Doll house Realism

8/12/2019 Doll house Realism

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Discuss about realism in a dolls house.

Henry Ibsen is known as the father of modern Drama. This drama of his highlights

the social problems faced by the people of his times, which are still prevalent in

most of the societies of the world today. He portrayed the sufferings and the

injustices caused by male chauvinist attitude towards the woman, which robbed

them of countless blessings which the females of todays world enjoy and hold

dear and protect them from encroachment and also he portrayed many of societys

ills, depicting real life situations and happenings that take place commonly. In

1800sand the time before the 19thcentury, the society snubbed the idea of girls

receiving education and working side by side with male members of their society.

They were looked upon as homemakers and were expected to handle the affairs

and the workings of their houses. This treatment of women was highly gender

biased as males were looked favourably upon than the women as the main

contributors in the society. They were expected to be subservient to their husbands,

providing them comfort and raising their children. Henry Ibsen has realistically

portrayed the settings of the house i.e. giving description of the house, things

placed in it, the induction of characters to support the plot , the vernacular diction

and the treatment of the protagonist of this play Noraby the hands of her


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husband, who never takes Nora seriously and treats her as a little child and

dismisses her feelings and suggestions on serious matters, as something of an

annoyance or gullibility on the part of Nora. At the beginning of the play, when

Nora returns back home from her shopping for Christmas day, she is called names

like My little Squirrel and Skylark, which tells us about the non-seriousness of

Helmer acknowledgement of his wifes existence. He treats her as someone who is

fragile, nave, prone to making mistakes and thinks she needs to be guided by

letting her hold his finger. This shows that Nora was fully dependant on the whims

and wishes of Hemler, who took advantage of her simpleness and the most

surprising thing is that,Nora herself admitted to being the Skylark and the little

squirrel of her husband. This shows that she was mentally and emotionally

dominated by her husband. We can sense a high level of fear palpable in the

dialogues, where Nora is highly fretful about pleasing her husband and winning his

happiness. If we specifically compare the mindset and the verbal degradation of

Nora by the hands of her husband, one can easily find such male chauvinist

behavior commonplace in our own society, where women are oppressed and are by

physical threats or psychological fear subdued to live according to the wishes and

desires of their male partners.

Another important aspect of realism in this drama is money. In the starting

dialogues, the readers are let known that Helmer is intrigued by the spending of


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money by Nora and how Nora gets happy when Helmer gives her 40 krones, so

that she can spend it on the household items, especially during a busy holiday

season such as Christmas, but he refuses to lend her any more money for her

shopping for the Christmas, telling her that she is a poor decision maker and wont

buy things for herself, but will rather spend it all on the household items. And

another instance of monetary example is when Nora borrows a huge amount of

twelve hundred dollars to save the life of her husband and moves south to Italy, so

that Helmer convalesces. But she never tells her husband of the loan she took from

Krogstad, fearing that Helmer will be extremely displeased with Nora and will hate

owing anything to Nora because of feelings of humiliation, that Nora had the

audacity to do anything without his approval. This tells us that any decision taken

by a woman without the consent of the male family member is frowned upon and

isnt liked at all. The man according to the chauvinist mindset, believes that he

alone is man enough to make the big decisions and that such actions by a woman

will be seen as a very bold move and it has the magnitude to unbalance the power

hold of a man upon a woman because financial matters are seen as very important

matters and it is a very powerful chip that one holds to show his superiority to the

other person. In case of a woman, a husband might hurt his wife by withholding

money or giving her very little of it. It is an another tactic that can be used and is

applied in most cases, to make the woman dependant on the man and to control her


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life. A male chauvinist will certainly be jealous if females were independent

financially, because this gives the woman a way out of a tormenting and abusive

relationship. Thus, let a controlling man have no control over her. In this play,

Nora used money given by Helmer to buy her own personal stuff on repaying her

debt and also worked as a copywriter to earn money when things became hard. Her

working to earn money was a great joy to her, as it inculcated a great desire in her

to be appreciated and treated on equal footing like every other earning man is.

