The Victorian Time period was a time of inequality between men and women; men dominated society, and women’s roles were limited to caring for their husbands, children, and the drudgery of housework. Ibsen’s realist play, A Doll’s House, is an accurate imitation of life in this era. The Bourgeoisie society was a time of internal conflict between duty to oneself and duty to others; Ibsen reveals the clichi?? s of this society through Nora’s transformation from a doll to a woman, Dr.
Rank’s character and through Torvald. Ibsen’s use of symbolism reveals the true inner nature of the characters throughout his profound play.
The Bourgeoisie society revolves around the fake mind-set that money can bring true happiness. Ibsen portrays money as a symbol of power and the determinant of a person’s rank in society; in this time period, people are born into their rank, a woman can only move up in society if she marries into a rich family. The people of this society led the belief that money is a measure of the amount of one’s happiness.
Torvald, a firm believer in reputations and the Bourgeoisie society, says: “[… ] No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.
[… ]” (Ibsen, page 4). Torvald is explaining to Nora that a happy home must be one that is debt-free, he fears that society will find out that they are in debt and they will no longer appear to have a happy home. At the beginning of the play, money is of great importance to Nora; she is a spender rather than a saver and is constantly asking Torvald for money.
As the play progresses, Nora’s true inner nature shines through; she comes to the realization that money can buy her numerous things, but money cannot buy her true love or happiness.
As she grows from a doll to a woman, she comes to the realization that happiness comes from within and if a person is not happy with his/herself, no amount of materialistic goods will bring him or her true happiness. The Christmas tree symbolizes Nora’s sense of security and is an emblem of the deceptive values generated in a doll’s house. Nora fails to recognize that the tree parallels her mind-set; it grows and changes its meaning as Nora matures from a doll to a woman. The tree is positioned in the centre of the room as her focal point and represents her true inner self, which she will discover in time.
At the beginning of the play, Nora decorates the tree and showers it with tinsel; at this point the tree represents Nora as a doll. The decorations symbolize Nora’s fake personality; she puts on a mask to please Torvald and portrays herself to be helpless and dependent on him. The more she decorates the tree, the more she decorates her personality to play the role of a typical woman in this society. As the plot thickens, Nora begins to slowly remove the decorations from the tree, as the decorations are removed, Nora’s true inner self is unveiled as she transforms from a doll to a woman.
Nora loves to eat macaroons even though Torvald does not allow it. The macaroons symbolize Nora’s willingness to disobey her husband. In act one; Torvald asks Nora if she has been eating macaroons when she had just eaten a couple. She responds to him by saying, ” I should not think of going against your wishes” (Ibsen, page 6) In this black and white society, a woman must never disobey her husband, yet Nora continues to eat the macaroons and hides it from Torvald. This proves that inside, Nora truly is independent and has the ability to lie to her husband.
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