A Dolls House - Nora and Gender Identity - Research Paper Example

A Doll’s House: Nora and Gender Identity. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is an in-depth exploration of gender roles and female identity. It may be considered a criticism of gender-ordained societal roles and rules of conduct. It deals with the nuances of gender relationships in the nineteenth century. The action of the play centers on the character of the protagonist, Nora. Ibsen constructs his drama on the foundation of Nora’s relationship with her husband, Helmer Torvald. A Doll’s House tells “the story of Helmer and Nora, which will travel from apparent gaiety, through anxiety, to recrimination and then disaster, reaching a type of painful revelation” (Sidall, 12). Nora’s character is the fulcrum of the play and shows multiple facets. She is caught in a web of forgery, blackmail and the threat of public exposure. She comes up against the painful truth of Ibsen’s perception that, “There are two kinds of spiritual laws, two kinds of conscience, one in men and a quite different one in women. --- but the woman is judged in practical life according to the mans law, as if she were not a woman but a man” (qtd. in Archer). As the three acts of the play unfold, Nora reacts to the changing circumstances of her life. These reactions are an expression of Nora’s search for gender identity and her rebellion against the unfair strictures of the society in which she lives. In her search for self-identity, Nora’s role changes from that of the happy homemaker to the frightened victim and finally to that of the independent individualist. As A Doll’s House begins, Nora is seen in the role of the happy homemaker, who is content to be a wife and mother. She makes her entrance as a stereotypical housewife, delighting in the domestic arrangements for the approaching Christmas celebrations and laden with shopping. Nora lives in a comfortable home with servants, friends and three lovely children. Her life appears to be a round of music and dance. She takes pleasure in this life, telling Mrs. Linde, “Kristine! its good to be alive and happy!” (Ibsen, Act 1). Kristine accepts this public image of Nora as a pampered, society woman saying, “you know so little of the burdens and trouble of life” and telling her “You are a child, Nora” (Act 1). Nora is very much “a silly, lovable female” (Templeton, 29), who is to play the perfect foil to Helmer’s responsible, mature male. In her husband’s opinion, Nora is a “little featherbrain” (Act 111). She is a spendthrift who is totally irresponsible about money and needs to be lectured on the virtues of thrift. She is considered so immature that she cannot even be trusted to guard her own teeth against decay. She is forced to hide her macaroons from her husband in child-like subterfuge. Nora appears to be a frivolous, carefree woman, whose husband calls her “you helpless little mortal” (Ibsen, 44) and who needs to be shielded and protected by him. The gender roles are so emphatically delineated, that Nora and Helmer almost seem to be caricatures of the nineteenth century husband and wife. Ibsen paints the Torvald’s relationship in such a way that “Gender is simplified in order to define the marital roles: men work and women play; the husband is responsible and well-informed, while the wife as a grown-up child decorates his life charmingly (Sidall, 13). Nora is Helmer’s “little lark” and “little squirrel” (Act 1). Helmer is exceedingly condescending in his attitude towards his wife. Nora says that he considers “it was his duty as my husband not to indulge me in my whims and caprices” (Act 1), and she appears to concede that Helmer is right in this attitude. She willingly plays up to his expectations of her role as a clinging, helpless ‘doll-wife.’ However, it is soon clear that this Nora, who is content to be an ornamental wife, is only the superficial aspect of her character. It becomes evident that under this varnished surface there is another Nora. This Nora is a woman of unexplored depths who shows flashes of personality and character. In fact, the reader is given an early glimpse of this woman when Nora makes her entrance at the beginning of the play: Nora “goes cautiously to her husband’s door and listens.” This checking to see if Helmer is in demonstrates that Nora has a calculating streak in her character which is belied by her outward silliness. She is very much her own woman: she eats macaroons against Helmer’s strictures, artfully wheedles money out of him to pay her debt, and skillfully hides her financial needs and economies under the guise of the incorrigible, “sweet little spendthrift” (Act 1). Her husband is ignorant of her debt for eight long years. She hides the copying work she takes on under the guise of “making ornaments for the Christmas tree” (Act 1) and the credulous Helmer accepts this. He is easily manipulated by her feminine wiles. Nora is confident of her ability to bend him to her way. When Kristine asks her help in securing a job at the bank, Nora replies, “Just leave it