Nora's Fight For Independence

Though I did enjoy reading Doll’s House in class throughout the past few weeks, I am still angered by this play.  Yes, I understand that this was in a completely different time period when ankles were scandalous and equality was a joke, but as a girl I feel as though I have a reason to be angered by the play.  Don’t get me wrong though, I am not mad at the author; he seemed to push “social norms” and shocked the crowds with his completely crazy idea that women could live their lives without men controlling them.  This play seemed to be more of a feminist play in this sense rather than a play about gaining independence.

Though the argument could be put forth that a woman just happened to be the person gaining independence out of all of the characters, we have learnt in class that this cannot by true.  If there is anything we have learnt while reading this play, it is that Henrik Ibsen never uses an object (or person in this sense) by chance; they all have a special meaning.  After thinking about the importance of every object, I decided to think about what the play would be like if it were a man in Nora’s shoes.  Once you get passed the awkward conversations between Torvald and the new male-form of Nora, it is a simple, boring play.  It would merely describe a man who was in debt and followed the same path that Krogstad did; the end.  However, the fact that it was a woman who forged a signature and withheld some debt from her husband is the reason why this play was an outrage.  After continuously being called pet names such as a “song bird” and a “sky lark” and after following every order from Torvald for eight years, Nora had reached her breaking point.  She defiantly eats macaroons when Torvald is not looking, raises money to move her and Torvald out of the country, gets herself into debt, and leaves her husband.  This defiance shows her true strength and proves that a woman can stand up for her rights and beliefs and put herself before anyone even though Torvald states, “first and foremost, you are a wife and a mother” (82).

Women were always tasked to listen to their husband and obey the commands they were given during this time period, however, when Torvald is trying to have sex with Nora after the party, she refuses.  This shows a true strength that all women can possess that even though she had been acting happy and “cutesy” around him before, if she does not want to do something she will stand her ground.

This play could have possibly made such a scene during the time period due to the men rather than the women.  If women could see just one woman stand up and defy her husband then leave as a happy woman, then there could have been a giant outcry and possibly a rebellion of women who believe in equality.  The problem is the fact that the men were scared that women could have actually attained equality if they all banned together.