Paper Topic:
The Doll`s House by Henrik Ibsen, Acts 1,2,and 3
John Q . Student Professor Doe English 344 8 May 2000 Nora and Helmer . The Doll 's House The relationship between Helmer and Nora strikes modern readers as intolerable . Helmer assumes a position of superiority in the marriage which takes for granted his wife 's role as decorative accompaniment to the man of action and achievement . At the end of the play Nora declares that she is not just a wife and mother . I believe that before all else I am a human being , just as you are (77 . Until the
events of the play Nora has accepted her role as flighty , unserious , trivial charming ' consort , though Ibsen shows from very early on that this is not the whole truth about her . Her actions have been motivated largely by a desire to protect her husband from the consequences of his own arrogant folly . It is a moment of great irony when Helmer says I 've forgiven you (73 , since her actions have been entirely self-sacrificing , and designed to save him , physically and mentally . In her enlightened state she finds it impossible to forgive him
Helmer 's attitudes are partly characteristic of his time , but it is clear that he has personal weaknesses that make his behavior more infuriating . He calls Nora his little lark (3 , my little squirrel (4 ) and other such patronizing endearments . He also sees her as considerably less than a mature adult in her handling of the world She is my little spendthrift ' and my little featherbrain (4 Money just slips through your fingers (6 , though he is of course unaware of why she needs money . His fussy attitude to debt , which he declares as a sort of gospel law to her , is the cause of the whole Krogstad crisis . She can never tell him where the money came from - the money that saved his life - because it would hurt his self-respect-wound his pride . Our whole marriage would be wrecked by it (16 . His pompous arrogance and priggishness force Nora to spin an elaborate fabric of concealment , and lead eventually to her realization of the truth . Similarly his declaration that Almost all cases of early delinquency can be traced to dishonest mothers (32 ) terrifies her , but also reveals the central contempt he has for women generally and therefore , though he would not admit it , for Nora herself . Her only device to influence him seems to be her acceptance of the demeaning role he has designed for her . If he will agree to reinstate Krogstad Your squirrel would skip about and play all sorts of pretty tricks (40 He will not do it because he fears people would laugh at him for being influenced by his wife . He is entirely unimpeachable (41 ) in contrast to her father , and anyway , Krogstad would address him by his Christian name , at which Nora 's mask comes off inadvertently and she says But-it 's all so petty (41 , a disastrous thing to say to so egocentric a man
His behavior in Act 3...
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