Torvald's Argumentative Essay

I learnt that lives of women during this time were dictated by the expectations of society. They were viewed as the property of their fathers and, after marriage, their husbands, putting the men in a position of authority. Women at the time had no rights or freedoms; they were confined to their roles as obedient housewives and mothers. Meanwhile, men took on the responsibility to provide for the family financially. In this light, it became quite clear as to why Nora stayed with Torvald for as long as she did. Nora was not aware of the world of opportunities to live a different life and to set a course for her future, independent of men. Throughout her life, she had always been a chattel, first her father’s and then Torvald’s. It wasn’t until she rekindled her friendship with Kristina Linde, that she realized that there was a different way to live, igniting the spark that finally allowed her to leave Torvald. Relatedly, I felt more empathetic toward Torvald considering that he was simply representing the shared mindset of an average man during the time. With the idea of male superiority indoctrinated into him by society, he was unable to realize the error in his ways.

The play is considered by as a feminist work as it illustrates the erroneous treatment of women. Ibsen believes that women had a right to

In the 19th century Victorian era, Ibsen delves into a society vastly different from the society we know today. He explores a society in which the men are in control, the men run businesses, the men control the money, while the women manage the home and children. Throughout the play, we see Torvald asserting that dominance over Nora, not only in spoken orders but also in how he speaks to her, “No borrowing, no debt. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt,” (Ibsen,1879). Frequently, Nora is referred to as "little songbird," "little squirrel," "little spendthrift," or "little Nora." (Ibsen, 1879) Although occasionally calling her by her name, Torvald

“A Doll’s House” is a play written by Henrik Ibsen, set in late nineteenth century where women were expected to uphold social norms of being a submissive wife and a caring mother. In the beginning of the play, Nora is initially portrayed as a naive and obedient “doll” trapped inside of a “Doll’s House”, but towards the end of the play, Nora is able to come to the realisation that she was never happy during her eight years of marriage with Torvald, leading to her leaving Torvald and breaking free from the “Doll’s House”. This essay will explore the different factors which allows Nora to see why she must break free.

Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was highly criticized for undeniably demonstrating woman’s issues in the 19th century. While the play doesn’t change setting much at all, Ibsen clearly focuses in on the characterization of three insightful characters: Mrs. Linde, Nora, and Helmer. Mrs. Linde is a minor character; however, that doesn’t alter her effect on the play. She provides the mold for the perfect, idealized wife. Nora, the main character, develops rapidly in the play, and her character is a stark contrast to Mrs. Linde. Nora on the surface seems to be the epitome of a 19th-century wife, but the audience quickly realizes that she defies gender expectations with the forged loan and eventually with her separation from Helmer. Helmer not only fits perfectly into his masculine role but blindly

Dan Torf was a proclaimed “baseball geek” with a dream of becoming the GM of the New York Yankees ever since he was in high school. He knew the most random facts and statistics of the MLB that not many people would even think of. Because of this passion for baseball and the fact that he knew he wanted to work in sports, he applied locally to schools with Sport Management programs and was grateful to get into UConn.

This play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, focuses on women, especially in marriage and motherhood. Torvald is a character, who describes inequality between men and women and the women’s role in the society in that era. He believes that it is an important and the only duty of a woman to be a good wife and mother. As an individual, a woman, could not conduct or run a business of her own, she needs to ask her father or husband and they were only considered to be father’s or husband’s property. Women were not allowed to vote and divorce if they were allowed they would carry a heavy social shame and it was only available when both partners agreed.

Torvald exhibits patriarchy in his relationship with Nora as he calls her pet names and controls her eating. Nora’s demeanor is ditzy, carefree

The play closes on a positive note with Nora, representative of the supressed female, overcoming Torvald, representative of the oppressive male, however to express the true extent of this achievement, Ibsen makes evident the context of the struggle that society dictated women live by. The progressive characterisation of the protagonist Nora encapsulates Ibsen’s intention of pushing theatrical and societal norms through showing how women deserve to create their own identity and not be restricted by their male oppressors. Ibsen crafted every line to show the development of her dialogue, actions, setting and properties, and in doing so he potently slammed the door on the patriarchal society of the 19th

The first impression for each character introduced differed. Torvald seemed like a dominant man that was the essence of a typical Norwegian man during the time the play was written. He’s constantly being demeaning towards Nora and women in general during the dialogue between him and Nora. For example when he says, “That is like a woman!” (Page 2). He spoke to Nora as if he were speaking to a child, not his wife; there was no sense of love between the two characters in their initial introduction to the audience. Personally, I can’t connect to his character but there are some characters in books or that I have actually met that have some of Torvald’s characteristics.

Ibsen uses doll’s house metaphor to support that aberrant decisions are made by women who are discriminated by an unfair society. Nora realizes truth about real love and marriage. In the house, Torvald reads the letters from Krogstad and shows skeptical changes in mood by showing anger, fear and adoration toward Nora. After all his reactions, Nora asserts, “ I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls” (Ibsen 76). The “home” is an appearance of cage where dolls are kept in. In reality, the cage is where Nora and her children are being kept as prisoners since she said, “here the children have been my dolls”. She finally understands how she has been treated

Living in the time period in where Hamlet was taken place,gender is completely different from where they are now. The theme gender, which in Hamlet circulated around, ended up being the root of all evil In the tragedy Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the characters Hamlet, Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius, and Horatio suffer consequences through the actions of each gender. Gender roles contributed to the tragedy, which brought a lot of distraught between characters. Gender played a huge role throughout the tragedy In the play, the men acted superior and were also glorified. Women on the other hand were discouraged and mistreated for being females. William Shakespeare develops the theme of gender in his tragedy, through the superiority,

In a sense, the play is a tragedy of the traditional society. It is a tragedy for the society represented by Torvald because that society had been confidently dealing with women in that manner which it regarded as correct and just. Now that a woman has suddenly given it a blow at almost its bases — the religion, traditional values, education, the institution of marriage, and so on — the society is facing a crisis, or a tragedy. If all the women, who are of course treated no better than this, do the same, the whole of the social system would collapse. And the impact would be basically the tragic destruction of the man's basis of happiness.

What perhaps is the most significant metaphor used throughout the play lies within the title of the play itself, ‘A Doll’s House’. The title introduces the idea that both Nora and Torvald were just in fact dolls in a dollhouse, being played not just by one another, but also by the society of that time. Towards the end of the play, Nora herself comes to the realisation that she has in fact been nothing more than a ‘doll’, made to humour the men in her life. She states ‘I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was daddy’s doll child.’ This statement concluded the fact that Torvald has never truly seen Nora as his equal, whether that’s by objectifying her or infantilising her. Torvald has many nicknames for Nora such as ‘skylark’ or ‘squirrel’, which while on the surface seem like terms of endearment, are actually ways in which Torvald belittles her, as it allows Torvald to further view

Nora who risked jeopardizing her husband’s image had set the tone throughout the play as the constant change in personality set the tone of the play which I have really enjoyed due to the unpredictable plot twists and a chance to be engaged with The Victorian culture at that time period. There were also secondary characters such as Linde and Krogstad that further shaped up the plot of the story, especially Krogstad who was responsible for blackmailing Nora which set a very suspenseful and problematic tone. The title “dolls house” foreshadows my idea of the play as the word “doll” meant being objectified which relates to the main idea of the play. The book did a great job in foreshadowing and hinting future events as seen in the title. In one line, Torvald calls