freedol Pain of Freedom in Ibsens A Dolls House :: Dolls House essays

The Pain of Freedom in A Doll’s House Three Sources In Henrik Isben's play, A Doll’s House, the characters of Nora Helmer, Kristine Linde, and Nils Krogstad suffered to achieve their freedom. A woman of the Victorian period, Nora Helmer was both a prisoner of her time as well as a pioneer. In her society women were viewed as a inferior to men and were not provided full legal rights. Women of that era were expected to stay at home and attend to the needs of their spouse and children. Nora was a free spirit just waiting to spread her wings; her husband Torvald would constantly disallow the slightest pleasures that she aspired to have, such as macaroons. Nora lived a life of lies in order to hold her marriage together. She kept herself pleased with little things such as telling Dr. Rank and Mrs. Linde; "I have such a huge desire to say-to hell and be damned!" (Isben 59) Just so she could release some tension that was probably building inside her due to all the restrictions that Torvald had set up, such as forbidding macaroons. The need for her to consume these macaroons behind her controlling husband's back was a way for her to satisfy her sense of needing to be an independent woman. Upon the arrival of her old friend Kristine Linde, Nora took it upon herself to find her friend a job since she had gone through a lot in her life. She asked her husband Torvald, who also happened to be the new manager at the bank if Kristine could have a job and he responded with an afirmative response. Mrs. Helmer had also stated that she had single handedly saved her husband's life when she took out a loan for his benefit. However, in those days women were unable to get a loan without their husband's consent or another male's signature, so Nora took it upon herself to forge her father's signature in order to secure the welfare of Torvald. She saw it as her obligation as a loving wife to break the law so she would be able to save a life, especially when it was the life of her husband. Others though saw it as a criminal offence; Nils Krogstad for example accused Nora of violating the law to which Nora replied: This I refuse to believe.