A Doll House by Ibsen - Book Report/Review Example

Full The Meaning of “A Doll House” A doll house is a little girl’s play thing. In it, there are fancy things that a girlcan manipulate. The characters can be made up by the child and oftentimes, the family members that are created to live in a doll house are nice, loving and perfect. They have very ideal characteristics and attitudes that make the child playing, happy and satisfied with the characters that she creates. This kind of life and manipulation is very evident in the play entitled, “A Doll House” (Ibsen). There are several aspects of the image of the family portrayed in the play that explains the title and this is what the paper is all about. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, we are going to consider in detail how the contents of the play explain the reasons behind the title and how it also explains the end to the story. In the first two acts, it is noticed that the conversations of the couple, Mr. and Mrs. Helmer, are always light and lively. As the story begins, one can see that Mr. Helmer is quite sweet and lavishes his wife with good things. He pampers his wife and never fights with her despite the initial presentation of the character of the Mrs. Helmer. A reader easily praises the man who seems to be very patient and kind but rather despises the wife because she seems to be a spendthrift who is able to get the things she wants by using her beauty and charm. Such is often the case or situation of family members in the mind of a child who plays a doll house. They are not simply charming and sweet but they also act with all the niceties and never the bad attitudes evident in real life situations. Further in the story, it is revealed that the wife has been going through difficult situations on her own for most of her married life. She suffered a lot in trying to save her husband. However, the husband never learned about her sacrifices because she did not like him to feel that his manhood has been destroyed by his inability to provide for his family. Due to her great love toward her husband, Mr. Helmer borrowed money without her husband’s knowledge, wanting to save his life and keep him away from troubles. She worked hard through the years wanting to pay off her debt, not telling about it to her husband even when he was already able to help her pay off the debt. The very reason why she did this, as she reveals it to her friend Christine, is because she did not like to offend her husband and have him feel betrayed and angry at her. This is another explanation to the title because in a doll house, as mentioned earlier, there should no offense that exists in the house. Instead, everything that happens should be wonderful and pleasing. As the problems unfold in the story, Mrs. Helmer still tries to conceal her secret from her husband. Unexpectedly, her debtor appears as an unscrupulous character trying to build up his reputation. Unfortunately for Mrs. Helmer, she is suddenly confronted with a problem that she never expected will come to her life, destroying the perfect family she created. She tries to manipulate her husband regarding the man’s demands but Mrs. Helmer quickly finds out that she is not really as influential toward her husband as she wanted to believe. Her request is not given but instead the husband the very opposite of what Mrs. Helmer asked and she had to suffer the consequences of her desire to save her husband during their early married life. Consequently, she thought of things that she might never had imagined to cross her mind, about running away from her family or worse, killing herself, if only to escape the destruction of her family because of a mistake that she committed in trying to save her loved ones’ lives. Again, we see the desire of the woman to still make things work well in the house and save her family even if it meant the end of her life. Toward the end of the story, when the husband finally learned about his wife’s debt and the forgery that she committed, Mr. Helmer rashly uttered words against his wife that made her see the other side of the man he fought for. When the man received the letter of his wife’s debtor informing them about his decision of pardoning her of the mistake she made, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Mr. Helmer once again turned into the sweet loving man that he always presented himself to be and informed his wife that they could simply forget everything that happened and they are going to start anew. However, such idea was not easily accepted by Nora. She already made up her mind and something transpired between them that night that made her even more decided to leave her children and husband. Before finally leaving, Nora asked her husband to sit and revealed the very picture that makes clear the title of the play. Nora tells her husband, “We have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?” Mrs. Helmer finally realized that as a wife, she has not been playing the role of a real wife and mother. Instead, she became the puppet of her husband, who acts according to how she knows she would be able to please her Mr. Helmer so that no fights or disagreements occur between them but that they will always have a perfect, peaceful relationship. Finally, Nora realized that the relationships she had with her father and husband were not out of love but manipulation. Although Mr. Helmer was shocked to hear from his sweet wife the accusation that he never loved her wife, he finally had to agree with her when Nora vividly presented the nature of their house. She says of her father, “When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would have not liked it. He called me his doll child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls” (Ibsen). From these, readers are given a glimpse of how Nora was treated in her own home. She was manipulated to do just the very things that his father would have her to do. She was expected to act and think in the way that her father did. In other words, she was not taught to think on her own and when she had her own thoughts and opinions, especially those which were unlike her father’s ideas, she had to keep them to herself. She is then perceived to be a person whose thoughts and actions were controlled by her father’s desires just like how a girl controls the actions of her characters in a doll house. As Nora continues, she explains that her marriage life was not any different when she was in her father’s house. She further says to her husband, “You arranged everything according to your taste, and so I got the same tastes as yours, else I pretended to” (Ibsen). This clearly shows manipulation in its most subtle way. Mr. Helmer doted on her wife and pampered her so that she will act according to his desires. However, when he finds out that her wife actually have not been doing the things that she expected her to be, his mask fell off and his true colors were shown. It was then that Nora finally understood her role in the house. Her words, “I have existed merely to perform tricks for you” (Ibsen), further shows how things have been made clear to her when she finally saw how his husband reacts at a time when his reputation is at stake. Consequently, she realized that she actually was never happy living in the house with her family for eight years since her marriage. Nora even went on to describe the house as a “playroom” (Ibsen) where she has been his husband’s doll wife and her children were her dolls. She further explains this by bringing to mind how she remembers what great fun they had as Mr. Helmer played with her. Similarly, she thinks her children think it is great fun when they are playing with Mrs. Helmer. She then goes on to say that their marriage has always been a game and Mr. Helmer finally agrees with her explanation but not absolutely. However, whether the husband fully agrees or disagrees with his wife, it did not matter because Nora made up her mind that she is leaving her family for her to find the real meaning of life and stop playing games. Therefore, just as any game, Mr. and Mrs. Helmer’s doll house game has to end. Unfortunately, their game ends not in “they lived happily ever after” mood but in sad way just like in a doll house play when the child gets tired and abandons her doll house. In conclusion, it could be said that this story may be fictional but in many angles, it portrays a lot of truth in many families and other relationships. People are social beings and so they naturally want to be likeable. However, in the process, they tend to use manipulation as the main characters in the story showed. This may not be a good thing but it is a fact that is seen in many relationships. What is discontenting about such situation is the end result of having future generations passing the same social problem to their children. Therefore, this story should help people’s eyes about the truth that it reflects in every relationship so that every individual should decide to cut the trend and just be realistic. Love should not manipulate and accept people when they act according to their desires but it should be taking and accepting others despite their incapability and flaws. Read More