Another recognised expectation of society during the 19th Century was the need to hold out an appearance that you are the ‘ideal’ family, living in others eyes as kind, wealthy and happy. This is shown in the play through the Helmer’s family life and their need to hold themselves to others expectations. One of the first things, although minor, to happen in the play is Nora giving the Porter a pound after he asks for a shilling, our first impressions are of her generosity, but we soon after discover that Nora knows she cannot afford this with her threatening financial situation. Therefore to a certain extent this was not an act of kind-heartedness but more of the realisation of the probable neglect from society if they did not portray themselves as the ‘ideal’ family to others. Ibsen shows us a second example of social acceptance with Krogstad and his fear of unemployment. Krogstad is obviously desperate not to experience this, most likely due to the fact that he would be exiled from society and thought of as unsuccessful if he could not acquire work. Ibsen was able to write about this situation extremely accurately because in 1836 his father, who had been prosperous until that
time, went bankrupt, in that culture and at that time it proved as a disgrace profound enough to affect him and his children for the rest of their lives.
Ibsen had a slightly alternative style of writing, compared to other play writes at the time, trying to be as realistic and precise as possible. After the 1848 revolution, a new modern perspective was starting to appear in the literary and dramatic world, challenging the romantic tradition. Ibsen was mastering and popularising the realist drama derived from this new perspective, ‘A Doll's House’ could easily have been just another modern play with another comfortable moral lesson. However, when Nora tells Helmer that they must sit down and "discuss all this that has been happening between us", the play diverges from the traditional form. Ibsen raises issues which have not previously been considered, but not in a point blank way, instead he manages to make ‘A Doll’s House’ interesting and thought provoking.
Ibsen’s major target audience was the middle class, as he was brought up in similar circumstances he was able to portray the thoughts and feelings of middle class life accurately. Ibsen chose to use colloquial language to emphasize this style of realism and to help relate to his audience. Despite this Ibsen also managed to tactfully reveal that the middle class did in fact have some flaws, his realist drama disregarded a number of things, for example the tradition of the older male moral figure. We see
this with Dr. Rank, the character who should serve this role as a moralist type of figure, is far from a moral force. Instead, he is diseased with spinal tuberculosis and without morals openly coveting Nora “When I sit here being intimate with you, I can’t think” (pg67). Dr Rank has rejected his principles, being a good friend of Helmer’s he still tries to have intimate relations with Nora. A person of good authority was rarely shown as lacking morals in most plays, this is where Ibsen differed.
Ibsen appears to pursue a number of differing themes in ‘A Doll’s House’, the unreliability of appearances is an example of one. Over the course of A Doll's House, appearances prove to be misleading and masking the reality of the genuine characters personal thoughts and feelings. Nora initially seems a silly, thoughtless and possibly childish woman, using noises, “Oh, pooh” instead of directly or maturely answering a question. But as the play progresses, we see that in fact she is intelligent, motivated, and, by the play's conclusion, a strong-willed, independent thinker. “Does it occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have had a serious talk together?” (pg97) And although Helmer plays the part of the strong, compassionate husband, like Nora, reveals himself towards the closing of the play. Helmer in fact turns out to be cowardly, weak, petty, and selfish when he fears that there is a possibility Krogstad may expose him to scandal. “I dare not disobey him. I am condemned to humiliation and ruin” (pg93) Krogstad too reveals himself to have a much more sympathetic and forgiving nature than we first make out. It actually appears that the play's climax is mainly an instance of resolving identity confusion as we now see, Nora as an intelligent, valiant woman, Krogstad as loving and caring and Helmer as a simpering, miserable man.
Other slightly less significant themes are parental and familial responsibilities, Nora and Helmer both convey the principle that a parent is compelled to be honest and trustworthy. Helmer strongly believed that a parent's immorality and dishonesty would be passed on to their children like a virus. "Because an atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons every corner of the home. Every breath that the children draw in such a house contains the germs of evil.” (pg53) and Helmer manages to convince Nora that this is true; she then comes to fear that her deceit will ruin her children. “Corrupt my little children- ! Poison my home!”. By the end of the play both Helmer and Nora are convinced that Nora should not see her children again through fear of them becoming deceivers and frauds themselves.
Deceit is another theme, Nora being the prime example. Her main deception is obviously the fact that she borrowed money from Krogstad without the compulsory consent and told Helmer that it was borrowed from her father. Such deceptions can effortlessly develop and the responsibility spreads to others as we see when Mrs Linde becomes increasingly involved in Nora’s deception when she had actually had no part in it what so ever. There are also the smaller lies Nora tells when Helmer asks her simple questions, “Not a nibble at a macaroon?” to which Nora answers “No, Torvald-I promise you, honestly-!” when we know that a matter of minutes ago Nora cleaned her mouth and placed a bag of macaroon’s in her pocket.
However, the most prominent of themes seems to be the rebellion towards society, especially in direction of the position and circumstances of women. This is demonstrated mainly by Nora as she breaks away from society in order to act on her own terms. From the start Nora has a small sense of revolt and little care for society, “What do I care about society? I think it’s a bore.” (pg40) this idea is clearly portrayed in Nora’s decision to leave Helmer. It is clear that Nora’s rebellion was very purposeful and to a certain extent planned, despite knowing what society expects from her, as a woman and a wife; she believes that it is her own right to do what she feels is true to her.
