Peer review

In the doll’s house, Henrik Ibsen has managed to bring out the conflict in the story by ridiculing the societal views towards women. Ibsen has managed to bring out the larger aspects of life in Norway society during his era and has interwoven his story to bring out major themes like family obligations, betrayal, and the role of women in the society. He has characterized the major actors in the play to bring out the intended the message in his play and has used realism language styles to bring out the major aspects of the story. The plot of the story is written in a way which depicts the strength of Nora in the story and the petty attitude taken by Torvald which seeks to show the view of the society towards women (Thomas).

The plot is also full of conflict, with the major characters being Nora and Torvald. Nora is depicted as being courageous, full of wit, gentle, caring and at the same time rebellious. She is also resilient in that she has managed to pay her husband’s healthy trip by borrowing money and repaying the debt. The conflict between Krogstad and Mrs. Linde also plays itself out in the story and shows how the former is eventually liberated by the love of Mrs. Linde. Ibsen has crafted a play which seeks to show the concept of freedom between the two genders while at the same time used realism to describe the flow of events in the play. Torvald is shown to be a person full of pride who likes to dictate terms and control his wife and at the same time Ibsen has introduced the Dr. Rank who is in love with Nora to effectively bring out the conflict and major key themes in the story. Major aspects of the play are as discussed below.

Setting of the story and the conflict in the story

The story was written in the 19th century by Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. The setting of the story was written to depict the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the Norwegian people in this era. Ibsen also used several motifs like the Christmas tree and the celebration of the New Year to describe the flow of events as they happened in the play and also symbolize the aspects of freedom which was the ultimate gift to Nora. Ibsen has structured the plot to show how the actions of Nora who is married to Torvald makes the life-changing decision by forging a signature in order to save her husband’s life. She keeps this decision a secret from her husband which forms the central conflict in the story. Torvald and Krogstad are also in a deep conflict since Torvald dismisses him from the bank stating he is a venerable and a corrupt person. The other point of conflict presented in the story include the roles of women in the society with Ibsen depicting the society as one which is made up of male dominance. This is shown through Torvald who treats his wife as fragile and warns her against eating sweet things like macaroons (Ibsen pg8).

Krogstad is also shown to be morally corrupt in the story leading to the conflict between him and Torvald with the latter dismissing him from the Bank. The society of Norway is depicted to be judgmental and unforgiving in that they still condemn Torvald based on his past actions.

The plot and characterization of the story

The plot is structured to show Nora as a gentle woman who takes care of her family. She also has deep conflicts in her heart since she has to act out as a cheerful and a happy woman and fit the role Torvald has assigned her in the house. In addition, she is courageous and brave in that she took a loan to save her Husband’s loan and has been repaying small monthly allowances through knitting and saving her allowances. Nora is also portrayed to be someone who deeply cares a lot for her children as she can be seen playing with them even asks her maid to take care of her children if events forces her to be absent from her life. She is also disillusioned and thinks that her husband should have protected her and taken the fall for her when he reads Krogstad letter, her opinion is that her husband should shoulder the blame which will depict him to be an honorable person (Writingcenter.tamu.edu).

The conflict in the plot is created when Mrs. Linde who is Nora’s friend comes to town and tells Nora to ask Torvald if he can get a job for her in the bank. Mrs. Linde is offered the job but this leads to the firing of Krogstad from the bank whom Nora had borrowed the loan from. Krogstad, therefore, threatens Torvald but later withdraws his blackmail letter after Mrs. Linde agrees to marry him. In this instance, Mrs. Linde is portrayed as courageous and brave while Krogstad is depicted to be a person who heavily cares about his family. This is because all his decisions to be corrupt and forge signatures had been done to provide his family with a decent and healthy living conditions (Ibsen 25).

Torvald is portrayed to be childish, petty, and stubborn and a person who is full of righteous principles, He also cares a lot about what the society thinks about him and is afraid of associating with Krogstad since he is afraid of him. After reading Krogstad Blackmail letter, he goes into denial and calls Nora corrupt, telling her she will not be allowed to raise the children again. However when he reads the letter in which Krogstad withdraws his earlier statement, he is calm and decides to forgive Nora for his mistakes in order to save his appearance in front of the society. To him, Nora is there to serve a purpose of enhancing his stature in the society (Thomas).

Krogstad is depicted as the antagonist in the story and the role Mrs. Linde plays is key to bringing the whole story to a definite conclusion since she doesn’t allow Krogstad to retrieve the letter from the Helmer’s to allow Nora’s lie to be brought to the open.

Language styles used in the story

Ibsen followed the styles of using realism to bring out the major aspects and themes in the story. These are shown by the flow of the three acts which are stated with rational judgments, e.g. when Nora asks Mrs. Linde “Torvald was dying, what was I supposed to do?”(Ibsen 34) In addition, there is the use of letters to create an air of mystery in the story. The colloquial language styles used by Ibsen are meant to bring out the major themes of the story while at the same time ridicule the Norwegian society for what Ibsen perceived to be biased treatment towards women (Thomas).

In addition, Ibsen has used an intense, serious and somber tone in the play to capture both the rising action, climax and falling action in the play while at the same time depicting the characters in a mood where they talk using every day’s normal speech patterns. The language of the play is also straightforward and conversational and the play revolves around the mundane things of ordinary life (Thomas).

Major themes in the story

The major themes in the play include the role of women who are expected to sacrifice for their families as depicted by Nora who borrows money to save her Husband’s life and, in addition, has to attend parties she doesn’t like in order to keep her husband happy. Parental and family obligations is also a major theme discussed in the story where both Krogstad, Mrs. Linde, Nora, and Torvald had to work hard and make a lot of sacrifices in order to provide for their families. Children are also obligated to parents with Mrs. Linde breaking up her relationship with Krogstad and marrying a rich man in order to take care of her sickly mother. The other theme discussed in the story is the masks worn by all the characters in the story, this is depicted by the secret Nora keeps from her Husband, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad perceived hatred which ultimately turns to be love and Torvald nature which is finally revealed to be that of a sad person who is just keen to satisfy societal expectations (Ibsen 47).

Other minor themes which crop up in the story include the aspect of betrayal in which Mrs. Linde leaves Krogstad and gets married to a rich man and the aspect of freedom in which Nora had ultimately craved for and she achieves after leaving Torvald at the end of the play. The Christmas period and New Year setting are also used to show the beginning of new life for all the people involved in the story where everybody can start their life afresh without any obligations from the society (Writingcenter.tamu.edu).

Ibsen has also used motifs in the story like the Christmas tree and the concept of New Year to symbolize freedom and new beginnings which is the major Theme Nora pursued in the story. Her abandonment of Torvald and her children depicts the final act of self-sacrifice in that she doesn’t want to corrupt them and also seeks to find her own identity (Ibsen, 48).

Henrik Ibsen structured his play in a bid to ridicule the beliefs and attitudes of the Norwegian people in their treatment of women and the roles the society had set out for them. He ridicules the male dominated society of Norway and manages to paint women as having strong and courageous characters hence ridiculing the notion in the society that women are only supposed to perform household duties and satisfy their husbands.

Ibsen has therefore interwoven the different settings and characters in the play to achieve the climax of the story while at the same time show how women were unappreciated in the community despite their numerous acts of self-sacrifice (Writingcenter.tamu.edu).

References

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Rockville, Md: Serenity Publishers, 2009. Print.

Writingcenter.tamu.edu, "University Writing Center - Analyzing Plays". N.p., 2016. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

Thomas, James Michael. Script Analysis for Actors, Directors, and Designers. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013. Print.