In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's
House, Nora resolves to leave her husband and children, however the reasons
by the middle of the play are very different from her reasons at the end of the play.
It becomes evident by Act II that if Krogstad reveals to Nora's
husband her forgery, Nora believes it will be necessary for her to leave her husband and
children. However, her first inclination is to commit suicide in order to rescue her
husband and children from damage to their reputations. We know that Nora has resolved to
commit suicide due to her conversation with Krogstad in which he tries to persuade her
that it is unnecessary and would not ultimately help href="http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Doll-s-House2.html">(Act. II).
Furthermore, in Act III, while Torvald is in his study reading Krogstad's letter, Nora
declares "Never to see him again. Never! Never! Never to see my children again
either--never again. Never! Never!" and further cries out "Ah! the icy, black water--the
unfathomable depths" href="http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Doll-s-House2.html">(Act III). Both of
these lines indicate with certainty that not only had Nora resolved to leave her husband
and children that night, she planned to leave them by throwing herself into the river to
commit suicide in order to rescue her husband and her children from scandal over her
forgery.
However, Nora has a slight change of heart after Torvald is
angered by the letter. Torvald argues that Nora is not fit to raise the children because
she is a hypocrite, a liar, and a criminal. Because of her lack of religion and morals,
he says that he dare "not allow [her] to bring up the children" title="fullbooks.com" href="http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Doll-s-House2.html">(Act
III). Torvald's anger and narrow minded opinion makes her realize things about
herself, her husband, and the ways of the world that she had not yet
realized.
By the end of the play, Nora agrees with Torvald that she is
not fit to raise the children, but she agrees for different reasons from her husband.
Nora realizes that she is very naive about the ways of the world and even about her own
thoughts and opinions. She declares to Torvald that when she was with her father she
merely accepted her father's opinions and concealed her own. Similarly, in her marriage
to Torvald, she adpated her husband's tastes, rather than exploring her own title="fullbooks.com" href="http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Doll-s-House2.html">(Act
III). Thus, Nora has never explored her own opinions, thoughts or tastes and
feels uneducated as a result. Nora believes that before she is ready to be a wife or a
mother, she must first educate herself.
Therefore, by the middle of
the play, Nora had decided to leave her husband and children by committing suicide in
order to protect them from slander. But by the end of the play, Nora again decides to
leave her children and her husband because she realizes that she is indeed not fit to be
either a proper mother or wife due to her naivete and lack of
self-education.
No comments:
Post a Comment