Doll's House Character Analysis

Matthew Vainshtub A Doll House

English 11R Mr. Kuitwart

Doll’s House

In Henrik Ibsen’s Doll’s House, Conflicts are misinterpreted both by the reader and by the characters, leading to an array of characterization conflictions and how they interact to convey a range between expectations and appearances. Resolving the confusion caused by conflict and characterization to reveal the characters true sense of self was a key element in developing the end in which Krogstad is seen as an eager passionate, Nora as an intelligent and independent woman, and Torvald as a coquettish man. Appearances show to be equivocal layers that covers the actuality of the play’s characters and disparaging series of eve. The supposedly wicked Krogstad

By the end of the play, she sees that freedom entails independence from societal constraints and being told what she has to do for people to accept her, versus being able to establish her own confident decisions, having the ability to explore her own personality, goals, and beliefs. She recognizes that her life has been largely a performance, pretending to be happy to please others such as her father or husband. Nora speaks these words to Torvald at the end of Act Three. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life”. She now sees that her father and Torvald insisted her to accept and understand it to be “great wrong” to do what she wanted what was best for herself rather than what everyone else desires her to do. That stunted her development as an adult and as a human being. She has made “nothing” of her life because she has existed only to please those she loved. Following this realization, Nora leaves Torvald in order to make something of her life and—for the first time—to exist as a person independent of other

In Act Three Torvald’s conversations with Nora have already made it clear that he is primarily attracted to Nora for her beauty and that he takes personal pride in the good looks of his wife. “From now on, forget happiness. Now it’s just about saving the remains, the wreckage, the appearance.” Showing himself to be obsessed with appearing dignified and respectable to his colleagues, Torvald’s reaction to Krogstad’s letter solidifies his characterization as a shallow man concerned foremost with smoke and mirrors. Here, he states explicitly that the appearance of happiness is more important to him than happiness itself. These words are crucial also because they incorporate Torvald’s actual response to Nora’s crime, and his true disposition in contrast to the resurgence that she expects. Rather than relent his own reputation for Nora’s, Torvald seeks to ensure that his reputation and namesake continues