to me; I will broach the subject very cleverly --- I will think of something that will please him very much” (Act 1). She willfully puts on a façade of tears, entreaties, pretty words, fancy dress and dance, which completely takes in her husband. She deliberately strokes his ego, just as she strokes his hair, in order to get her way. When she wants to buy time and prevent Helmer from checking the letter box, Nora flatters her husband saying, “Everything you do is quite right, Torvald,” to which he smugly replies, “Now my little skylark is speaking reasonably” (Act 11). She is aware that this is the way to please her husband and keep his love. She admits to Krisitne that all her “dancing and dressing up and reciting” are but wiles to keep her husband’s love (Act 1). Nora reveals her true character to Kristine: “But “Nora, Nora” is not so silly as you think” (Act 1). Even as she says, “Yes, Torvald, I cant get along a bit without your help” (Act 1), she is capable of controlling her husband, dealing with Krogstad, and manipulating Dr. Rank. However, her self-image of being “a wife who has the wit to be a little clever” (Act 1) takes a beating when she realizes the gravity of the hold Krogstad has on her. As the web of deceit and blackmail closes round her, Nora becomes a victim. She comes face to face with society’s legal strictures, which she has not understood earlier. She finds it difficult to accept that her forgery is considered a crime, and the compulsions which drove her to it will not be taken into consideration as exonerating factors. Nora asks Krogstad, “is a daughter not to be allowed to spare her dying father anxiety and care? Is a wife not to be allowed to save her husbands life?” (Act 1). Nora moves from her disbelief that “The law cares nothing about motive” (Act 1) to a true awareness of the vulnerability of her position. The Nora who disdainfully declares in Act 1, “What do I care about tiresome Society?” changes into the desperate woman of Act 11 who realizes that “A woman cannot be herself in modern society. It is an exclusively masculine society, with laws made by men, and with prosecutors and judges who judge feminine conduct from the masculine standpoint” (Sidall, 54). Nora first attempts to sweet-talk Helmer into retaining Krogstad at the bank, offering to be Helmer’s little squirrel and his skylark, and to “play the fairy and dance for you in the moonlight” (Act 11). When this fails, she pleads with him - also to no avail. Nora then considers asking Dr. Rank for help, but is held back when he confesses his love for her. Her love for Helmer will not allow her to let him sacrifice himself for her. Nora is particularly horrified at the thought of being a corrupting influence in her children’s’ lives. She is devastated by Helmer’s words regarding dishonesty in the home: “Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil” (Act 1). Nora capitulates, and decides to end it all. She considers suicide as the way out of her predicament. However, once Nora perceives the truth of Krogstad’s assertion, “Have you forgotten that it is I who have the keeping of your reputation?” (Act 11), she is aware of the futility of suicide. Even when she grasps the magnitude of her error, Nora keeps her faith in Helmer’s promise that he is “man enough to take everything upon myself.” and his assurance that they will confront any difficulty together: “We will share it, Nora, as man and wife should” (Act 11). She trusts to Helmer’s love and holds fast to her husband’s protection. Nora implicitly believes that Helmer will sacrifice himself to save her reputation. She, in turn, is determined to prevent this sacrifice, and holds Kristine to be her witness to the fact that she alone is guilty: “I, and I alone, did the whole thing” (Act 11). The revelation that Helmer is more concerned with his public status than with her grief is Nora’s moment of epiphany: “His rush of anger suddenly forces her into a new understanding: she is realizing not what she has done but who her husband really is” (Sidall, 38). The contrasting manner in which Nora and Helmer view her crime of debt and forgery is Ibsen’s strongest statement yet to demonstrate the difference in the moral code of the male and the female: to Nora, the sacrifice she has made is “my secret, which has been my joy and pride” (Act 1); on the other hand, Helmer is repulsed by the same act and condemns “The unutterable ugliness of it all!” (Act 111). Nora’s passionate justification, “I have loved you above everything else in the world” is dismissed callously by her husband, who says “Oh, dont let us have any silly excuses” (Act 111). Again, Ibsen’s perception of two kinds of spiritual laws and consciences, based on gender, is unequivocally seen in Helmer’s assertion, “But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves,” and Nora’s response “It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done” (Act 111). Helmer shocks her into understanding the importance he attributes to the public and social world outside the home. Nora is absolutely devastated