Ibsen's realist play, A Doll's House, is an accurate imitation of life in this era.

The Victorian Time period was a time of inequality between men and women; men dominated society, and women's roles were limited to caring for their husbands, children, and the drudgery of housework. Ibsen's realist play, A Doll's House, is an accurate imitation of life in this era. The Bourgeoisie society was a time of internal conflict between duty to oneself and duty to others; Ibsen reveals the clichés of this society through Nora's transformation from a doll to a woman, Dr. Rank's character and through Torvald. Ibsen's use of symbolism reveals the true inner nature of the characters throughout his profound play. The Bourgeoisie society revolves around the fake mind-set that money can bring true happiness. Ibsen portrays money as a symbol of power and the determinant of a person's rank in society; in this time period, people are born into their rank, a woman can only move up in society if she marries into a rich family. The people of this society led the belief that money is a measure of the amount of one's happiness. Torvald, a firm believer in reputations and the Bourgeoisie society, says: "[...] No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. [...]" (Ibsen, page 4). Torvald is explaining to Nora that a happy home must be one that is debt-free, he fears that society will find out that they are in debt and

  • Word count: 1344
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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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

  • Word count: 434
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Doll's house

The play was published in 1879, it was written by Henrik Ibsen, it was a great success however the first time it was published there was on out cry about the play that Ibsen was forced into writing an inferior and weaker ending.The idea that a woman could leave her husband and children would have seemed shocking to the nineteenth century audience. "A Dolls house" focuses on the problems of women in a male dominated society; both Nora and Helmer are victims of the conventional feminine and masculine roles in society. "A Doll's House", serves as an example of the kind of issue-based drama that distinguishes Ibsen from many of his contemporaries. The play's dialogue is not poetic, but very naturalistic, and the characters are recognisable people. Given the sense of modernity which the play possesses it seems unusual to compare it to another 19th century plays.The play has no violence and it's very simple its action is based on everyday life with many examples of dramatic irony. The whole play takes place in one room; Nora is present in every scene she never sees to leave the room. Every thing comes to her; she is literally trapped in domestic comfort. Ibsen writes typical of the character might talk in relation to their position and their relationship with each other. The characters speeches are natural, idiomatic, economical and realistic social situations. The play

  • Word count: 1839
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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A Dolls House- Act 1 and Act 2

A Doll’s House- Act 1 and Act 2 . In the play, “Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, portrays the protagonist, Nora as a very child-like character who understands a man’s world better than she will let on. She is treated very similarly to a doll; she is played with and treated like a child. Her husband Torvald Helmer does not believe that Nora understands the world of money and business. Nora doesn’t let on that she does, and she plays along to this façade of being someone with no knowledge on the outside world. It is evident that she is aware of the world of business when she says “” In business, you know things called quarterly payment and …. I couldn’t save much out of the housekeeping money” (Ibsen, 161). From this quote, it is evident that Nora is very much aware of the borrowing system in the business world. She understands the system of borrowing money, and paying it back in quarterly payments. By her knowing this information, it is clear that Nora is not just the puppet of Torvald, but an intelligent woman who is informed of the world’s events. Furthermore, Nora proves that she knows about the world of men by saying, “Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of copying to do, so I locked myself in and st writing-often till after midnight. Oh, I was so tired sometimes…so tired. Still, it was really tremendous fun sitting there

  • Word count: 1406
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Nora Helmer: Transformation from a Doll into an Adult

Nora Helmer: Transformation from a Doll into an Adult In 1862, Henrik Ibsen left for the docks in Christiania. The young man considered himself a complete failure; none of his plays were successful. Disappointed by this, Ibsen, with his family, boarded a ship and left Norway, metaphorically slamming the door behind him. Fifteen years later a similarly disappointed Nora Helmer would slam the door on stage at the end of A Doll's House. Humans learn from their experiences and observations of everyday life; it makes them mature and become more self-aware about the nature of their lives; this is called self-discovery. This idea is presented in the play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, through several characters, but this idea is most evident in the character development of the protagonist Nora Helmer. In this play, the character of Nora Helmer is consistently developed by her actions and speech, as her character undergoes the transition from a “doll” to an adult. At the beginning of the play, Nora is presented as an ideal housewife who is very carefree. She has no identity, she simply follows the role that the society has taught her to play. Nora is also shown to partake in childlike acts such as lying to her husband about the macaroons. Additionally, Nora does not mind her husband calling her nicknames such as “little squirrel” or “little lark” because she accepts

  • Word count: 809
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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