"A Dolls House"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the marriage of Nora and Torvald in Henrik Ibsen's play 'A Doll's House', noting that the marriage is typical to the ones during the 1870's where the man wears the pants in the family and the wife basically does everything her husband tells her to do. The paper describes how Nora was raised to be completely dependent on the men in her life and, in particular, looks at how Nora must question the foundation of everything she believes in when her marriage is put to the test.

From the Paper:

"Nora had no worries of her secret coming out even after admitting it to Mrs. Linde. But her confidence quickly went away when Torvald decided that he was going to fire Krogstad from his bank. With Krogstad angry about the fact that he may lose his job, he then threatens Nora that if he indeed loses his job at the bank, that he will tell her husband about the crime she committed. Nora tries to convince Torvald to not fire Krogstad but her requests are quickly shut down. Torvald tells her, "The more you plead for him, the more impossible you make it for me to keep him on. It's already known at the bank that I am going to give Krogstad his notice. If it ever got around that the new manager had been talked by his wife......" (Ibsen 42), he doesn't want to made fun of for listening to his wife."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays. New York: Oxford, 1981
• Spark notes. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/
• About.com.<http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/dolls_summary.htm
• Gradesaver.http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/dollshouse/shortsumm.html
• Emma Goldman, The Social Significance of the Modern Drama (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1914; The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.) <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Writings/Drama/doll.html>

More papers on "A Dolls House":

• Analytical Essay # 8140 : "Ibsen's "A Doll House"
• Essay # 87734 : "A Doll House and Medea"
• Analytical Essay # 137080 : "Women's Refusal and Consent in "The Medea" and "A Doll's House"

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