when she realizes that Helmer’s moral code is entirely founded on societys expectations, and he has no identity outside his socially defined role. She perceives that Helmer is not willing to sacrifice his social position and honor for her sake. Her own sacrifice to save his life is thrown back at her by her husband, who sees her as “a hypocrite, a liar--worse, worse--a criminal!” (Act 111). Helmer makes it clear that salvaging his public image is the only important thing and her feelings are immaterial to him. Her husband is completely under the stricture of his social class and his love for Nora is subordinate to social expectations As Nora realizes that her idealization of Helmer is false, she again makes a transformation: this time into the coldly independent mature woman of Act 111. Nora unequivocally sheds her role as Helmer’s “little scared, helpless darling” in Act 111. It is clear that “Law, finance, probity in business, a man’s image in the world, the horror of scandal – these never appear on stage in the play but they are nonetheless real and powerful, and they force Nora outside the comfort of her doll’s house” (Sidall, 52). Nora realizes for the first time that she is living in a make-believe world. She accuses her father and husband of turning their homes into play rooms in which she is the pampered child-doll who performs tricks to entertain the men: “But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child” (Act 111). Nora is now the woman in search of self-realization. By making Nora deliberately shed her assumed persona of the doll-wife, “Ibsen attacks a society in which the husband is permitted to dominate an immature and undeveloped wife, a society which will allow a woman to reach adulthood without educating her to a realization of her own potentialities and capabilities” (Jacobs, 428). Her very opinions and beliefs have been accepted unquestioningly from her father and her husband, and the only guide to her behavior has been her desire to give pleasure to them. Nora now understands that she has a duty to herself. This duty transcends her duties as a mother and wife. Nora is now the symbol of Ibsen’s belief that “women no less than men possess a moral and intellectual nature and not only have a right but also a duty to develop it” (Templeton, 32). Nora declares her intention of educating herself about every aspect of life, from morals to religious beliefs. She accepts her ignorance of the world in which she lives but is determined to understand it and face it on her own terms. Above all, she resolves to be true to herself in her search for self-realization. Nora’s change from a ‘doll-wife’ to the woman in search for self-identity is reflected in the flow of A Doll’s House. The play moves from the light-heartedness of Act 1, to the tension of Act 11, and the resolute climax of Act 111, in accordance with the changes in the character of its protagonist, Nora. Nora begins as a vacuous, characterless doll who performs tricks to please her husband. Underlying this façade, the reader is aware of the calculating woman who skillfully manipulates the men in her life to have her own way. Her naïve attitude towards her debt and forgery reveal her ignorance of the practical world of men. As Nora becomes aware of the significance of social strictures and rules, she loses the complacent happiness of her domestic life. The home which earlier seemed beautiful and happy to her is now seen in the light of a playroom. Nora is now society’s victim and she panics. It is her faith in Helmer’s love which anchors her. When this faith proves to be unfounded, Nora is transformed once again. She becomes a woman who is conscious of her faults and, at the same time, she recognizes that her father and husband are also to be blamed for her errors. She bravely confronts the fact that her marriage to Helmer is a sham. It is a marriage without true love and mutual respect. . Finally, Nora courageously chooses to break out of the role enforced on her by a patriarchal society. She resolves to leave and stand alone while she learns to understand herself completely. Nora’s character mirrors that of every woman searching for a meaningful identity. A Doll’s House is Ibsen’s assertion that self-knowledge and honesty are paramount in life and are equally important to men and women. Works Cited. Archer, William. “A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen 1879”. Translation and Introduction. Triton College website. 2012. Web. 15 April 2013 http://academics.triton.edu/uc/files/dollshse.html Jacobs, Elizabeth. “Henrik Ibsen and the Doctrine of Self-realization.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 38 (Jul., 1939), pp. 416-430. JSTOR. Web. 15 April 2013. Siddall, S. H. Henrik Ibsen : A Dolls House.  eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). ISBN: 9781847600592. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. Templeton, Joan. “The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen.” PMLA, Vol. 104, No. 1, (Jan., 1989), pp. 28-40. JSTOR. Web. 15 April 2013 Read More