Drake Johnson
Mrs. Rutan
AP Literature and Composition
December 6 2015
Relationship Status
Mrs. Rutan
AP Literature and Composition
December 6 2015
Relationship Status
Males seem to crave control over woman in relationships. This is the way Torvald thinks because he belittles Nora and brushes off any request she has because he believes she doesn't understand how to be an adult.
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A bond between a man and woman should never be one-sided—and if it is, then there is something wrong. In a relationship, there should be sovereignty, equality, and trust throughout the relationship to reach a deeper level between one another. Once that trust is breached—or even destroyed completely—it can never be mended back to full strength. This is shown in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House where the battle for power between husband and wife tears them apart. Torvald Helmer (the husband) and Nora Helmer (the wife) both struggle to maintain on an eye to eye basis; in other words, they don’t see the other one’s point of view of certain issues. That is what leads to Torvald belittling Nora at any chance he gets. The author uses back and forth dialog to show the domination of a specific character in a certain passage in the play to express that they are battling or controlling the power within the scene of the play. Also throughout the story, Nora is perceived to be the least intellectual human being, but interestingly enough she is the one that in fact plays Torvald for a fool for most of the play. |
Relationships usually involve pet names such as honey, sweety, or sugar to show affection; whether someone is in a good or bad mood, terms of endearment are used to better the situation. Torvald and Nora’s situation is quite contrary to the norm of pet names; Ibsen has Torvald use pet names in a condescending manner towards Nora, which leads the reader to believe the character of Torvald thinks he is superior in the relationship over his wife. Torvald uses terms such as “wastrel” (Ibsen, 1), which can literally be defined as a wasteful person, and “little rascal” (Ibsen, 18) when talking to Nora which shows that he treats her like a child. Torvald doesn’t treat his wife with the respect she deserves; he is very condescending towards her and there are minimal relationships that last when there is any form of that level of disrespect coming from one person to another.
“what a dreadful awakening. All these years—all these eight years—she, my pride and joy--a hypocrite, a liar—oh worse! worse! – a criminal! Oh, the bottomless ugliness in all this! Damn! Damn! Damn! I ought to have guessed that something like this would happen. I should have expected it. All your father’s loose principles. No religion, no morals, no sense of duty—. Now I am being punished for my leniency with him. I did it for your sake, and this is how you pay me back” The author makes a point to use the amount of lines given to characters a sign of authority over one another. In dialog that contains arguments or major points that are trying to be made by characters, the author (Ibsen) gives the character with the upper hand the majority of the lines on the page so they seem to be in control of the conversation. For instance, when Torvald finds out through a letter that Nora had borrowed money to pay for their trip to Italy behind his back, he goes off on a rant while yelling at Nora as shown in the block quote at the beginning of the paragraph. The author only allows Nora to respond with this, “Yes. This is how” (Ibsen, 55). Ibsen easily manipulates the usage of lines to make his point clear that Torvald is in complete control of the scene because of Nora breaking his trust. Ibsen also shows that Nora is in complete control of her emotions by not allowing her to have her own monologue to ventilate and blame someone else for her mistakes. Her shortage of lines represents that she is evolving into a more mature adult and taking her punishment that she now understands she deserves. The author has many techniques that he could have choose to use to show power within his play, but the usage of lines was the best way to represent his point.
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Helmer. (walking up and down). “what a dreadful awakening. All these years—all these eight years—she, my pride and joy—a hypocrite, a liar—oh worse! worse! – a criminal! Oh, the bottomless ugliness in all this! Damn! Damn! Damn! I ought to have guessed that something like this would happen. I should have expected it. All your father’s loose principles. No religion, no morals, no sense of duty—. Now I am being punished for my leniency with him. I did it for your sake, and this is how you pay me back”
Nora. “Yes. This is how” Helmer. You have ruined all my happiness. My whole future – that’s what you have destroyed. Oh, it’s terrible to think about. I am at the mercy of an unscrupulous man. He can do with me whatever he likes, demand anything of me, command me and dispose of me just as he pleases – I dare not say a word! To go down so miserably, to be destroyed – all because of an irresponsible woman! Nora. When I am gone from the world, you’ll be free. Helmer. No noble gestures, please. Your father was always full of such phrases too. What good would it dome if you were gone from the world, as you put it? Not the slightest good at all. He could still make the whole thing public, and if he did, people would be likely to think I had been your accomplice. They might even think it was my idea – that it was I who urged you to do it! And for all this I have you to thank – you, whom I’ve borne on my hands through all the years of our marriage. Now do you understand what you’ve done to me? This dialog between Torvald and Nora came right off of pages 1145-1146. It is used to represent the domination of lines to shown power or who is in control.
