I.

INTRODUCTION
A. Brief biography of the author ( Henrik Ibsen)

Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, in Skien, Norway. In 1862, he was exiled to Italy,
where he wrote the tragedy Brand. In 1868, Ibsen moved to Germany, where he wrote one of
his most famous works: the play A Doll's House. In 1890, he wrote Hedda Gabler, creating one
of theater's most notorious characters. By 1891, Ibsen had returned to Norway a literary hero.
He died on May 23, 1906, in Oslo, Norway.

Childhood

As a child, Henrik Ibsen showed little sign of the theatrical genius he would become. He grew up
in the small Norwegian coastal town of Skien as the oldest of five children born to Knud and
Marichen Ibsen. His father was a successful merchant and his mother painted, played the piano
and loved to go to the theater. Ibsen himself expressed an interest in becoming an artist as well.

The family was thrown into poverty when Ibsen was 8 because of problems with his father's
business. Nearly all traces of their previous affluence had to be sold off to cover debts, and the
family moved to a rundown farm near town. There Ibsen spent much of his time reading,
painting and performing magic tricks.

At 15, Ibsen stopped school and went to work. He landed a position as an apprentice in an
apothecary in Grimstad. Ibsen worked there for six years, using his limited free time to write
poetry and paint. In 1849, he wrote his first play Catilina, a drama written in verse modeled after
one of his great influences, William Shakespeare.

Unlike many other writers and poets, Ibsen had a long and seemingly happy marriage to
Suzannah Daae Thoresen. The couple wed in 1858 and welcomed their only child, son Sigurd,
the following year. Ibsen also had a son from an earlier relationship. He had fathered a child
with a maid in 1846 while working as an apprentice. While he provided some financial support,
Ibsen never met the boy.
 B. GOOD SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE WORK
(Dolls House)

When the play opens, it is Christmas Eve, and we find that Torvald has just been promoted to
manager of the bank, where he will receive a huge wage and be extremely powerful. Nora is
thrilled because she thinks that she will finally be able to pay off the loan and be rid of it. Her
happiness, however, is marred when an angry Krogstad approaches her. He has just learned
that his position at the bank has been promised to Mrs. Linde, an old school friend of Noras
who has recently arrived in town in search of work, and he tells Nora that he will reveal her
secret if she does not persuade her husband to let him keep his position. Nora tries to convince
Torvald to preserve Krogstads job, using all of her feminine tricks (which he encourages), but
she is unsuccessful. Torvald tells her that Krogstads morally corrupt nature is physically
repulsive to him and impossible to work with. Nora becomes very worried.

The next day, Nora is nervously moving about the house, afraid that Krogstad will appear at any
minute. Her anxiety is reduced by being preoccupied with the preparations for a big fancy-dress
party that will take place the next night in a neighbors apartment. When Torvald returns from the
bank, she again takes up her pleas on behalf of Krogstad. This time, Torvald not only refuses
but also sends off the notice of termination that he has already prepared for Krogstad,
reassuring a scared Nora that he will take upon himself any bad things that befall them as a
result. Nora is extremely moved by this comment. She begins to consider the possibility of this
episode transforming their marriage for the betteras well as the possibility of suicide.

Meanwhile, she converses and flirts with a willing Dr. Rank. Learning that he is rapidly dying,
she has an intimate conversation with him that culminates in him professing his love for her just
before she is able to ask him for financial help. His words stop her, and she steers the
conversation back to safer ground. Their talk is interrupted by the announcement of Krogstads
presence. Nora asks Dr. Rank to leave and has Krogstad brought in.

Krogstad tells her that he has had a change of heart and that, though he will keep the bond, he
will not reveal her to the public. Instead, he wants to give Torvald a note explaining the matter so
that Torvald will be pressed to help Krogstad rehabilitate himself and keep his position at the
bank. Nora protests against Torvalds involvement, but Krogstad drops the letter in Torvalds
letterbox anyway, much to Noras horror. Nora exclaims aloud that she and Torvald are lost. Still,
she tries to use her charms to prevent Torvald from reading the letter, luring him away from
business by begging him to help her with the tarantella for the next nights party. He agrees to
put off business until the next day. The letter remains in the letterbox.

