Introduction
A Doll’s House is a play Henrik Ibsen which features characters such as Torvald, Norah, Dr. Rank, and Krogstad among others. The movie brings out Norah and Torvald Helmer to be the main characters in the film. At the beginning of the movie, the Helmer family seems to be happy together despite the fact that Torvald speaks to Norah in a demeaning manner yet she doesn’t appear to mind. Torvald gets a new job as a manager at a bank, and the family becomes happier since they will not have to worry about money anymore. The story also introduces Christine as Norah’s old friend who comes searching for work with hopes that Torvald will hook her up.
Plot Summary
As the film continues, Norah confesses of her debt to Krogstad to Christine but does not mention that it was Krogstad's debt. The money had been borrowed by Norah from Krogstad to fund a one-year family trip to Italy hence it was warmer in Italy as per the doctor’s prescription to Torvald who had been sick from overwork. Apparently, Krogstad was an employee of the bank before Torvald took over and as the manager, he replaces Krogstad with Christine. Krogstad becomes furious and threatens to expose Norah’s debt and the manner in which it was acquired if Norah would not convince her husband to let Krogstad keep his job. Torvald refuses to say that Krogstad was a dishonest employee who forged signatures and that Torvald disliked and despised such people saying that they should not be allowed near the kids since they would corrupt the kids. Torvald’s statement makes Norah freak out to the extent that she doesn’t want to go near the kids afraid that she would corrupt them.
The film also introduces Dr. Rank as a family friend to the Helmer’s and depicts that he is dying from Tuberculosis. Also, the situation between Norah and Krogstad worsens since Krogstad sends a blackmail letter to Torvald who doesn’t open it since they have a party to attend with Norah. In the process, Christine and Krogstad agree to get married on condition that Krogstad does not harm Norah’s family and Christine suggests that Krogstad should not withdraw the blackmail letter so that the truth in the family can be revealed. When Torvald learns of Christine’s past actions, he is furious with her to the extent of not allowing her to be with the kids and is also afraid of the blackmail until Krogstad assures them that he has withdrawn the extortion. Torvald forgives Norah, but she insists on leaving claiming that she had never been anything more than a doll in Torvalds' eyes and that their marriage was not genuine.
Character Analysis: Norah Helmer
i. Physical Aspect
In Scene 1, Trovald berates the physical appearance of Norah by calling her his ‘little sweet tooth’ when he was asking her, “Has my sweet little tooth been indulging herself in town today by any chance (Isben 9)?” As such, Norah was depicted as little in the eyes of her husband and probably even in those of the audience. This demeaning goes to the extent that she sneaks macaroons to avoid eating them in front of her husband for the fear that he might not approve.
More so, Torvald is particularly clear on Norah’s figure claiming that she ought to stay dainty, small and delicate. This aspect brings out the male’s role in their society where it depicts that the male should always be superior and in control. It doesn’t matter to Torvald whether it was Norah’s image he was to control or the forgery of Norah’s father’s signature since the act angers Trovald a lot. According to Torvald, his reputation and that of Norah are the most crucial things in the world and should be guarded against harm by all means (Isben)
ii. Moral Aspect
Norah is depicted as such a loving and caring wife to Torvald. She learns of her husband’s illness and the degree of seriousness from the doctor, and she is advised to ensure that they take a holiday trip to a warmer region since it is the only means of saving her husband’s life. Since the family was not wealthy, she decides to take a loan to fund their trip to Italy to save her husband’s life. She even goes to the extent of forging her father’s signature and trying to pay off the debt on her own later when Trovald gets better. She sacrifices herself that much despite her feeling of being denied freedom by both her father and her husband where she says, “I passed out of daddy’s hand into yours (Isben 56).”
Also, she is a loyal and faithful friend. When Christine approaches her requesting her to ask her husband to hook Christine up with a job, she is completely confident in her husband’s decision and assures Christine saying, “And so he shall, Kristine. Just leave things to me (Isben 14).”
Norah is also seen to be tenacious and daring. This is brought out by the part where she forged her father’s signature to acquire the loan. It took a fearless person to go against the law to save someone she loves
iii. Societal Aspect
Ibsen displays Norah as both wise and childish where these aspects have emerged to be her strongest qualities. Her wisdom is not based on knowledge acquired from books nor those from doctrines. This aspect has been proven by the instance where her practical education was injured by her father and her husband yet she was able to retain enough native wisdom to identify and confront emergencies. She can think of forging a signature to acquire the loan she seeks to save her husband hence showing how unsophisticated and independent she is at thought (Isben 45).
Also, she can discern that her duties to her family come before anything else in the world through taking the risk of going against the law to save her husband’s life. As such, despite the society’s aspect of a man being superior and control over women, Norah proves that the society’s norms were not more important than her family since the society would not be complete and whole if people did not look after their families.
iv. Psychological Aspect
Norah is introduced in the play as a quite a cheerful and happy character as she goes around her duty of preparing for Christmas. In reality, Norah is far from being happy due to the secrets she is hiding from her husband as well as the burden she has to bear of paying a loan she borrowed for her husband’s sake. She sacrifices herself too much for her husband and even goes to the extent of breaking the rules through fraud to acquire the loan to save her husband’s life. To show how much she cares, she says that, “And besides, how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything! It would upset our mutual relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is now (Isben 23).”
To make matters worse, her suffering is intensified when she realizes that her husband loves only himself and his image and does not love his wife as much. Social attitudes and gender roles are all her husband cares about. Torvald says that “From this moment happiness is not the question; all that concerns us is to save the remains, the fragments, the appearance (Isben 101)." Torvald is not only ashamed of Norah’s actions but is also afraid of the damage to his reputation that would result from their divorce. As a result, Norah is unable to withstand the psychological suffering she had been going through and decided to walk out on her marriage, her children, and the dollhouse as a whole.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the essay has successfully analyzed the main character in the play, Norah, basing the discussion on the four levels of characterization which include the societal, psychological, moral, and physical aspects. Norah is displayed as a wise, strong, tenacious, daring, loving and caring individual who goes to extreme ends to save her husband’s life yet he does not appreciate any of her actions and instead reprimands her for them. As such, she opts to finally walk out on her marriage since she grown tired of being treated like a doll and wants to be independent.
Works Cited
Ibsen, H. A doll's house: A play. 2018.
Watson, C. N. Characters and characterization in the works of Herman Melville. 2013.
