A Doll's House
A Doll's House, written by Henrik Ibsen in a Victorian age, has many symbols within each act. A symbol is an object or act representing something in the unconscious mind that has been repressed, and are found in many scenes within A Doll's House. During this Victorian era, such symbols foreshadowed were unheard of, yet, might seem harmless to the reader of today's society. The first very obvious symbol, and always recurring throughout the play, is Torvald's nick-names for his wife, Nora. Torvald continues to call Nora a number of different names, all diminutive in nature. However, it is interesting that they are consistently animals and innocent in nature. He calls her his "little rogue", "little skylark", "little person", "helpless little mortal", and "child." This reflects the idea of the women's role at this time; they are considerd to be much inferior to the men. Also throughout the entire play, the doors play significant roles, especially as a symbol. To the reader, it is a constant barrier from Torvald (society's men) and Nora (women of society). It sets a social standard between the married couple, too. Another important symbol in A Doll's House is that of Dr. Rank's illness, TB of the spine. Here, Dr. Rank's spine, his backbone, is diseased. Through dishonesty and lack of communication, this foreshadows the idea that Torvald and Nora's marriage is diseased
The form and structure of A Dolls House.
Form and Structure The form and structure of A Dolls House is much different to anything else that has been written more recently, as it has a whole different structure to anything else around, both a the time it was written and now. The People of the time condemned this play, as it reversed the typical roles of men and women at the time, portraying Nora as very strong, and able to use money and more to the point, deceitful to her husband. In light of this, the opinion of 'A Doll's House' is that it is nearly a well made play, but it doesn't have a happy ending, and this doesn't always go down well with an audience, especially an audience in the days of Henrik Ibsen, as they were used to plays all ending happily, with a solid conclusion being established, so Ibsen's work was a culture shock to everyone who watched it, but a breathe of fresh air to female viewers, as it clearly supported the feminist idea. The acts are sorted into very strict patterns. There is a distinct beginning, middle and end, one act of each. For story writers, these are usually just an outline for the story, but Ibsen has used them to a greater effect, to split A Doll's House up into easy sections for the reader and actor to use. As well as this, he hasn't placed in any scene splits. Each act is one long scene, with different units for the scene. These units are decided usually by a character
A doll's house - Form and structure.
A doll's house Form and structure The basic form of a Doll's house is from then French style "piece bien faite" which means a well-made play, which Isben was well famous for producing. This kind of play usually consisted the same sort of characters. Which were a dominant father, a suffering, innocent woman, the jealous husband, a loyal friend and an evil villain. The story usually included a predictable crisis involving the loss of something important, guilty secrets and mistaken identity. Deception and tension building delays are heaped on top of each other in till finally the breaking point happens were all the secrets and lies are revealed usually ending in a catastrophe. There was always a moral behind the story. Instead of the characters being plain with no depth all of Isben's main characters are complicated people with problems that the audience can relate to. We as the audience can learn something about yourself and the world through the characters feelings. For example Nora's dilemma makes you think about your own ideas about relationships. One of Isben's other structural techniques he used is all the main events that are spoken about have already happen before the play has started. They are revealed and explained in different ways as the play progresses. For instance the main past event of the play we are told about is Nora secret loan she got by forging her
Discuss Ibsen's presentation of Nora in Act1 of the play and explain your response to her throughout the act.
Discuss Ibsen's presentation of Nora in Act1 of the play and explain your response to her throughout the act. In the Play 'A Doll's House', we learn and discover many things about the main protagonist Nora. Nora is presented differently at various stages in the play. We notice how her character changes when in the company of different characters, and how her use of language varies throughout. The reader becomes very familiar with Nora's character as a result of Ibsen's approach to creating her personality and the way in which she is presented. In this essay I will be looking at the language used by Nora in Act 1, the structure of Act 1 and how Ibsen is giving us an insight to Nora at each stage of the play. Ibsen uses an interesting structure throughout Act 1. He places Nora alone with different characters, and then gives her a different personality when she is in company with each one of them; first with Helmer, Mrs Linde, Krogstad, and then with her children. When Nora first appears in the Helmers' elegantly furnished living room, she seems to be the perfect middle-class wife. Ibsen shows us Nora's sweet personality as she enters the stage humming contentedly to herself and tips the porter over-generously. She is wrapped in a fur coat to protect her from the cold; this has some significance, as she resembles the 'squirrel' her husband calls her. Nora appears to be very
A Doll’s House
A Doll's House Nora's personal life describes the whole A Doll's House. Raised in a society where the expectations make her a housewife, her inner turmoil helps to break apart her family. Nora has two separate parts of her character, the persona, which she shows to the world, and the shadow, which she hides. Ibsen conveys this by dialogue to show the double lives that everyone has. Nora's persona is a guise to deceive a world that believes in male rule. Demonstrating this, Nora says "I wouldn't think of going against your wishes" (4). She says this to try to conceal her macaroons. By lying Nora tries to cover up her failures to listen to her husband. As she practices the dance, "Helmer has taken a position by the stove and during the dance gives her frequent instructions. She does not hear him" (48). Nora pretends to listen to her husband most of the time, but in certain moments her shadow self shows. The dialogue and her actions reveal that beneath her normal exterior, Nora contains a very different person, Underneath her persona, Nora has a shadow self who is desparate for responsibility. When she reveals her debt to Mrs. Linde, an old friend, Nora brags :It was I who procured the money" (11). Nora persona shows her a spendthrift, but her lower layer tries to address mature problems. By seeking responsibility, Nora's shadow and ego [defined in the non-Jungian