Nora's Childishness example essay topic

"A Doll's House'? A"A Doll's House' Essay, Research Paper? A Doll's House? Henrik Isben's A Doll's House is the story of a man and a woman who have been married for eight years but are not really in love. Although at the first of the story we see a typical family, underneath there lies a dark secret.

Torvald Helmer, the husband, is a lawyer who has been unsuccessful in the past because he would not accept a shady case. This has put the couple and their children in a great financial struggle and this forces him to turn elsewhere for employment. He ends up working at a local bank, putting an end to the family struggle. At the start of the story we see Nora Helmer, his wife, coming in from town with several small wrapped packages and a Christmas tree. She is a very childish acting woman but on the same note, she is also very deceptive and cunning. Nora has kept a secret from her husband ever since they moved from their last home.

Torvald was very sick and Nora was pregnant with their first child. Nora's father was on his deathbed as well. Torvald's doctor confided in Nora that if Torvald didn? t move south then he was going to die. Since they hadn? t the money to do so, Nora takes it upon herself to borrow the money, which was not allowed solely by a woman.

In order to get the loan she and her father had to sign the papers. Seeing her father's condition, she forged his signature. She told her husband that the money was a gift from her father so he would not feel indebted to her forever. The money that Nora borrowed is almost paid off at this point and she was excited. Then the story takes a sudden turn. According to Maurice Valency, ?

Nora as yet the earnest and innocent child who was sure there could be no harm in forging her father's signature, provided her motives were good? (253). The man from whom she borrowed the money, Nils Krogstad, is in danger of losing his job at the bank when Torvald takes over and he blackmails Nora into convincing her husband not to fire him. Nora as a character in this story is very complex; she acts childish and na? ve to keep her secret, but by the end she is thrown into the depths of maturity in her final decision. Henrik Ibsen was born to wealthy parents who were suddenly hit by poverty in 1834 when his father's business failed. When Ibsen left home at the age of 15, he went to Grim stadt where he found work as a pharmacist's assistant (140).

After 6 years, Ibsen went to Oslo (which at that time was Christiana) with hopes of attending the university there. He was not admitted because he could not pass the preliminary exams, but that did not discourage him. Ibsen's studies lead him to classical history. This was the basis for his 1st drama, Catalina (Catiline) (140). This 1st work continued the properties that later developed into Ibsen's primary themes: individual importance and self- realization. Two females from this 1st work, Aurelia and Feria, are the two types of female present in most of Ibsen's dramas.

The 1st? dull and domestic? and the 2nd? fascinating? and? potentially dangerous.? (140). While in Christiana, Ibsen met Bjornstjerne, one of Norway's great 19th century writers. They both had a mutual respect for one another until a misunderstanding caused years of problems between the 2.

They reconciled their differences when Ibsen's only son married Bjorn son's daughter (140). In 1851, Ibsen took a job as a stage manager of a Norwegian theatre in Began where one of his duties was to write and produce at least one original drama per year. His early plays are written in verse and derived mostly from Norwegian history and legend and they indicated the direction Ibsen was to take (140). In 1862, while on the verge of a breakdown, Ibsen petitioned for grants to trend write. He got his funds in 1864, some in the form of grants and scholarships. He spent the next 27 years abroad writing and only returned to Norway twice (140).

Critics divide Ibsen's works into 3 phases: First phase his work in verse, influenced by romanticism and drawn from folk songs and love songs. The second phase consist of his plays of prose realism. This is what he is most famous for. The final phase is his works dealing with modern, realistic themes but using more symbol and metaphor (140). The 1st critics to defend his works were Bernard Shaw, Georg Brandes, Edmund Gosse, and William Archer (141).

These critics were instrumental in an over all acceptance of drama. Ibsen is credited with the introduction of the social problem to drama (140). This is why he is? Regarded as the father of modern drama, ? Ibsen brought realism and concerns to a European theater that had been circumscribed by romanticism (TCL C pg. 40). Nora's childish acts and na? vet? are how she keeps her husband from knowing what she has done.

Lou Salome says in his essay in 1892, ? Her [Nora] childishness creates her charm, her danger, and her destiny, ? (226). She exhibits her childishness and naivete in many different ways throughout the story.

We see one example of this in the opening of the story when Nora returns from town with all the packages and the tree. According to Salome, ? Christmas is a children's festival, and Nora is a child, ? (226).

She also brought macaroons, which she proceeds to hide from her husband; he fears they will rot her teeth. When confronted Torvald says, ? Surely my sweet tooth hasn? t been running riot in town today, has she?? When she replies that she has not been running riot through town, Torvald does not quite believe her.

