Term Paper on "Literary Criticism of "A Doll's House"

Term Paper 12 pages (4018 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Doll's House

Although the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote a number of significant plays, the one that is the most prevalent in academic studies today is a Doll's House. Completed, published, and performed first in 1879, this play has sparked much controversy in regard to Ibsen's message as it is primarily presented through the main female character, Nora Helmer. Much has been said and written about viewing this play from purely a feminist perspective. A feminist reading is certainly a valid reading of the play. However, it is not the only reading and to give a feminist interpretation the only credibility is far too limiting of the text and too insulting of the playwright. The truth is that Ibsen's clever crafting of this play and careful development of his heroine, Nora, has allowed readers and critics over the years to apply many interpretations with validity.

To thoroughly understand what kind of reading the writer intended is a necessary first step when analyzing the play. Did Ibsen intend this play as a feminist text as many have interpreted it to be? Scholars point to female characters in Ibsen's plays prior to a Doll's House as evidence that Ibsen was thinking along feminist lines. In a play from late 1877 called the Pillars of Society, Ibsen established two female characters who knew their own minds, Lona Hessel and Dina Dorf (Watts 16). Ibsen had been studying the status of women through the writings of one of his friends, Camilla Collett. Ibsen had even made his sentiments on women public knowledge when he unsuccessfully made a motion at the Scandinavian Club in Rome to allow female members to vote (Watts 16).

Women and the role of women in society were certainly on Ibsen's mind when he was composing a Doll's House.

Much has been said and written in an attempt to pin Ibsen down on his intentions with Nora and her situation in a Doll's House. Ibsen refused to the end to limit his writing in the play to a strictly feminist standpoint. In 1898, after Ibsen had achieved great fame for this play and many others, he was honored at a banquet by the Norwegian Society for Women's Rights. The members of this organization deemed a Doll's House to be a masterpiece and a victory for women's rights. In his speech at the banquet, Ibsen explained:

have been more of a poet and less of a social philosopher than people have generally been inclined to believe. I thank you for your toast but I must decline the honor of consciously having worked for women's rights. I am not even quite sure what women's rights really are. To me it has been a question of human rights." (Ibsen as quoted in Gilman 49)

No one can ever be sure that Ibsen's statement at this event should be taken at face value, but it does signal a warning from the playwright himself that too limited view of his work is not appropriate. Similar to Ibsen, the New Critics also espoused the play as one "not concerned with feminism but with the genesis of a human being" (Rekdal 149).

A study of the play beginning with the ideas of the New Critics and Ibsen's own suggestions about human rights seems the best place to start. The play is a classic example of how one person can exert his or her authority over another. The fact that this plays out between a married couple has led so many to believe that it is purely an issue of male domination and female submissiveness. It is, however, broader than that as it is "really about human appetites for power and exploitation and the corollary victimization of those who are not so driven" (Gilman 64). This is what appears at the beginning of the play as Ibsen introduces his characters to the audience.

Nora appears to be the victim in act one of her husband's controlling attitude about money. Later, the audience realizes why Nora has such a need for money and economizing, but, early in the play, the discussion of money serves to show Nora's submissive position to her husband. Their discussion is all couched in his pet names for her as various birds and small creatures. Torvald says, "It's a sweet little bird, but it gets through a terrible amount of money. You wouldn't believe how much it costs a man when he's got a little song bird like you!" (Ibsen 151) Nora's position in relation to her husband is so submissive and unimportant at this time that he talks about her in the third person and as if she is a pet. Torvald strips Nora of her role not only as a woman here, but also as a human. Nora accepts her role and plays along with her husband's nonsense.

The undercurrent of the play is also established early on that will convert Nora from submissive wife to human by the end of the play. In the conversation with Mrs. Linde, an old friend of Nora's, Nora reveals that she secretly borrowed money years earlier to take her ill husband to Italy. Nora blurts this information out to Mrs. Linde in an attempt to be taken seriously by other characters. Nora: "And you think I've had an easy life, with nothing to contend with" (Ibsen 158). Mrs. Linde has suffered and learned from life and Nora does not want to be accused of not having engaged in the human struggle (Johnston). Nora's justification for having borrowed the money, something her husband was opposed to, was that the trip would and did save his life. "It was I who saved Torvald's life...Papa never gave us a penny. It was I who raised the money" (Ibsen 159). Nora is desperate to be taken seriously by someone because her husband has refused to grant her that.

The audience perceives Nora's actions here as something a woman would do for her husband - an extremely humane act, but one that will upset the balance of power that Ibsen established in the opening of the play. The introduction of Mrs. Linde brings the issue to the surface, but it is the visit from Krogstad that will force Nora out of her submissive position. Krogstad's blackmail attempt and fraud charge make Nora realize that she can no longer play the role of the childish pet with her husband. The thought that her role may change sends her into absolute desperation as she violently trims the Christmas tree and declares her exchange with Krogstad "nonsense." Nora struggles to understand her situation as presented to her by Krogstad. She cannot understand why her "heroic" act of saving her husband's life should be viewed in such terrible terms. "Hasn't a daughter the right to protect her dying father from worry and anxiety? Hasn't a wife the right to save her husband's life? I don't know much about the law, but I'm quite certain that it must say somewhere that things like that are allowed" (Ibsen 175-6). Nora has to admit her ignorance and take Krogstad's words as the truth.

In this she realizes her own lowly position in the world as a woman who may not have realized how wrong her action was. Her words also speak to all of humanity. Where is the division between what is right legally and what is right from a human perspective? The audience does not see Nora as evil for what she has done because, as she says, she did it for love; her very ignorance protects her in this case. It is her realization of that ignorance that contributes to the reversal of her position at the end of the play. However, before that reversal can occur, Ibsen has to continue his representation of Nora as a submissive creature. She knows the role is false and has for years. After all, she is a manipulator and a liar. She has lied about everything from borrowing money and economy in the home to eating macaroons when her husband has forbidden it. Yet, the only role she knows is that of quasi-submissive to her husband and she is loathe to relinquish it just as her husband is loathe to relinquish his position as the dominate one in their relationship.

In act two during the awful waiting period for Nora, she clings to her role as submissive. One could argue that she continues to manipulate her husband by convincing him of his role of superiority. That is true, but her motivation is to attempt to maintain her role as a wife. This is nowhere more obvious than in the part of the play when Nora begs her husband to help her rehearse the dance that she is going to perform at the party. In a moment of dramatic irony, the audience realizes that she is trying to distract Torvald from going to the letterbox where Krogstad's revealing letter awaits. Nora dances wildly in front of her husband, Mrs. Linde and… READ MORE

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