Henrik Ibsen

Lavrin refers to him as "a walking encyclopedia of bourgeois virtues" (Lavrin 77). Torvald appears to attempt deliberately and consciously attempt to establish his respectability and adherence to middle-class values. As Lavrin states, "he basks with relish from the halo of his respectability--an unconscious hypocrite" (Lavrin 77). The reader, however, senses inside opening scene with the play that Torvald does not take his wife seriously.

Nora exists for Torvald as being a doll or a pet (Lavrin 78). The opening scene introduces Torvald and Nora in a playfully affectionate dispute about Christmas presents and property expenditures:

Torvald: As soon as did my squirrel get in?

Nora: Just now. Do arrive in, Torvald, and see what I've bought.

Helmer: Can't be disturbed. Bought, you say? All that there? Has the tiny spendthrift been out throwing income close to again? (Ibsen, Act I).

Basically, Torvald scolds Nora with endearing pet names, laughs at what he takes to become her amusing feminine logic, and treats her being a spoiled child. Hjalmar Boyesen observes a moderation during the dialogue at this stage with the play that intends to depict the situation as truthfully as possible with out approaching caricature, yet recognizing its absurdity (201).

Torvald's very first reaction to discovering Nora's subterfuge in fact saves her. He calls her a liar along with a hypocrite, a worthy daughter of the dishonest father (Ibsen, Act III). He further declares her being unfit for your education of her children, and he laments his own ill-fortune in being married to her. Thus, he strips from her the only roles in which society will accept her. His functionality in generating so is to separate himself from what he views being a tainted and tainting influence. He selfishly appears after himself by effectively denying Nora's worth like a woman. Since society has no other measure by which to judge Nora, Torvald has in essence denied Nora's humanity.

Thus, whatever feminist reading a single gives the play, Ibsen's stated intention was to address the ethical and spiritual reasons without the need of which marriage remains a mere "living together" (Lavrin 79). Nora's sudden awakening to this sort of a simple fact makes her go away at the end on the play. She finally realizes that marriage ought to be the arena in which the difficult but rich work of self-realization is conducted (Lebowitz 216). Naomi Lebowitz, for example, argues how the location of genuine marriage is 1 in which both members from the partnership come into their individual prior to coming together. This is, undoubtedly, what Ibsen would agree to be the true intention of marriage. The marriage he depicted, however, was his perception of what marriage had become, given the dominance with the male in current society. Thus, the marriage he portrayed served being a location of protection in the requirements of self-realization (Lebowitz 216).

When Nora throws off her fancy dress costume and turns to confront Torvald, she directs a bitter indictment against her father and against him because they've treated her like a thing, a toy, a doll.

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