A feminist critical analysis - Essay Example

Plays of Henrik Ibsen were considered pioneering and path-breaking pro vita of the playwright. Ibsen was called the creator of true realistic dramas, which were always tragic basically. Ibsen, framing analytical drama, revealed the profound tragedy and brutality of the world around, hidden under the outer well-being, and abilities of a strong-willed person to confront circumstances. In Ibsen’s dramas the readers and spectators won’t find exceptional people, events and characters, who act as “a mouthpiece for the author’s ideas”.

We see ordinary people with their problems and passions, accomplishments and shortcomings, who live in representative conditions of the era. The play A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is a full transition of the playwright to a new, realistic drama. This play was appreciated primarily as a work written in defense of the emancipation of women. But Ibsen mentioned that the play was more meaningful: in A Doll’s House he touched upon the central subject of his oeuvre - personal freedom in general and achievement of personhood.

At first thought, Nora, the main heroine of the play, is just a doll, a cheerful and small-minded mistress of a quiet and tidy house. Husband of Nora, Torvald Helmer, treats her not as an equal individual, but as a toy. For eight years they lived together, Torvald has never talked with Nora seriously. Torvald’s attitude to wife was vividly demonstrated in the episode when he led Nora away from masquerade right after tarantella just to “keep effect on the audience” she made by a beautiful dance.

The main thing for Torvald is to make Nora “play” by his rules. Nora did not bring up their children - she played with them as if with dolls; she was surrounded by almost toy-like objects (not by chance in the first act Nora decorated a Christmas tree). But this external well-being and carelessness opens another side of Nora’s life and unique traits of her personality. The heroine is not that simple and superficial as it might seem at first; she realizes that life is not only pleasures.

She is mature and serious; she can be cunning and work in secrecy to pay money, on which her husband’s life depended, back. A young and pretty woman saves every penny, setting a value upon family. Nora’s virility is revealed in the episode, when she dances the tarantella, knowing that Krogstad’s letter to her husband is in the mailbox. Nora is very inexperienced in financial affairs. She does not even know how much money she has already paid to Krogstad. But the fact that she ventured on her own actions makes her a strong person, not a doll.

But Nora realizes she has always been a plaything in someone’s hands. But to be funny and entertain someone does not mean to be happy. To foster a really free person, her self- esteem, she needs to throw off the doll’s mask. She decides to leave Helmer to become independent. Events depicted in the drama do not make Nora better - they only reveal previously hidden traits of her character and force to take a fresh look at her place in the family and herself. Nora is a strong personality, who is uncompromisingly fighting for personal freedom.

Therefore, the drop-scene is vague and open - Nora has not yet won, but the victory is near. Probably, a “miracle” will happen and Thorvald will change, regain Nora’s trust to create a new family and home - not a “doll” one. Works Cited Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition (5th Edition). London:Longman, 2009.