Thursday, December 4, 2014

What is the lesson of the play "A Doll's House"?

I'm assuming that I can address the theme in response to your question.  Ibsen wrote plays that dealt with taboo subject matter of the time, such as the place of women in society, venereal disease, marriage, double standards, etc; "A Doll's House" features all of these issues.  

The play examines the marriage of Nora and Torvald Helmer, and lets us watch as Nora finally grows up and sees the world as it is.  She faces the double standard of her inability to borrow money (even to save her husband's life), she faces the fragility of her position when being blackmailed, and she ultimately faces the inequality of her marriage.  

One of the strongest moments in the play that expresses one of Ibsen's themes (lessons) comes when Torvald tells Nora that she shouldn't expect that a man to sacrifice his honor for the sake of his wife.  Her response is that "millions of women have".  Ibsen really was ahead of his time - to suggest in 1879 that marriage should be a partnership and that a woman had the right to place her own needs above others in order to be a complete person.

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