::: A Slap On The Male Dominated Society :::. Review on A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen

Is it wrong for a wife to save her dying husband? Can you blame her if she values her husband’s life more than the law? Once the husband has been saved, should he shoulder the problems of his wife or put her at fault for breaking the law? Isn’t the husband supposed to see that the law was broken out of her love for him and not for the joy of it?

Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian dramatist and poet, wrote A Doll’s House in the year 1879. It was a tight slap on the face of male dominated society, which worked on separate ideologies for males & females rather than on the principle of equality. This play was a big shock for the 19th century Europe, and was labeled as “indecent” and “scandalous”, just because the mere idea of women liberation was something very stodgy.

In Germany, the theme was considered so aberrant, that Ibsen was asked to change the whole ending of the play. He described it as “an act of barbarous violence against the play”, but preferred to write the ending himself rather than let anyone else, lay hands on his work. In the edited ending, the female protagonist yet once again surrenders in front of the male ego, much to the relief of the masses.

But when the play had to be displayed an year later in Italy, Ibsen refused to allow the altered ending, and switched back to the original ending, since the very purpose of his play was to improve the condition of women in the society and it was possible only through the original ending which was very bold in nature.

~ Main Source Of The Play ~

This play is based on a real life incident of Ibsen’s friend Laura Kieler. Her husband fell ill with Tuberculosis and the doctors advised that he should be taken to a warm climate. But since they had no money, so, she secretly took a loan from the bank and was able to save her husband. To pay off the loan she hastily wrote a manuscript and sent it to Ibsen so that he could recommend it to a publisher. Ibsen advised her in these words, ”In a family where the husband is alive it can never be necessary for the wife to sacrifice her heart’s blood as you have done. It is unthinkable that your husband knows everything, so you must tell him, he must take on his shoulders the sorrows and problems which now torment you.”

Laura was quite disappointed and frustrated, thus, she forged a cheque to pay off the loan. But it was discovered and her angry & unsympathetic husband sent her to a mental hospital. After two years, he had a change of heart and decided to take her back.

This unfortunate incident affected Ibsen deeply and he was inspired to write “A Doll’s House”, to promote the idea of a housewife’s craving for personal freedom & self-realization.

~ Plot Of The Play ~

There are five main characters in the play – Trovald Helmer, Nora, Dr. Rank, Mrs. Kristine Linde and Nils Krogstad. Helmer is a lawyer but he is recently appointed the manager of a bank. Nora is Helmer’s wife and the main protagonist around whom the entire play revolves. Dr. Rank is their family doctor and a close friend of Helmer & Nora. Mrs. Kristine Linde is an old friend of Nora and Nils Krogstad is an employee in the bank in which Helmer is appointed.

Helmer and Nora are a happily married couple with three children. Once Helmer was seriously ill and Nora had to a forge her father’s signature to take a loan & save him. She copied the sign since her father was on a deathbed at that time. Helmer was saved and Nora secretly kept working to pay the loan, without his knowledge, so that his male ego doesn’t feel insulted. Everything was going smooth, till one fine day, when Helmer comes to know of her forgery. She was very worried because she thought Helmer would take the blame on himself and would be behind the bars to save her. But what happened next was quite an unimaginable shock for her! What was the shock? How she deals with it? Do read this classic to get the answers.

~ Characters Of Nora And Helmer ~

Nora is the heroine of the play & the most complex character of them all. She is an enigma. On the one hand, she is a dutiful, unimaginative, spendthrift wife; while beneath the cover-up she has borrowed money and enslaved herself in order to save her husband. Similarly, she didn’t mind flirting with Dr. Rank every now and then but when Dr. Rank proposes his love towards her, she considers it immoral. She craves for freedom and unlike Helmer she is of a very sacrificing & helpful nature. Her weakness lies in her inability to deal with others, because she is unaware of the ruthless outside world, which would not submit to her tears, airs of superiority or romantic notions of duty. Having very high opinion of her motives, she doesn’t believe that she has done anything wrong in forging her father’s signature to save her husband. Nora, though deriving from a much closer and realistic setting, is raised to a mythic level in the climax.

Helmer was a specimen of a middle-class husband. He treated Nora as his possession and a pet. He wasn’t someone who could inspire confidence in others. He was quite selfish and a man without feelings. He treated Nora as an ornamented sex object. When his best friend Dr. Rank was dying even then he wanted to make love to Nora. He used to dress her like a Capri fisher girl and made her dance, for arousal. Shades of incest can also be seen, since Helmer reinforced her girlish and immature ways, and treated her just like Nora’s dad used to treat her. This play would have been a tragedy if Helmer was not so comic and ridiculous. His language & poses are too melodramatic. He is also an example of weakling. He wants to live according to the ideals of responsibility, moral courage and leadership, but these are too demanding and hence he fails. Although this play highlights the problems of women in a male-dominated society, through Helmer, the play reveals that men have social roles that are often beyond their capacity. Nora and Helmer are both victims of the conventional feminine & masculine roles in society.

~ A Doll’s House – Aptness Of The Title ~

The word “doll” means a woman who has no mind or will of her own, “A Doll’s House”, therefore, means a house in which there lives such a woman. Nora is the doll in this play. When she was in her father’s home then he used to treat her like a doll and impose his thoughts on her. And after getting married just the owner of the Doll changed (from her father to Helmer) but her life didn’t. In return, she too used to treat her three children like a doll. This title is apt from Helmer’s position as well, since in a way he is as humanly undeveloped as Nora, and he too can be called a doll.

~ Highly Recommend ~

I highly recommend this book to all those who think that females are inferior to men, in any way whatsoever.

© Tanmay Singh, 2005