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Truth In A Doll's House

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From the bright colors of macaroons to the black and white truth in a letter: how Ibsen uses these objects to trace Nora's passage from mischievous child to responsible woman Dolls house is a realistic play written by Hernik Ibsen in the year 1897. The play consists of three acts where the author developed the figure of Nora, character who evolves from being a childish and superficial woman to an independent one. The play was written during the Victorian era, it therefore shows the submission of woman of those times in female characters. In fact, feminists ideas were very rare, this is why the ending of the play seems surprising for the time it was written; Nora abandons her husband and children. In play´s, authors sometimes use inanimate …show more content…

The letters in Dolls house are a key symbol, what was written in them was always the truth, the one that both characters were avoiding and Nora was hiding at all costs. Although the marriage of Nora and Helmer is presented as ideal, as the play progresses, the reader notices that this happiness is one based on lies and the only one that can speak the truth is are the letters. Nora and Helmer prefer to live in ignorance to simulate their happiness for this reason, Nora doesn`t want her husband to read the letters. As being part of the audience we know that throughout eight years of marriage, Nora has also idealized Helmer, thinking of him as a brave and caring man, this perspective is also transmitted to the reader at the beginning of the play; only when the first letter is opened, the true identity of this man is revealed; he was in fact a coward. After reading the first letter Helmer said "What a horrible awakening! (...) -She who was my joy and pride- a hypocrite, a liar- (...)" speaking to Nora about her. What he didn`t know is that it wasn`t him who had awaken but Nora instead; the image she had from her idealized husband for whom she had done so much sacrifices and who she thought he loved her, had broken. This is how Ibsen uses the letter as a symbol of truth. The truth is not only what the letter contained but what it revealed by how the characters reacted when it was opened and

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