How Is the Relationship of Torvald and Nora Presented in the Exposition of the Play?

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‘A Doll’s House’ was written by Henrik Ibsen and was published in November 1879 in Norway; it is a three-act play which has been translated into several languages. The play was first performed in Copenhagen on 21st December 1879 in the Royal Theatre which caused a lot of controversy all of Scandinavia throughout the audiences do to the taboo themes of the time such as feminism. Here, women were first seen in a different light, away from the view that they were expected to stay home to cook, clean and look after the children. ‘A Doll’s House’ has a naturalistic style which attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies including the fourth wall which is an imaginary wall at the front of the stage where the audience sees the action in the world of the play. Torvald and Nora have a very cliché relationship at the beginning of the play but later, their relationship is altered to one that a 19th Century audience would not have seen before. In the opening scene of Act One, Nora is seen as very childlike and immature; her first actions on stage are that of her overpaying a porter by giving him ‘a crown’ instead of ‘fifty öre,’ even though this is not a lot of extra money, the fact that she has spent this unneeded money on him shows that she is irresponsible with money. Also, she does not wait for him to thank her before she hands him the money, the irrational actions demonstrations that she has a reckless attitude towards important things. Her role of being a wife and mother is not shown clearly in the beginning of the play because of the way she is naïve with money especially when she is speaking to Torvald about wanting to be able to ‘spread ourselves just a little’ and spend money, she is aware that the family does not have enough money, yet, she continues to go out and buy unnecessary items for Christmas. Nora’s

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