“A Doll's
House"
Fifth Years are currently reading the famous Henrik Ibsen
play "A Doll's House"
Set in Norway over a century ago, the play attracted much
discussion and criticism at the time as its portrayal of relationships and the
role of women was considered quite shocking and novel at the time.
The story centres around a married couple, Torvald Helmer
and his wife Nora who have three children. Nora’s husband is a barrister
who has just been promoted to manager of a local bank, which is considered to
be a very prestigious job.
Nora’s husband treats her as if she were a child. Nora hides from him the fact that she borrowed a sum of money to fund a holiday to Italy.
Christine Linde is an old school friend of Nora’s who is now a widow. Nora is a spendthrift person but she is also very self-sacrificing towards her husband and family. She borrowed money in order that they could go on a holiday to Italy because Torvald had been recently sick.
She borrows the money from a man by the name of Krogstad who works with her husband Torvald. He is now a widower and had a relationship with Christine in the past. Nora conceals the fact that she has borrowed the money from Krogstad who is to be sacked from the Bank by Torvald for improper behaviour.
Krogstad tries to persuade Nora to intercede with her husband on his behalf in order for him to keep his job She refuses to do this, and so Krogstad writes a letter to Torvald telling him everything. However, Krogstad changes his mind due to the influence of Christine who agrees to marry him.
Torvald however discovers the letter before he hears about Krogstad’s change of mind, and denounces Nora. He decides to cover up the affair and reinstate Krogstad. Just as it is revealed that Krogstad has changed his mind, Torvald decides to forget about everything and go on as usual with life.
Nora however now has had enough and stands up to him for the first time ever and decides to leave. She does not want to be a wife who is treated like a doll in a doll’s house.
She finally leaves Torvald and her children , determined to discover who exactly she really is and what exactly she thinks about life, because Torvald had been the one who has done this for her all her life.
Some useful resources to use are:
