There are many different themes in the play: the role of women; secrets and deception; appearance and its difference to reality; letters and society.
In the play all the women have had to sacrifice something about themselves because of society’s second class opinions of women. Nora is just a house wife and is only there to be seen but not heard, Mrs Linde sacrifices the true love of her life, Krogstad, and marries a man she does not love in order to support her dependent relatives. The nurse has had to give up her child for her poorly paid job, what’s more is she appreciates the fact that she has been given the job as she realises she has committed a terrible sin to have a child out of wed lock. In Ibsen’s time women were often stigmatised whereas men could escape virtually all blame.
In the play very little is as it first seems, Nora at first appears to be silly, immature, naive little girl but we then learn she has made great sacrifices to save her husbands life, and has kept the burden of the large loan secret from her ill husband. By the end of the play she realise that really she is a strong independent women and leaves Torvald. Torvald appears to be a loving, affectionate, generous if a little patronising husband however by the end of the play the audience learns he is shallow, vain man, concerned mainly with his public reputation more than anything and that he in fact never would shoulder the burden that would fall upon Nora, that he so often talked about in the end however he does love her he is conventional and finds it hard to question himself and society.
Krogstad at first introduction appears to be selfish, menacing and mean however once he is reunited with his love Mrs linde he becomes more generous and merciful. Mrs Linde appears to be happy with her new found independence however it soon becomes apparent that she is in fact “empty”. Rank who appears to be Torvald and Nora’s truest friend actually is just in love with Nora.
Deception is a definite theme; the main liar in this play is Nora as she deceives Torvald about big things such as the loan. At first it seems that Torvald also lies to Nora saying that “I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life’s blood, and everything, for your sake.” However in reality when she does get in trouble all he cares about is his public reputation and definitely not her however at the time he does think that he would , therefore he is not lying.
Mrs Linde is a force for truth in Nora’s life and that is why she is in the play she also makes the end happen as she convinces Krogstad not to get the letter back condemning Nora this is another example of plot meeting subplot; she is shocked by the deceptions in Nora’s marriage and wants the Helmers to face the truth. This is why she persuades krogstad to tell Torvald about the loan. Ibsen uses Mrs Linde to show the audience how societies need for women to have a “proper” life means they are sacrificing happiness.
Ibsen Uses Rank to show the audience how someone that is affected by someone who went against societies believes as he is dying of tuberculosis of the spine, which he inherited from his father, who contracted venereal disease due to sexual excesses. He is also there to show Nora that she should not lie as he is morally sick and dieing.
At the end of our study of the play the class was spilt into pairs and asked to create 3 still images from the play which we felt showed the plays development of the action best. I was in a group with Emily and our first still image was when Helmers quires Nora as to whether she has any macaroons. For this still image we had Nora sitting down hunched over turned away from torvald looking mischievously at her hidden macaroons with Torvald sitting next to her towering over. We decided to create the still image in this way because it showed Nora’s first sign of deceiving Torvald and the way he treated her like a child oblivious to what was going on. As he thought she was upset, really she was just playing the role and really wanted a macaroon. We showed the way he treated her like a child as well by making torvald say the line:”Now, now! My little songbird mustn’t droop her wings” as we thought this was a very patronising way to speak to your wife.
For our second still image we decided to use the scene when Nora and Torvald come home from the party , as I felt it showed how Torvald did love her although loved how people admired her beauty more and almost thought of her as a doll or puppet in the way he commanded that she did what he said. The particular point in this act we chose was when Torvald was showing Nora of to Mrs Linde. We asked Torvald to spin Nora round as if still dancing with her to show she is just a doll and that he can do what ever he likes with her. We also had Nora’s face looking emotionless almost robotic like showing how when her husband wants her to do something she lets him almost control her body , but not her mind, he cant make her look happy. We also asked Torvald to say thins like “isn’t she unbelievably beautiful “Oblivious to her facial expression, showing her dissatisfaction.
For our final still image we chose the final scene were Nora has had enough and has decided to leave Torvald as when he found out she was in trouble he had not saved her. For this still image we had Nora at the front of the stage, centre stage to symbolises how powerful she had not become, we placed Torvald behind her on his Knees whimpering .Looking back on this still image I find it interesting how ironic this is as now Nora is the strong adult and Torvald has be reduced to a whimpering child.
Our three still images, we felt, showed the transition of power between the two characters of Nora and Torvald very well.
