@ Didgeridoo
Or anyone can review my essay... I want to cut some redundancy of this essay, but fail...
Prompt
For your third English 1B wirting assignment I want you to write a critical analysis of what Henrik Ibsen says about love and marriage in A Doll's House. What question does he raise about marriage (true marriage and otherwise)? And how does he answer these questions in the play? In writing this essay, please consider all love and marriage relationships, including those of Mrs. Kristine Linde and Nils Krogstad as well as of Nora and Torvald Helmer. What do you think Nora (or Ibsen through her) means by "true marriage"?
Essay:
In "A Doll's House," Henrik Ibsen tactically manipulates the relationships between Nora and Torvald Helmer, Kristine Linde, Nils Krogstad, and Dr Rank to make readers question what true marriage is. He uses Nora's forgery to reveal the personalities of each character and answer this question.
At the beginning of Act 1, Nora, the protagonist of the play, is a typical Victorian housewife who believes that ture marriage is based on obedience. She demonstates filial piety as a daughter, fidelity and obedience as a wife, and responsibility as a mother. When Torvald tells her not to eat too macaroon, she says, "I wouldn't dream of going against your wishes" (1602). On the contrary, her husband Torvald is a confident, powerful, and successful man. He will become the manager of bank after the new year. In his opinion, to have true marriage, a husband should be the model of his wife and breadwinner. To show his dominance, he frequently calls Nora "Little squirrel," "Little skylark," or "Little songbird."
However, is Nora just a little helpless animal? Ibsen says, "No." Torvald wants Nora to completely obedient to him and not have opinion of her own, but she does have her own thoughts, even if she never expresses them to Torvald. Nora somethimes reveals a desire to defy Torvald. Although Torvald forbids her to eat macaroons, Nora loves them and finds excuses to let herself eat more.
Despite her little struggle for personal space, Nora really loves Torvald. When both her father and husband are very sick, she chooses to save her husband instead of her father. She raises money on her own for a trip to Italy to save him. However, in fact, her father does not leave any money for her. Nora forges his signature in order to borrow money from Krogstad. She then lies to Torvald by saying that the money is her father's inheritance. Here, we can see Nora is willing to violate the law and jeopardize and reputation to save her husband. She is not a helpless and delicate squirrel but brave eagle.
As the plot develops, the conflict gradually manifests itself. Nora is blackmailed by the antagonist Krogstad because he is going to be fired by Torvald. He wants Nora to persuade her husband to retain his job. Nora promises that she will because she does not want him to reveal her secret to Torvald. However, despite her efforts, she fails to convince Torvald to retain Krogstad's job. Because Torvald cares so much about his career and reputation, he thinks that a true marriage should be all about him too. From their diologues, we know that Torvald considers his reputation more important than everything else. He regards Krogstad as dishonest, immoral, and tricky because he has a reputation for committing forgery. He also cannot tolerate Krogstad calling him by his first name at the bank, even though they used to be good friends. Now that he has decided to fire Krogstad, he knows that his reputation will be affected if he rescind his decision. Although Nora is the one he loves, he cannot sacrifice his honor for her. In fact, he loves his career more than he loves Nora. His final decision to fire Krogstad puts Nora into a hopeless situation. Krogstad puts a letter revealing Nora's secret into the mailbox. Before Torvald knows everything, Nora tries to remain composed, seeks for help from Kristine, and speculates that a miracle will happen. Korgstad's blackmail also drives her to think more deeply about her own marriage and makes her more mature.
In Act 3, after the masquerade ball, Torvald brings Nora home early and says, "Why shouldn't I look at my dearest treasure? At all the beauty that is mine, all my very own?" (1640). Ibsen implicitly questions how should a husband treat his wife in a true marriage. Here, Torvald obviously treats Nora as his beautiful doll, which to leads to their seperation at the end of the play.
When Torvald discovers from Krogstad's first letter that Nora forged her father's signature to borrow money, the play reaches its climax. His internal selfishness, meanness, and hypocrisy emerge, as Dr. Rank once states, "Helmer's sensitive nature makes him completely unable to deal with something ugly" (1626). Instead of thanking Nora for her sacrifice to save his life, he furiously censures her and considers her as a criminal. He does not even allow her to raise their children.
Torvald knows that he must find a way to appease Krogstad in order to maintain his reputation at the bank. He never takes Nora's feeling into account. Ironically, throughout the whole play, he often claims that he will sacrifice everything to protect Nora. For instance, he says, "Nora, I've often wished you were in some kind of serious danger, so that I could risk everything, even my own life, to save you" (1642). Yet when Nora's crime comes to light, he only thinks of how he can save himself. However, when he knows that Krogstad returns the debt note, his attitude completely changes. He happily says, "I am saved!", demonstrating his selfishness.
The play comes to its resolution. After seeing how Torvald behaves, Nora realizes that Torvald never loved her; instead, she says "You just thought it was pleasant to be in love with me" (1646). Here, Nora realizes that true marriage is not tolerance or obedience, but understanding and respect. She has transformed into a mature, independent, and determined woman. She is brave enough to express the unhappiness in her eight-year marriage to Torvald and points out why she does not love him anymore. she stresses that she is a human and not a doll. She no longer wants to be played with by Torvald or live in this "doll's house." She decides to leave Torvald and her children in order to start her new life. When Torvald hears that Nora has decided to leave him, he attempts to negotiate with her to stay with him like a brother and sister and admits his fault; he does this to keep his reputation as a good husband in people's eyes. Nevertheless, he fails. By the end of the play, he has undergone a metamorphosis from a successful man to a sad man. Torvald realizes that only having a successful career and good reputation cannot bring him happiness; true marriage is as important as a successful career.
Nora and Torvald look like a sweet couple but end up separating. In fact, their marriage is naive because they do not understand each other. According the whole play, we can see that Nora focuses on reality while Torvald focuses on appearance. They are inherently incompetible. Ibsen uses their story to answer that true marriage is not tolerance or obedience, but mutual understanding and respect. (I need this paragraph as a conclusion of the marriage of Nora and Torvald)
As for Kristine and Krogstad, their experience is completely different from that of Nora and Torvald. Kristine, who is the foil of Nora, is a mature, responsible, and hard-working widow. After her husband dies, she has to work all day to support herself. Krogstad, the antagonist of the play, is a widower with children who works at the bank. Though he initially blackmails Nora to retain his job, he is not really a villain. