A Doll's House Essay

Reaction Paper- Fiction: Drama- “A Doll’s House”
The Play, “A Doll’s House” is written by Henrik Ibsen. In this play, it expresses the notion of how women should be equal with men, but in a clever way. The plot in this story was handled beautifully the way Henrik built up the suspense. This play reaches out and grabs the attention of the reader from the beginning of the story with the immediate dishonesty of Nora toward her husband who seems to dehumanize her with animal names. The twist of the story is that she eventually comes to realize that her marriage was a scam.
The Play takes place during the holidays. It is Christmas time for the Helmers family and it is no coincidence. This was probably designed that way by Henrik to symbolize renewal or rebirth because throughout the course of the play, the characters become reborn figuratively speaking. The
In Act I, the interaction between the porter and Nora instantly focuses on money, which becomes the driving force of all conflicts in the play. Although Nora owes the porter “sixpence”, which is a half shilling in British coins, she pays him double the amount assuming that she is in the holiday spirit. Nora is a “spendthrift” and buys gifts to forget about other concerns, while Torvald is more practical when it comes to money. He jokes with her telling her that irresponsibility runs in her family.
Torvald claims that her lack of money management is because of her gender in the line, “That is just like a woman!” (794). This exposes Torvald’s prejudice attitude toward gender roles. He believes a women’s role is to make the home beautiful with proper appearance and behavior. Immediately he expresses that appearance is of most importance to him and that Nora is his trophy to enhance his reputation.
Nora feels and becomes dependent on Torvald the more he insists on addressing her by warmly diminutive nick-names. Torvald only calls her by her name is when is he is lecturing her. When he is admiring her he uses...