On Henrik Ibsens Nora in a Dolls House - Book Report/Review Example

Nora's husband who constantly refers to her as his "little squirrel" (Ibsen) or "skylark" (Ibsen) is constantly implying and enforcing his views of a proper wife on her. This, in turn, makes the audience think that Nora is a highly dependent wife who relies on her husband's approval. As the play progresses, Nora displays a rather courageous feat that she has hidden from her family. She had in the past associated with Krogstad on committing fraud to find finances needed in the rehabilitation of her husband's poor health.

To pay for the debts, she works secretly to ensure this. Nora is thrown into traumatic chaos when Krogstad threatens to reveal their crime in exchange for a favor. She is further set off balance when her husband's reaction turns out to be the complete opposite of what she hoped for. This circumstance makes her realize the disillusions she had of her marriage and that she has yet to find her true self as an independent being. Having lived an overly protected life under the care of her father and then her husband, she comes to understand that she is living not the life that she wants but of what they have imposed on her.

The play ends with Nora leaving her family to embark on a mission to rediscover what she has truly wanted for herself all along. Nora is first seen as a person who is happy and contented to be the loyal wife and doting mother. While trying to meet the demands of what the society and her husband refers to as a proper wife, she deliberately tries to rebel in small ways by lying to her husband about small matters such as eating sweets. She later realizes that she was never fully happy and contented living the life that others have arranged for her.

However, she discovers that she has been living a lie, hiding the other side of her true personality to the people who were supposed to be her family. Her husband, who she trusted to respond in her honor broke her trust and was more worried about how other people would see the family if they were to know of the crime that she has committed. Finding out that she has lost an important part of herself in an empty marriage is a distressing trauma that a lot of people like her deal with. She feels like she has lived an almost empty life as Torvald's doll and that all her efforts for her husband to appreciate and understand her have proved to be useless.

Given the traumatic experiences that she has experienced, there is a possibility that she will encounter depression. Moreover, these bouts of depression can lead to possible mental disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We have taken note that when she decided to leave her husband, she surmised that their children were better off with their father and not with her. This already tells us that she has also lost her confidence as a good mother to her children.Possible Safeguard to Nora's Mental Health For sheltered people like Nora, breaking out of their safe zone and embarking on a new environment is a terrifying endeavor.

They are more vulnerable to fallbacks because being independent is something that they will have to learn for themselves for the first time on their own. Coping up with stress is harder when a person is unaided.