Explain How Ibsen Manipulates In A Doll's House

Ibsen manipulates the construct of Nora to think and behave like a child. Discuss. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Henrik Ibsen was born in Skein, Norway, on March 20th, 1828. Ibsen believed that in marriage the husband and wife should be seen as equals, and should be free to become who they want. Many plays written by Ibsen comment and critique the social issues of relationships and how women have been degraded for centuries . A Doll’s house is a 19th Century critique and social commentary on marriage and the role of women within marriage.

Throughout the play Ibsen intends to craft two stereotypical characters: the patriarchal husband and the suppressed wife. He manages enforce this throughout the use of imagery and characterisation. Nora is constantly demeaned during the

My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird must have a clean beak to sing with. Otherwise she’ll start twittering out of tune.” Ibsen creates an atmosphere where Torvald behaves like Nora’s father , reinforcing her stereotype as childish by the way she is being spoken to. His use of parallelism between women and animals, display Torvald is aware of his dominance and that his wife needs to be treated inferiorly in order for her to obey. Nora tends to believe this stereotype and this inferiority, and as a result tends to ignore who she really is and how she feels. Furthermore, Ibsen manipulates the language throughout the play to show Torvalds’s superiority “Helmer. So my little Nora has come to that conclusion, has she?” comparing the quotations above, we can see that Ibsen tries to portray controversy of genders making Torvald superior to Nora. Both quotations make Nora mediocre. One uses parallelism with a bird in reference to her lack of freedom and the other one use the word “little” so the audience instantaneously sees Nora as someone