Nowadays, in most conservative societies, especially in Pakistan and other Arab

countries, the notion of sisters or wives working is shunned upon, however it is not

so rampant as the times are changing, but still such cases exist. The most glaring

picture of male and female inequality exists in Saudia Arabia, where women arent

allowed to drive a car and are prosecuted if found driving.

When Mrs. Linde is offered help by Nora, in finding her a job at her husbands

workplace and the conversation, that takes place between Dr. Rank and Mrs.

Linde, where she tells him that she is here to meet Nora to find work and infers

that she is overworked and tired. When Dr. Rank questions about her being

overworked and finding work at the same time, Mrs. Linde responds One must

live. Doctor. This tells us about the hardships that is being faced by Mrs. Linde

and if we look around us, we find almost everyone whose survival and the survival

of their loved ones depends on their livelihood and to maintain that livelihood, one


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has to work, irrespective of their age or their gender. It is mostly the lower class

and the middle class, that is dependant on everyday income or monthly income, as

they have no saving or financial security to keep them fed and clothed. In the

scene, where Krogstad informs Nora about the fake signature of his father, which

she has deliberately forged and tells her that in the court of law, she can be found

guilty and punished. It tells us of the consequences of cheating, especially those of

a financial nature, and how one can be tried for such an act and certainly this

matter will bring much disgrace to a persons reputation and standing in the

society. The law is the law and Nora, according to that time didnt really grasp the

whole implication of such an act and blinded by the love and the life of his

husband took this extreme step. But the question here arises is that should

everyone make bad choices or make bad decisions that are in defiance to the sacred

laws of the society? These laws are present to protect people from any false

usurpation of their properties by others. Here I found in this scenario the moral

implications of Noras act in general. There cant be no justification for breaking a

law laid down for the protection of people. If everyone started to cheat and lie to

get some sort of benefit, then the society as a whole would be a treacherous place

to live and would lose its sense of moral and ethical righteousness. Even if we look

at the reasons presented by Nora that the society has no right to judge a persons

self doing to save a husbands life is an erroneous thinking. No matter what may be


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the circumstances, one cannot present his or her reasons or excuses for breaking

the law. The law doesnt fluctuate according to ones needs and conditions. While

talking about Krogstad, Helmer suggests that a man should redeem his character by

professing his guilt and accepting punishment for his deeds. This is a very

important statement by Helmer because it shows that society as a whole doesnt

like malpractices and moral corruptness committed by the people. And if anyone

wants to change themselves and mend their crooked ways, they need to be

courageous as to accept the faults in them and try to rectify that irresponsible

behavior, which is at odds with the societys moral and ethical limits. This shows

us that society as a whole loves peaceful and tranquil coexistence between its

subjects and wants to uphold the highest standards of moral up-righteousness as to

offer a safe place where every individual is treated equally and fairly and wrong

doers are punished, as to mitigate immoral practices impact on the society and stop

letting its roots develope in a society. The scene where Nora asks her husband to

keep Krogstad keep his position at the bank, but he declines, saying that Krogstad

is corrupt and is also his childhood friend and doesnt respect him as he should, by

not calling him on first name basis and also not liking people judging and talking

about him on his back as he has gotten influenced by his wife in order to retain

Krogstads services at the bank. This shows that Helmer like any other man, is

very much intended to keep his reputation intact and respectable in the eyes of


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others. If any man has to make a tough decision, regarding the atmosphere of well-

being and transparency at his workplace, he would do so without any external

pressure and will not like any interference from anyone to influence his decision to

the contrary. This play borders on taking the right decisions and following the best

exemplary route to tackle a problem, taking into account its results and its

repercussions on a mans surroundings and his relations with other people. Since

Nora hasnt workedin an office type environment all her life, she takes Helmer

complaint of Krogstad calling him on first name-basis as a petty reason to fire

someone from his job. Its hard to make anything of tough situations if one hasnt

been in them and its easy to criticize without knowing anything about it. Another

aspect mentioned in the play, is that of blackmail of Nora by the hands of

Krogstad, who deliberately wants to control Nora for his own means. By holding

on to the bond document with forged signatures, he makes Nora life insufferable,

telling her that he would bring in open the secret Nora is hiding from her husband

