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November 8 , 2007

Searching for a Hero in Ibsen 's A Doll 's House

The famous play A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen has been variously interpreted during the past century and a half , and the main character of Nora and Torvald Helmer have been studied and portrayed literally thousands of times , by thousands of performers throughout the world . It was Ibsen 's first modern tragedy , a domestic drama that dealt with concrete problems of modern life (Shepherd-Barr 21-22 . Looking

at each character separately , and then comparing their actions throughout the play , we can begin to understand their personalities and what drives them to act the way that they do . Historically , there has been a transition from viewing Torvald as the protagonist when the play was first written , to Nora being viewed as a modern day heroine , with Torvald as the possessive and condescending husband who creates a fantasy world in which the two of them live however , in closer examination we can see heroic qualities in both characters , and perhaps more easily find the faults which have helped build the doll 's house in which Nora feels she lives

An examination of Nora and Torvald 's personalities gives us better insight into the narcissistic and selfish sides to both of them . From the beginning of the play it is obvious that Torvald is the head of the Helmer household , that he , and only he , is able to do the finances right , that only he can be reasonable and keep things in , and he feels Nora is not capable of being able to do what he does (Ibsen 1055-1058 . His family must live up to the expectations he places on them , and he especially places this burden upon his wife . We see this show of narcissism particularly in the final scene , after he discovers that Nora borrowed money for their trip to Italy from Krogstad and that she has forged her father 's signature . At this revelation he goes from the gentle (if condescending ) husband to a man whose first and only worry is their appearance to the outside world , From now on there can be no question of happiness . All we can do is save the bits and pieces from the wreck , preserve appearances (Ibsen 1103 . He views her not as the wife he loves anymore , but as someone who has ruined [his] entire happiness , jeopardized [his] entire future (Ibsen 1102 . The moment she no longer lived up the expectation he placed on everyone in his life , she became only a problem to him and not someone worth loving or helping . Torvald 's self-righteous vision of a structured organized , and fair world , in which he is the master of his house conflicts with the reality around him (Shideler . Nora may not share this trait of narcissism , but her childish selfishness is evident throughout the entire play (Drake . She forges her father 's signature but does not think about...