The next night, before Torvald and Nora return from the ball, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad, who are
old lovers, reunite in the Helmers living room. Mrs. Linde asks to take care of Krogstad and his
children and to help him become the better man that he knows he is capable of becoming. The
Helmers return from the ball as Mrs. Linde is leaving (Krogstad has already left), with Torvald
nearly dragging Nora into the room. Alone, Torvald tells Nora how much he desires her but is
interrupted by Dr. Rank. The doctor, unbeknownst to Torvald, has come by to say his final
farewells, as he covertly explains to Nora. After he leaves, Nora is able to deter Torvald from
pursuing her any more by reminding him of the ugliness of death that has just come between
them, Nora having revealed Dr. Ranks secret. Seeing that Torvald finally has collected his
letters, she resigns herself to committing suicide.

As she is leaving, though, Torvald stops her. He has just read Krogstads letter and is enraged
by its contents. He accuses Nora of ruining his life. He essentially tells her that he plans on
forsaking her, contrary to his earlier claim that he would take on everything himself. During his
tirade, he is interrupted by the maid bearing another note from Krogstad and addressed to Nora.
Torvald reads it and becomes overjoyed. Krogstad has had a change of heart and has sent back
the bond. Torvald quickly tells Nora that it is all over after all: he has forgiven her, and her
pathetic attempt to help him has only made her more endearing than ever.

Nora, seeing Torvalds true character for the first time, sits her husband down to tell him that she
is leaving him. After he protests, she explains that he does not love herand, after tonight, she
does not love him. She tells him that, given the suffocating life she has led until now, she owes it
to herself to become fully independent and to explore her own character and the world for
herself. As she leaves, she reveals to Torvald that she hopes that a miracle might occur: that
one day, they might be able to unite in real wedlock. The play ends with the door slamming on
her way out.

II. ANALYSIS:

A. PLOT
 B. CHARACTERS

a .Nora Helmer The central character, who is a "doll" for her husband to dress up, show off, and
give direction to. She is childlike, romping easily with her three children. wife of Torvald, mother
of three, is living out the ideal of the 19th-century wife, but leaves her family at the end of the
play.
b. Torvald Helmer Nora's husband, a bank manager, who was once gravely ill and needed to
go to a southern climate to improve his health.

c. Christine Linde An old family friend of Nora's, Christine is a widow who was once engaged
to Nils Krogstad.

d. Nils Krogstad A lawyer and moneylender who is a former acquaintance of Torvald's and
works at his bank; his position is tenuous there, because he ruined his reputation and career by
committing forgery. Dr. Rank calls Krogstad "morally diseased."
 e. Dr. Rank a rich family friend, he is secretly in love with Nora. He is terminally ill,
and it is implied that his "tuberculosis of the spine" originates from a venereal
diseasecontracted by his father.

f. The Children Nora and Torvald's children: Ivar, Bobby and Emmy

g. Anne Marie Nora's former nanny, she now cares for the children.

h. Helene the Helmers' maid

i. The Porter delivers a Christmas tree to the Helmer household at the beginning of the
play.

C.SETTING

The Helmers' Living Room

Victorian Era
Norway
The play is set in Ibsen's native Norway, the characters don't spend a lot of time talking
about things that are specifically Norwegian.
The Helmers' living room is typical of any "respectable" middle-class room you might've
seen at the time. The choice of making the setting a bit generic is no accidentit
allowed audiences everywhere to immediately superimpose their own lives onto the lives
of the Helmers. Because of this, there was no place to hide from Ibsen's message of a
necessary spiritual awakening.
And when we say hyper-repressed, we mean hyper-repressed. Back in ye old Victorian
Era, talk of sex and even babies was distasteful. Gender roles were more confining than
a corset. Women were expected to be submissive to their husbands; husbands were
expected to dominate. Women raised the children; men brought home the bacon. Case
closed.

D. POINT OF VIEW
A Doll's House is limited third person with a near proximity.

We call point of view third person when we see speech and action, but
never learn any thoughts of the characters. Ibsen's play focuses on the
 character Nora, but only from an outsider's perspective. Because we, the
reader/viewer, have not become one with Nora, but still remain outside of
her perspective, observing her, we can say that we are not observing her
from the first person, but from our own point of view, the third person.
However, since Nora is the character that we focus on the most, we can
also say that it is a limited third person point of view. We can tell that Nora
is the main character, or main focal point, because she is the character
who opens the play and is in every scene until she walks out the door

With distant proximity the reader/viewer does not learn anything further
about the character than what the reader/viewer reads or sees. However,
with near proximity narration the reader/viewer has the opportunity to
read/observe a central character making side remarks. We see Nora
making some side remarks in both acts I and III.

