A doll's house is a play written by Henrik Ibsen in the late 1870s. The actions of the actors in this play speak louder than their words. In the play, one may be mistaken of the real identity of the characters by their words without considering their actions and the purpose of doing the actions.
In this play, Nora Helmers is Torvald's wife who sacrifices his desires in order to satisfy the people around him especially his wife. In the first act, she is seen to be a happy and contented woman which is the opposite of the reality. Although she is fortunate to have an employed spouse who is financially stable compared to the others, she is still not contented with the way her husband treats her. For instance, in the first act she is willing to take her husband Christmas gifts, but he is disappointed of her spending money in buying gifts. Nora takes a loan to pay for her husband's hospital bill just to save his life, and his partner does not recognize that, and instead he sees this as a means of destroying his public image. In the first act, Nora is seen to lack the knowledge of coping with the world around her and to be afraid of fighting for her freedom. As the play proceeds, we learn that she is not the innocent girl people thinks of her, she only pretend to keep the idea of how people thinks of her. Although the show is full of powerful words, the actions of the characters carry the deeper understanding of who they certainly are.
Torvald Helmer is Nora's husband who prefers keeping his moral social image to fulfilling his wife's desires. He thinks that the role of a husband is to take care of the family including controlling her spouse by doing what he thinks is right. He is not concerned with what his wife desires and instead wants to appear to be respectful and suitable to the people. In this story Nora is considered to be the doll in the house. Torvald does not pay attention to the progress his wife is making in maintain their marriage, all what he want is to look god to the public. This is seen when he decides to divorce her wife Nora and then she realizes that the people might talk ill of him and decide to keep her in the house but not as his wife. In the first act, Torvald is seen to be mature and responsible but in the real sense, he is childish and irresponsible of taking care of his family. This is even seen when Dr. Rank refuses to allow Torvald visit him in the hospital when he was sick, saying that he should be protected from some things in the world. The words spoken by Torvald in the play might confuse the readers of his character but his action in the play, display his real self. Although he considers Nora to be childish and coward, in the real sense he is the coward because he is afraid to face the world with his real character.
-
0
Preparing Orders
-
0
Active Writers
-
0%
Positive Feedback
-
0
Support Agents
Christine Linde is Nora's friend who was her former schoolmate. Her actions display who she genuinely is rather than what people thinks of her. She sacrifices her children's welfare by living the man he loved and marrying an old wealthier man. She shows her real character when she finds herself a job and become independent. Christine repays Nora for helping her find a job, by making sure that Nora's husband read the letter sent to him by Krogstad because she knew that they will divorce as soon as his husband finds out. She learns that she should also learn to fulfill her desires and goes ahead by marrying Krogstad who was her lover before she got married. The actions in this play contribute to the revealing of secrets. For example, when Christine was telling of Nora of Dr. rank's illness, the sudden change in Nora's face tell Christine that Nora is hiding something from her. Christine's ability to help Nora is seen when she advises Nora to distract Torvald from going to the letter box as he tries to convince Krogstad not to give out the letter.
Krogstad seems to be a cold and aggressive by the way, she treats Nora in order to secure his job. Although he seems to be harsh in his words speaking to when speaking to Nora, he is just trying to be strict in order to scare Nora because she is his only hope in securing his job in the bank. He is doing this to protect the future of his children from poverty and tries hard to be responsible as a father. His real him is seen when he convinces Nora not to commit suicide and later by withdrawing the blackmail he had against her. Krogstad is also involved in freeing Nora from her oppressive husband. Krogstad understands the situation Christine was when he left him for another man, and marries her despite what she did to him.
Some of the scenes in the play are well explained by the actions of the actors and not the words scripts of the play. The aim of Ibsen is to bring out the sacrifices women under take to maintain their marriages or protect the future of their children, and this is well explained by the actions of the actors in the play and no mostly the words.