and how he would command Helmer to do things for him, which would be against

Helmers wishes. This gives us the notion of how blackmailing someone is a very

cruel act, as it shows that a person who is being blackmailed is just like a puppet in

the hands of a blackmailer and what sort of mental and psychological changes it

causes a person to develope. For example, Nora is living in constant fear because

of Krogstad threats of telling her husband, about the debt and forgery. From the


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start of the play, we can sense that Nora is living happily, but when Krogstad

enters the play, it's easy for us to see that Nora is very restless and emotionally

tormented. Her whole personality is changed and she becomes very quiet in

expressing her emotions, and she feels extremely embarrassed and guilty about the

whole ordeal. And when Krogstad drops the letter in the letter-box for Helmer to

find out the truth, Nora is utterly devastated mentally and acts impulsively mad

while rehearsing for the dance for the next day party. She simply doesnt want to

let Helmer go anywhere near the letter-box and succeeds him in preventing to read

the letter for the day.

When Krogstad meets Mrs. Linde before the final confrontation between Nora and

Helmer, Krogstads complains about Mrs. Linde leaving him for marrying another

man and Mrs. Linde has her reasons. The whole dialogue between the two tells us

that life is a practical thing, where everything counts. Merely love is not enough to

keep the two lovers in life together, there are more things that demand a persons

immediate attention as well. As in case of Mrs. Linde, she had a sick mother and

two brothers to care about, and she couldnt possibly think about taking care of

them by marrying Helmer, who wasnt well-settled by that time. So she had to

make a practical and rational choice at that moment, by weighing the love for her

family with that of Helmer and she chose the best course of action by marrying a

rich man, who helped her take care of her mother and two brothers. We can see


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these sort of instances happening all around us and it reminds us of always having

a practical approach to life and not to live in mere illusions and fantasies of the

mind.

Now coming to the end of the scenario taking place between Nora and Helmer, the

whole scene is disturbing as to see Nora completely changed and lacking empathy

for everyone involved in the relationship with her. The violent outbursts of Helmer

upon reading the letter and the subsequent decision of his, that how it would be

hard and impossible for both of them to make matters normal and how to procure

the happiness lost and broken into fragments and how he would limit his wife, for

not going anywhere near her own children, for fear she would be a bad influence

on them. Now in this whole situation, Helmer instead of trusting and being there

for his wife, shows his weakness by lashing out at Nora for his own insecure

future, as to how he would be a puppet in the hands of Krogstad and he would have

to follow every command of him. This also shows us that he doesnt really love

Nora, for love means to sacrifice oneself for someones happiness and safety but

here, Helmer is totally concerned and frightful about his own reputation not

thinking what hell Nora is going through or went through. Here, he shows that he

is a coward and a person who stays with a person as long as times are good. For

taking on a wife is a life long commitment about protecting and taking care of her

through thick and thin times. The way Helmer treated in this ordeal gives me a


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feeling that her importance to him was that of a stranger. No matter whatever may

happen to her, she brought to her own self, the misery upon her. Then, if this may

be the situation, then Nora is free to sort out her life on her own without the

guidance and love of Helmer. And this is what she exactly did by leaving Helmer,

so that she may find her own identity in the world. This portrays the separation of

husband and wife and tells of their indifferences that cant be settled because one

or both of there are not going to change themselves, so that a marriage may work.

Taking someone for granted and keeping them subdued or failing to offer a healthy

environment where a person may continue to nourish his mental and spiritual well-

being is just like caging a bird. You may get to listen that bird sing, but once the

opportunity arises and the cage door is opened, expect that bird to free herself from

a miserable life.

Conclusion:

Its a very powerful play delineating the life and behavior of a husband and wife.

The husband failing to treat her with love and always expecting her to love him, no

matter how badly he treated her sends the reader a very powerful message. If we

want to keep people in our lives who we love and cantpossibly think to spend life

without them, we need to be easy in our dealings with them and we have to show


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our love and appreciation for them and let them know that their existence occupies

a vital position in our life and heart. Getting married and expecting from one

person to hold all the responsibilities and in return suspecting their good intentions

of being helpful and accusing them of misdoing is a very childlike behavior and

shows us the insecurities of a man, which he ought to have solved from the very

beginning of the relationship.

Doll house Realism

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