The
society in A Doll’s House is
portrayed as one that inhibits personal freedom. Show the truth of this
statement using Nora.
In the text A Doll’s
House by Henrik Ibsen, the community prevents/restrains an individual from exercising
liberty in their day to day lives as seen when Nora has to work secretly and
when she is unable to make independent decisions.
The society
inhibits married women from taking a loan without their husband’s consent. During the first
year of Nora and Helmer’s marriage, Helmer overworks himself and becomes
dreadfully ill. The doctors come to Nora and tell her that Helmer is in a
dangerous condition and that they need to live in the South for him to recover.
Nora tries all means to persuade Helmer to take them to South without success.
She tells him how much she wants to live broad like other young wives. She
tries tears and entreaties and that he ought to remember the condition she is
in. She hints to him that he might raise a loan and this makes him nearly
angry. Helmer calls Nora a thoughtless woman and tells her he cannot indulge in
her whims and caprices. With no other option left, Nora devices a way out of
the difficulty by taking a loan of 250 pounds from Krogstad without Helmer’s
consent. This is against the law as Mrs Linde reminds her that a wife cannot
borrow without her husband’s consent. In the process of keeping this as a
secret from Helmer, Nora suffers anxiety to the point of contemplating suicide.
When Helmer learns about this, he abuses Nora and forbids her from raising her
own children. Nora is forced to leave her marriage.
Nora has to work in secret in
order to repay the loan that she took for Helmer’s treatment. Nora acquired a
loan of 250 pounds through Krogstad which she had to pay in installments. Nora
admits to Mrs Linde that it had not been easy for her to meet the engagement on
time and many a times she has been at her wits end. she further admits that it
has been always so dreadfully difficult to manage the instalments. She has had
to save a little here and there by not spending more than half of Torvald gives
her for shopping/housekeeping/ she has had always bought the simplest and
cheapest things but it was often very hard on her. She had had to go to an extent
of devising ways of earning money. last winter she locked herself up doing
copying work until quit late at night and desperately tired but it she felt
tremendous pleasure to work and earn money. She declares that it felt like a
man.
Nora lacks financial
freedom. After the Christmas shopping Nora is excited to inform Torvalds what
she had got for the children and the maid. However, Torvald is quick to
reprimand her by calling her a spendthrift. He asks her if she has been out
wasting money again. He tells her that they can’t spent money recklessly. He
calls her a featherhead when Nora proposes that they should borrow money until
the next quarter when his salary will be due.
Nora’s lacks the opportunity
to make independent decisions. For the Tarantella dance Torvald dictates the
kind of dress that Nora should wear during the party. Nora informs Mrs Linde
that Torvald wants her to go to the Steinborgs dressed as a Neopolitan
fisher-girl and dance the Tarantella that she learnt at Capri. Mrs Linde
observes that Nora is going to keep up the character and Nora confirms that
that is what Torvald wants of her. Torvald had had the dress made for Nora but
now it is all so torn. Mrs Linde offers to mend it as the trimming had come
unsewn here and there. When Helmer finds out the truth about Nora’s secret loan
and the forgery he is incensed and berates Nora. Nora takes off her fancy dress
and puts on her everyday dress, as a sign of liberation. She sermons Helmer to
sit down for a talk and tells him that it is a settling of accounts (P. 42 )
She highlights the fact that for the eight years of her marriage they have never had
a serious conversation on any serious subject because Helmer belittles her for
being a woman. Helmer tells her that he could not have shared with her worries
that she could not help him to bear, showing his demeaning nature.
Nora has to bear with Helmers
domineering nature for the sake of peace in their home. During the settling of accounts,
Nora informs Torvald that she had greatly been wronged, first by her father and
then by him. She tells Torvald that her father told her his opinion about
everything and she never differed from him because he would not have liked it.
He called her his doll child. She feels
that she was transferred from her father’s hand into Torvald’s. She has now
acquired his taste and arranges everything according to his taste. She argues
that she had been living with Torvald like a poor woman, just from hand to
mouth for she merely exists to perform tricks for him. She feels that a great
sin had been committed against her by Torvald and her father and it is their
fault that she has made nothing of her life.
In
conclusion, it is evident that societal limitations can hinder someone from
fulfilling their obligations.
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