. Is it a feminist piece, or not? The answer to that question can be answered with an unequivocal 'yes.' Inside the house, Nora is forced to keep up her role as the good wife and the good mother. The roles of men and women in Victorian society are clearly presented. Men took care of all the business, provided for their wives and children, and the wives found ways to busy themselves in ways that would not be disruptive to the men around them. Nora, therefore, acts like just this type of woman -- until she discovers that her family is having financial problems, which is when she decides to step outside of her role and, as she believes, help out. Before this, Nora is the ideal wife whose only flaw is that she occasionally over-indulges in her macaroons -- a characteristic that is not unlike a child sneaking too many jelly beans.

Ibsen was making a statement with A Doll's House and the characters involved in the story. He was looking into the future and sensing that change was on the horizon and who better to be a catalyst for this change than Nora -- a woman so fragile that nobody would believe that she could think for herself? Until one day she does. When Nora's masks and pretty dresses are stripped away by Ibsen, the very dresses and masks that her husband urges her to wear, what is left is a woman who is no longer repressed by a male-dominated society. Ibsen had to have written this play for the furthering of women's rights. While we could research all of Ibsen's "feminist credentials" pointing to the implication that he did, indeed, write A Doll's House in favor of the women's movement and with sensitivity to women's issues, in general, there is something else that undeniably points to his feminist viewpoints: other heroines. Hedda Gabler was another play in which Ibsen created a feminist and forward thinking creature in the character of Hedda. She possessed qualities such as being brazen and selfish -- what are considered more masculine qualities and she loathes the idea of having to marry George Tesman. On that same note, in The Lady and the Sea, Ellida Wangel discusses her marriage contract in much that same way that Nora does. However, Nora is, perhaps, the most quintessential feminist protagonist. In the character of Nora, the audience is witness to a journey of mind. Nora becomes aware that she has existed for the mere purpose of entertaining her husband, performing tricks for him like a circus clown. She not only becomes aware of how she has been lead to believe women are supposed to behave, but she becomes aware of the men who have kept her oppressed -- most notably her own husband and father. When she comes to this realization, there is no turning back for Nora. She has been greatly wronged and she is forced to leave because of it. Ibsen was undeniably advocating for women's rights whether he was conscious of it or not and by advocating for the freedom women, he advocated for all of humanity's freedom as well.