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Nora is viewed as a not very logical thinker throughout the book.
She didn’t think before she acted, which lead to her later facing the consequences any responsible adult would have envisioned. But later in Ibsen’s play, we find out that Nora is more cunning than we gave her credit for; she actually plays Torvald for a fool by keeping the borrowed money a secret from him, the way she manipulates him into giving her money, and leaves him in the end. From beginning until almost the end, Nora keep a very big secret from Helmer because she was fearful about what he would think of her if he had ever found out. Considering how impatient Nora is, it was surprising to see her be able to not “spill the beans” so to speak by the end of the story and mess it up herself; this could have been a pivotal part of the story considering that it could have been the turning for Nora to begin to ripen into an adult. Even when Helmer was close to opening up the letter that was in a busted locked compartment, that would have revealed Nora’s secret, Nora tried to cover up her attempt to destroy the letter by telling Helmer, “Then it must have been the kids” (Ibsen, 53). Nora can also walk around the house and pout and fuss like a child would do and Helmer would fall into the trap of giving her money. After seeing her act in such a manner it would upset Helmer and he would tell her, “Come, come, my little songbird mustn’t droop her wings. What’s this? Can’t have a pouty squirrel in the house, you know” (Ibsen, 3). Succumbing to this deception might seem like a weakness of Helmer, but he cannot help it if Nora is his true love and she uses him for his money. Nora uses Torvald, and that can been viewed as a heartless thing to do, which leads people to believe Nora (because of her actions) is immature and wont ever grown up. |
Nora can act like a child, and still gets what she wants, and that is her problem; she can act this way because of the way she is spoiled. Nora is given money when she pouts, and she gets her way when she begs which are both child-like symptoms.
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,Another way Nora plays Helmer for a fool is by inevitably leaving him in the end. The author throws in a bit of irony because when you take the title of the play A Doll House you usually expect it to be a woman being played, but in Ibsen’s play it is Helmer—an intelligent male—who is played for a fool. Nora feels as if he is not the man she thought he was, and Helmer’s thought process was completely opposite. Helmer wanted to be with Nora because he believed he could make her a better person, but in fact it is Nora in the end who grows up on her own and tells Torvald, “I am sorry, Torvald, for you have always been so good to me. But I can’t help it. I don’t love you anymore” (Ibsen, 60). Nora is given an ultimatum, she must leave Helmer in order to find herself and mature as a person. Nora's decision was a respectable one, she knew what she had to do to better herself and she made the tough decision to do what was best for her; Nora finally blossoms and Torvald is left by himself to sulk in his own foolishness after being played with like a doll.
It's sad that the word divorce is no longer uncommon when talking about people's relationships; it's mortifying that some kids have to grow up with two Christmas', birthdays, or any holiday party because of their parents unresolved conflict instead of having one single holiday spent with all loved ones. Henrik Ibsen makes multiple interesting choices throughout his play that gave it more depth and meaning behind the story. His theme of relationship inequality and mistrust occurs in everyday life which is a sad topic to discuss given that it affects so many lives. There are instances where the betrayal of trust between husband and wife leads to complications in the relationship which leads to fights and it just avalanches downhill from there. In A Doll House we see this with Helmer and Nora, the mistrust and condescending manner between the two ultimately leads to their separation in the end. Both Nora and Helmer need to work on their relationship and communicate better on problems they both encounter so they can collaborate to find a common ground. Their need to have the conflict of mistrust between them solved without it becoming a major issue that could negatively effect their family.
This is video could be useful for any couple that is struggling with solving conflicts within the relationship such as Torvald and Nora are, and they cant be the only ones. This video talks about how to minimize problems before they become bigger issues that can not be fixed such as breaching the trust barrier that is so critical to maintaining a strong relationship.
Works Cited
4 Ways to Stop a Fight. Dir. Bruce Muzik. Perf. Bruce Muzik. 4 Ways to Stop a Fight. N.p., 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Dec. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xhiXfwhXCU>.
Hicks, Dwayne. Giving. N.d. DHicksOnline.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. <http://dhicksonline.com/my-journey/giving/>.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, & Sense. 11th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 1092-155. Print.
Maston, Dick. Are Men Superior To Women. N.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2015. <http://www.debate.org/opinions/are-men-superior-to-women>.