He says, ? My sweet tooth really didn? t make a little detour through the confectioner?'s? Nor even munched a macaroon or two?? (A Doll's House 1199).

Nora assures him that she has not and that she would not dream of going against him because she had given him her word about her macaroon habit. Once again, we see Nora's childish and devious behavior come forth. John Northam's opinion backs my idea in his essay in 1960, ? She is childish [Nora] – she still loves macaroons – she is not above concealing the fact from her husband: ? (249). David Thomas further backs my idea in his 1983 essay by saying, ?

She [Nora] counteracts her husband's pompousness with kittenish flirtation and child-like acts of disobedience, ? (259). According to Brian W. Downs in his 1950 essay, Torvald does not really help Nora's childishness. In the first act Torvald is talking to Nora about her? spend thriftless? and he says she is just like her father. Downs says, ? Her [Nora] father, it transpires, an irresponsible spendthrift, brought her up with no sense of social obligation or serious thought for the morrow, while her husband, finding her a delightful companion like this, did nothing to repair the omission and, indeed, continued to treat her with the condescending playfulness less appropriate to a mother of three children than to a girl in her teens, ?

(239). Nora finds ways to stall for time to keep the truth from coming out. One way we see her doing this is by appearing to be needy and unable to carry on normal acts of living without her husband's approval or opinions. This is displayed when she interrupts him on the way to the mailbox to get the mail for the day. She knows that the letter from Krogstad is in the box explaining the whole? secret? to Torvald. Nora does not want him to read the letter so she is trying to stall for time to retrieve the letter herself.

She stalls by telling him that she can? t possibly dance the Tarantella dance at the party tomorrow until she practices with him. She leads him to believe that she has forgotten the dance. His verbal instructions were unsuccessful, so he asks Dr. Rank, a close friend, to play the piano so he can illustrate the dance to the forgetful Nora (1232-1233). Despite all of her efforts we find out later in the story that her attempts to retrieve the letter before her husband read it were futile. Of course there are more examples of her skill for deception throughout the story, but for constraints, there is only mention of two.? Nora is not quite as na? ve as she would like to appear, ? according to Hermann J. Weigand (233).

He explains that she knows more about Rank's disease than we give her credit for at the beginning. She has talked to Dr. Rank privately and knows things about his illness that Torvald doesn? t know. She knows that there is nothing they can do to cure Rank's illness. Dr. Rank confided in Nora that he didn? t want Torvald or her to fuss or cry over his death. He said that he would not tell them when the time comes because he didn? t want either of them to be in his death chamber, but he would send? his calling card marked with a black cross, ?

(Kirszner & Mandell 1224). After failing to talk to Rank and after re-evaluation Nora realizes that the situation is not going to improve, her first thought was suicide. She soon decides against this idea, making her final decision to leave the family and the household. Torvald said many hurtful things to Nora after reading the first letter. Upon reading the second letter from Krogstad, he tried repenting to her but, it was not enough to make her stay. Salome says, ?

To Nora, it seems that she had been reduced to a lapdog which was whipped and then restored to grace?? (230). She felt that the damage was already done. Nora told Torvald that their children would be better off without her because of her dishonesty. She felt for the last eight years she had been sleeping beside a stranger. Salome says, ?

Though dis tuned from reality, she gradually senses that her relationship with Torvald Helmer is that of a charming child to a parent, and not one of equals. Yet, ever more patiently, she looks for a miracle from above, ? (227). Once the miracle that she had hoped for did not come, she knew she did not love him.

Her childhood dreams and fantasies were shattered. She declined his offer for money and all ties were to be severed from that point on (1241-1250). As shown in the examples above, we see that Nora is a complex and very rounded type of character. Being the protagonist in the story, she is one of the main characters that everything is happening to. We see her transform from this childish, deceitful na? ve little girl trapped in a woman's body into a mature, responsible adult who thinks she is doing the right thing by leaving her family and friends. Nora makes this transformation and feels that she has righted all her wrongs by severing all ties.

She sees her final decision as a noble act for the betterment of those involved because of her inability to be trusted and all that had occurred. Downs, Brian. Essay Date 1950. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37 pg 239-243. Isben, Henrik. A Doll's House.

1879. Kirszner & Mandell. Literature Reading, Reacting, Writing. Fourth Edition. Harcourt College Publishers. Northam, John.

Essay Date 1960. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37, pg. 249. Salome, Lou. Essay Date 1892. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37, pg. 226-231. Thomas, David.

Essay Date 1983. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37, pg. 258-260. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 8, pg. 140-141. Valency, Maurice.

Essay Date 1963. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37, pg. 253 Weigand, Hermann J. Essay Date 1925. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 37 pg. 233-235.