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Nora Makes the Right Decision in A Doll's House Essay

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A Wife Prioritizes her Sacred Duties to Herself

Over Her Family

The status of a wife in a family is like the long handle of an umbrella. The handle of an umbrella holds up the umbrella so that it may shelter those underneath it. But if that handle is loose or broken, then the umbrella simply can not carry out its purpose. Similarly, a wife supports her spouse so that they may shelter their family underneath it. The wife plays an incredibly significant role in a family. She typically contributes to her household by helping nurture the family, taking care of the family, encouraging the family, and overall providing support to its structure. In Henrik Ibsens A Doll House, Nora is a content wife and mother who supposedly performs the ideal role of a wife. Since her husband Torvald becomes ill early in their marriage, she fraudulently negotiates a loan with a man named Krogstad, in order to save his life. This loan ultimately takes her out of roles and brings her into conflict with reality, since women cannot commit such a crime. After failing numerous attempts to keep the loan a secret, Nora discovers her real situation as her problems become worse. After Torvald discovers that Nora forged her father's signature on the loan bond, he nullifies their marriage. He doesn't care that Nora did this because she loves him very much, but he declares that he can not lose his honor and reputation over her love. Only when he finds out that Nora won't be charged, he forgives her, and tries to keep her. But it is not going to help him because Nora realized that Torvald doesn't love her. Once Nora recognized the truth about her marriage, she understood that she can no longer stay in the strange man's house. She decides that she has to leave her house and resolve her bewildered, true self first, before contributing to a family as a wife.

When Helmer reminds Nora about her "holiest duties" as mother and wife, she tells him that, "I have another duty equally sacred". This confession is very significant to the fact that women must determine their true self first, which makes them prioritize their sacred duties to themselves over their families. This is important for a woman, especially before supporting a family structure. Nora wants to be a true, independent woman before she can be recognized as a mother and a wife. When a woman loves as Nora does, nothing else matters. She will sacrifice herself for the family, and her purpose in life is to be happy for her husband and children. But when she is not happy for her family and supporting them through lies and crimes, the relationship has no purpose at all. Just for the sake of a relationship, she should not sacrifice her wrong character to contribute to something she is not capable of yet. Noras experiences with the loan lead her to question the accepted values and roles assigned to her by society. Confused, she can only fulfill duties for herself before she can be a functioning member of her family.

In society, the wives are given roles that are ideal for their contribution to their families. One may say that Nora is simply performing the roles her society assigns to women. Generally, women can be taken for granted as qualified for good, supportive wives, since they trained in a patriarchal society. Thus, the fathers mold their daughters, as Noras relationship with her father demonstrates. But society has assumed this completely wrong. How can a woman perform those roles assigned to her, if she has not established a type of character that can carry out those roles efficiently within herself? As a result of her relationship, Nora becomes alienated from her patriarchal society, beginning to question its values and to determine her values for herself.

A typical wife cannot contribute to her family like a play doll; she has to be first independent, determine her current progress in life, and then find out how she can handle her role as an ideal wife. Without these three characteristics, no woman can succeed in carrying out her role as a wife. In the beginning, when Torvald started to talk, we can feel that something is wrong with this relationship. "My little songbird," "my little squirrel," and "my little featherbrain" - that is what Torvald calls his wife. He treats Nora as a child. He thinks that she is stupid, and she must be controlled. Torvald controls her housekeeping budget and how much she can spend on certain purchases. He expects her always be dependent on his salary. This is sadly true, since Torvald even picks out Noras costumes for parties. During the play, Nora realizes that she is simply her fathers doll-child. Dolls have no intuition of their own, and are completely at the hands of their owners. As a doll child, Nora was shaped by her fathers influence, and then went into her husbands hands, as a wife and mother of three kids. Also, when Torvald tells Nora that Krogstad poisons his own children with lies and pretense and that he is morally lost, indirectly, what he said applies to Noras present situation as she lies to prevent Torvald from finding out about the secret loan. As a result, she is poisoning her very own children. From a content housewife who plays the defined roles society has given her, she now conflicts the very values of the society that she grew up in. Nora is a wife; someone that can be independently supportive to her family, someone who knows her true character and makes progress from it, and especially someone who knows how she will support a family structure. From these events, it is transparent that Nora is definitely not independent, and she has making no progress in life, as she is only a doll, and she cannot handle her family after what she has done so far.

While Noras attempt to fulfill the roles her society assigns to wives, her attempts lead her to question the very roles she fulfills, as she is not capable of performing them. But she is not the only one. I don't know how many Noras were in that society, but I'm sure that we have a lot of victims in our society with similar situations. For example, my friends parents are divorced. I always felt bad for him, because not only does he only live with one parent, but the parent he lives with is his mother. This is because his mother is basically an unsuccessful wife, which explains the divorce. And now she is giving her influence to her son. As my friend explains it, his mother depended on her husband so much, that even until now she overly spendthrifts her husbands alimony. His mother was a bad wife; one who would never support her family nor help them in any way around the house. She never knew what to do with her own life, as she was always lazy and abusive, so how could she help support her child and her husband. This is only one of the several examples I have heard of, which I strongly want to change for the better of everyone who wants to be a member of families and societies.

There are a lot of women who are still victims of relationships that consequently show why the wives sacred duties must always be to herself first. Nora Helmers realization of this is ahead of her time. Many women should wish that they had her courage. Nothing but women's determination of their true selves will make a true connection between husbands, wives, and their families, without lies, equal opportunities, and without shame. That is because, as I said earlier, the wife in the family is like the handle that erectly holds up the umbrella. And together, they will successfully shelter and support a happy, healthy family. Considering this, Noras decision of leaving her family to find her true character is, without doubt, correct. Is there anything more humiliating for a woman than to live with a stranger, and have children with him? But think for a second, what would happen if she stayed and continued her life as a doll child?

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