What is the significance of the title, A Dolls House?
Can money buy love? The play "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen shows how the money is not enough to buy the freedom. The title of the play has a significance of fancy and untrue love for the main protagonists. Torvald Helmer is a successful banker, who married Nora Helmer. She is the mother of his children and a housewife. She has never worked in her life. The play expresses how the husband treats his wife and especially how he looks at her like a doll instead of a wife. Nora is usually like a playful child who has no knowledge of the world outside her home. Torvald treats her like a child in a way that is both friendly and condescending to her. Nora is not seen as equal, but rather as a toy or a doll to be mocked and admired. The evidence to prove that the marriage of Helmers live in "A Doll's House" is the manipulation, appearance, and a false love in their lives.
Primarily, the meaning of manipulation is when someone tries to influence or control another for their own purposes. They do and say whatever they need to get what they want. Nora was manipulated by her father when she was a child and after she got married by her husband. Torvald treats her as an inferior; sometimes he treats her like a child or a pet. Helmer: Is it my little squirrel bustling about? (Ibsen, Act I). Torvald always referred to Nora with pets names, he seems to dehumanize his wife without really caring about what Nora feel about it. Helmer: I shall not allow you to bring up the children; I dare not trust them to you (Ibsen, Act III). Here we see that Helmer is stripping his wife of her feminine role, the motherhood. In addition, Krogstad, the lawyer, also uses Nora to gain a higher position at his work. He intimidates, blackmails, and threatens Nora in an effort to keep his job at the bank. Krogstad: I will tell you. I want to rehabilitate myself. Mrs. Helmer; I want to get on; and in that your husband must help me (Ibsen, Act II). This statement shows that Krogstand wants to fix his seedy reputation by blackmailing Nora, so she may speak on behalf of him to Torvald. As a result of all of these events, Nora finally steps out of the doll house to discover herself in the real world. In the same way, Nora was a manipulated person. All female, or no woman at all, Nora loses either way. Frivolous, deceitful, or unwomanly, she qualifies neither as a heroine nor as a spokeswoman for feminism, Her famous exit embodies only the latest and shallowest notion of emancipated womanhood, abandoning her family to go out into the world in search of her true identity [ (Johnson, Ian, 2000) ]
Additionally, appearance is a term used to describe the way that something looks on the outside. Torvald is never more sympathetically presented than here. For the first time in the play he confronts his deepest feelings and tries to act on them without falling back on a shallow convention, revealing in the process an unexpected flexibility which suggests that, if Nora took him up on his offer, he might very well learn and change. And his motives here register as deeply felt feelings from within, not a concern for keeping up appearances. The appearance that Torvald made Nora lives in the marriage made her create a false image and conception about a marriage. Helmer: From now on, forget happiness. Now its just about saving the remains, the wreckage, and the appearance (Ibsen, Act II). Torvald said those words after learning of Noras lie and Krogstads ability to expose her. Torvalds conversations with Nora have already made it clear that he is primarily attracted to Nora for her beauty and that he takes personal pride in the good looks of his wife. He has also shown himself to be obsessed with appearing dignified and respectable to his friends. Helmer: Do you suppose I am going to make myself ridiculous before my whole staff, to let people think that I am a man to be swayed by all sorts of outside influence? (Ibsen, Act II). From this we can understand that the influence that Torvald is referring to here is his wife. He is afraid to seem weak in public. As a consequence, he states explicitly that the appearance of happiness is far more important to him than happiness itself. Likewise, Nora also worries about her appearance in a few years later. One day I might, yes. Many years from now, when Ive lost my looks a little. Dont laugh. I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him (Ibsen, Act I). Clearly Nora describes to Mrs. Linde the circumstances under which she would consider telling Torvald about the secret loan she took in order to save his life. Her claim that she might consider telling him when she gets older and loses her attractiveness is important because it shows that Nora has a sense of the true nature of her marriage, even as early as Act I. She recognizes that Torvalds affection is based largely on her appearance, and she knows that when her looks fade, it is likely that Torvalds interest in her will fade as well. Her suggestion that in the future she may need something to hold over Torvald in order to retain his faithfulness and devotion to her reveals that Nora is not as she pretends to be. She has an insightful, intelligent, and manipulative side that acknowledges, if only in a small way, the troubling reality of her existence.
Furthermore, the untrue life that Torvald and Nora lived made them realize that they werent happy anymore. They lived an untrue love for over years, creating A doll house where they were the toys. Nora: Surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa. (Ibsen, Act II). This tells us that for Nora, her marriage was just a continuation of her childhood life. Torvald: Now you have destroyed all my happiness. You have ruined all my future." After Torvald finds out about the truth, all he seems to be worried about is himself. Helmer: Empty. She is gone. (A hope flashes across his mind) The most wonderful thing of all? (Ibsen, Act III). We can conclude with this that Torvald has come to understand what real love is in this last moment. The finality of Nora's decision to forgo her assigned role as wife and mother for the authenticity of selfhood is marked by the sound of the door slamming and her exit into the wider world, leaving Torvald to survey the wreckage of their marriage. I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. Thats how Ive survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. Its because of you Ive made nothing of my life. Nora speaks these words, which express the truth that she has gleaned about her marriage, Torvalds character, and her life in general, to Torvald at the end of Act Three. She recognizes that her life has been largely a performance. She has acted the part of the happy child like wife for Torvald and, before that, she acted the part of the happy, child-like daughter for her father. She now sees that her father and Torvald compelled her to behave in a certain way and understands it to be great wrong that stunted her development as an adult and as a human being. She has made nothing of her life because she has existed only to please men. Following this -realization, Nora leaves Torvald in order to make something of her life and for the first time to exist as a person independent of other people.
In conclusion, the plays name A Dolls House has a meaning of a false imagination of marriage, where the main characters are the couple which seems treat each other like a Dolls. Once again, the manipulation, facade, and the false love are the principal reasons that can support the titles name. I have been more of a poet and less of a social philosopher than people generally tend to suppose. I thank you for your toast, but must disclaim the honor of having consciously 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. And if you read my books carefully you will realize that. Of course it is incidentally desirable to solve the problem of women; but that has not been my whole object. My task has been the portrayal of human beings. Many marriage lives in A Dolls House, where they think that the money can buy everything including love. But sooner or later they find out that money cannot buy love, love is something that does not have price. So, do not be like Torvald and realized that you make a mistake when is too late to fix it.
Work Cited Page
Book
Ibsen, Henrik, A Dolls House
Article
Johnson, Ian On A Dolls House 2000
http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/ibsen.htm
Already have an account? Log In Now
7262