Question: Discuss the character of Nora Hemler in play “A Doll’s House”
Or, would you consider Nora as a tragic character – Evaluate.
Introduction
Nora Helmer is undoubtedly the most outstanding character in A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). In the play, Henrik Ibsen’s feminist attitude is revealed through the character of Nora. Ibsen artistically depicts a woman’s plight, tied to her husband’s home, through which her freedom is diminished.
Lack of personality
There is no doubt that at the beginning of the play Nora does appear to be a person without any personality and therefore a cipher. She seems to be completely and thoroughly dependent upon her husband and she behaves as if she were absolutely subservient to him. She eats macaroons without her husband’s consent but she does it in secret. Her husband treats her as a pet and she is content with her role as a pet. In short for the last eight years or so Nora has been living as Helmer’s doll wife just as under her father’s roof she had lived as his father’s baby doll.
Very submissive and loveable wife
A Doll’s House is a drama about the marital relationship between Nora Helmer and Torvald Helmer. Until the end, Nora is presented as a dutiful wife who fulfills every need of her husband and the patriarchal society. She loves her husband and does everything to make him happy. The following statement of Nora shows her love for her husband it also symbolizes her submissiveness:
“I am free from care now…to be able to play and romp with the children; To be able to keep the house beautifully and have everything just as Torvald likes it!”.
Nora’s love and respect for her husband Torvald are evident when she warns Krogstad not to say anything against him:
“If you speak slightingly of my husband, I shall turn you out of my house.”
Devoid of Freedom and self-identity
In the play, Ibsen further shows how women have been deprived of freedom and self-identity and thus become dependent on male family members in a patriarchal society:
“Torvald, I can’t get along a bit without your help.”
Torvalds’ use of anti-feminist language can also be read from a feminist perspective. He uses animal terms to describe Nora, such as ‘skylark,’ ‘ squirrel,’ and ‘ singing bird’, which implies that he does not love her equally and treats her like a pet:
“Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper?”
Life of self-denial
Nora’s happiness is dissolved by certain unfortunate happenings. From her talk with Mrs. Linde, we learn that her past life also has not been quite happy. Eight years ago, her husband had fallen critically ill and she had been forced to borrow money in order to take him to a warm climate under medical advice. Thereafter, she has been paying monthly instalments to her creditor and has been exercising the utmost economy in household expenditure, leading a life of self-denial.
More Notes: A Doll’s House
Discovery and reaction
It is at this point that the real character of Nora emerges into view. She now wants to have a serious talk with Helmer and she begins to speak to him in a very self-confident and self-assertive manner. It is now her turn to impeach and indict Helmer. She tells him that like her father he too had wronged her greatly. Her father had treated her as his baby doll and thereafter Helmer has been treating her always as his doll wife. Nora’s remarks naturally have a nagging effect on Hemler. She says that her duty to Hemler and her child is no bigger to her than her duty to herself since she first and foremost is a human just as Hemler is.
Nora: “I don’t believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are.”
So, she leaves her family to fetch out her freedom and this is the paradigm of hidden power of women.
Conclusion
Nora’s decision to leave not only her husband but also her children came as a great shock to the audiences of those days. It was a revolutionary decision. Women had always been kept in subjection by their husbands but here was a woman who had dared to challenge her husband’s authority and had walked out of her home in order to discover her own identify and establish her own individuality.
