A Doll's House Section: Thesis & Dissertations
Moreover, she prefers fancying about a rich man who would give her the money she needs( a psychological escape from the constraints she lives in) than facing her husband. The two evolutions begin to coincide from the moment when Krogstad threatens Nora with telling Helmer that she has committed forgery. We 'feel' that something begins to change when contradictory feelings 'invade' her- love for the children, for the husband, and the desire to commit suicide : ''(') never see the children again(')Oh, that black icy water.Oh, that bottomless' !(817) On the other hand, she would do almost anything in order to regain her old lifestyle(that of a 'doll'who passed from the father's hands into that of the husband's). The transformation seems to end with the firm decision to throw herself into the water after Helmer would have found out the hidden truth : ''Now you must read your letters, Torvald''.
(816) But it willnot come to an end until Nora really 'discovers' her husband : '' Miserable woman' what is this you have done ?(')Do you understand what you have done ?''(817) contrasting with his reaction after finding that Krogstad has sent them back the 'IOU' : '' Helmer :I am saved ! Nora, I am saved ! Nora : And me ? Helmer : You too, of course' ''.(818) From this moment, we assist to an incredible change from the submitted wife to the firm, decided Nora, who has the courage to leave her husband and children in quest of independence. Having dealt with the analyze of Nora and Mrs Linde's attitudes and their relations with the other personages, we now turn to the author's 'relation'with his main characters :'women'. Being a drama, 'A Doll's House' has only the diialogues and the characters' actions to reveal their emotions to the reader.
Therefore Ibsen places Nora for the most part of the play in the center of the action ( she appears in all scenes except for the discussion between Krogstad and Mrs Linde) and eliminates any dialogue or event that would not have conributed to her evolution from passive vistim to active agent of her life, and would not have been an argument for his thesis. We have the conviction that Nora not only represents a forrm of protest against women's very limited rights in the 19th Century : ''Helmer : But nobody sacrifies his honor for the one she loves Nora : Hundreds and thousands of women have''.(823), but also becomes an 'instrument' in Ibsen's hands, an 'instrument' for pleading in favor of personal freedom and individuals' liberty to choose their destiny in becoming a social responsible agent.
The materialization of this idea, in terms of liberation of the main character ( women), comes naturally after we have discovered the constraints surrounding Nora, especially coming from her husband '' I wouldn't find a woman doubly attractive for being so obviously helpless.(') It's as though it made her his property in a double sense : he has, as it were, given her a new life, and she becomes in a way both his wife and at tha same time his child''.(823) For having demonstrated that Women in Ibsen's 'A Doll's House ' were very consistent and complex characters of the play and that they become the weapon that Ibsen uses for expressing his convictions, I clearly hope having achieved the goal of this paper.That is to point out that Nora and Mrs Linde both experienced an evolution from passive victims in a life devoid of any rights for them to active agents in a life somewhat difficult for the adversities that a woman, who wants to claim her rights to live her life as she think best, has to face. Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' is in some extent an hymn for sexual equality that Society should one day achieve.
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