The people elected Andrew Jackson President of the United States even though he had married a divorced woman. Nonetheless…men and women had specific marital responsibilities and lived with considerable restraint on their behavior, always subject to community approval. Men were assigned the world of business and family support. Women were custodians of the home.
In such a social situation, Ibsen, by having Nora walk out on her husband, is literally slapping social convention in its face. In fact, in such a social context, Nora is a walking contradiction: she breaks convention by forging her father's name and taking on work herself (without her husband knowing) to pay a debt that saved his life. Yet his ungratefulness scathes her so badly that she sees no point in acting like his "doll."
Still, it is not social custom that Nora goes out of her way to buck. All of her actions have been directed toward one noble aim -- the preservation of her husband's life and good name. Yet, when those actions fail and, in their failure, expose the fault that lies at the heart of Torvald's conception of marriage, Nora realizes that her marriage has been a sham. Torvald pleads desperately for her to stay -- but she refuses to be a doll: Nora is sticking up for what St. Paul would have admitted was her due: she wants to be loved -- not treated like a meaningless piece of property. Torvald realizes this all too late when Nora leaves him with her last words: that she could never live with a stranger, and that therefore the two of them could never be together unless there was a change -- unless their "life together would be a real wedlock."
In conclusion, Ibsen's A Doll's House displays the emptiness of the 19th century marriage, devoid of the charity recommended so strongly by St. Paul. "New historicism" and "cultural criticism" reveal that the emptiness stems not from our own projections necessarily, but from the times and events surrounding Ibsen's own day and age, and the centuries of revolution that followed the end of the medieval world's Christian philosophy.
Works Cited
Engel, Margorie. "The History of Divorce." Flying Solo. Web. 8 Aug 2011.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House." Project Gutenberg. Web. 8 Aug 2011.
Johnson, Paul. Intellectuals. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2007.
New Testament. New International Version, 1984. Biblos. Web. 8 Aug 2011.
"A Nineteenth Century Husband's Letter to His Wife." Southeastern Massachusetts
University, 1844.
For example, Torvald often refers to his wife as a "squirrel," indicating that she spends a great deal of money. She has to hide the macaroons that she purchases and wipe the evidence from her mouth when she asks him to come see what she has bought. At first, Torvald replies, "Don't disturb me," (Ibsen 1) and closes the office door. He then returns with a pen in his hand,
character Nora transformation Doll House play. Nora Helmer Nora Helmer is the archetypal housewife in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" and she initially seems perfectly happy with her position. She enjoys the way Torvald teases her and the fact that she is close to individuals who actually care for her. However, she slowly but surely demonstrates that she is much more than the innocent and unknowing individual that Torvald considers her
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