F. SYMBOLISM

Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree is delivered in Noras flurry of excitement for Christmas. It symbolizes family
happiness and unity, as well as the joy Nora takes in making her home pleasant and attractive.
At the beginning of Act Two, the tree has been stripped and the candles burned out; the stage
directions dictate that it should look bedraggled. This represents the end of Noras innocence
and foreshadows the Helmer familys eventual disintegration.

Macaroons

Torvald has banned Nora from eating macaroons. Although Nora claims that she never
disobeys Torvald, this is proved false in the very opening of the play when Nora eats macaroons
while she was alone in the living room. The macaroons come to represent Noras disobedience
and deceit. She lies to Dr. Rank about having been given some by Mrs. Linde, and after giving
a particularly tempestuous performance of the tarantella asks that macaroons be served at
dinner, indicating a relationship between the macaroons and Noras inner passions, both of
which she must hide within her marriage.
 The Tarantella

Like the macaroons, the tarantella symbolizes a side of Nora that she cannot normally show. It
is a fiery, passionate dance that allows Nora to drop the faade of the perfect mild-mannered
Victorian wife. Throughout the play, Nora uses performance to please Torvald, and the
tarantella is no exception; he admits that watching her perform it makes her desire her.
However, this is only under very controlled circumstances, and Torvald seems to enjoy the fact
that it is a performance that impresses other people more than anything.

The Dolls House

There are a few mentions of dolls houses early on in the play, for example
when Nora shows Torvaldthe dolls she bought for her daughter, and says that the fact that they
are cheap doesnt matter because she will probably break them soon anyway. This is interesting
as it suggests that Nora is raising her daughter for a life similar to Noras own, yet
simultaneously foreshadows Nora breaking up her family life by leaving Torvald. When Nora
plays with her children she also refers to them as her little dollies. However, it is not until the
end of the play that the metaphor becomes explicitly clear. Nora tells Torvald that both he and
her father treated her like a doll, and cites this as one of the reasons why she has become
dissatisfied and disillusioned with her life with him.

Realism
Ibsen is often thought of as the grandpappy of realist drama. Other playwrights wrote in
this genrelike Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, and O'Neillbut Ibsen was the pioneer.

In realist drama, the characters talk in a close approximation of everyday speech: no

one is waxing poetic with "thees" and "thous" and no one interrupts a domestic moment
to give a speech on, say, flowers. It's no big shocker that this trend stuck around. The
vast majority of modern plays, TV shows, and movies are written in a similar style...
though most fail to rise to the same level of social critique.

Check out this snippet of dialogue:

MRS. LINDE: "You must not forget that I had a helpless mother and two little brothers.
We couldn't wait for you, Nils; your prospects seemed hopeless then." (3.22)
Straightforward? Oh yes. Conversational? Yeppers. Concerned with normal, everyday
things, instead of, say, the fate of a nation? Yessirree Bob. This is some Ibsen-caliber
realness being dished out.

A little lit history snack: realism shouldn't be confused with its cousin, Naturalism.
Though the two styles were being developed around the same time, they have some big
differences. Basically, Naturalism was just a lot more hardcore about representing
everyday life exactly as it was: characters might talk on and on about nothing in
particular and the plays might have no obvious climax. This could be a little on the
yawn-worthy side, but hey: it's pretty dang natural.

Realism, however, is unafraid to be a little unrealistic. Look at A Doll's House. Sure the
characters talk in a generally conversational way, but the plot is obviously and
unapologetically contrived. There are melodramatic devices like top-secret letters. The
doorbell rings at convenient times, bringing trouble for Nora. People enter and exit just
when Ibsen needs to move on to the next scene and bring on new ideas.

This kind of staging wasn't a bad thing, in Ibsen's mind. His goal was to examine ideas
and to challenge individuals to really think about their society... not to present
photographic reality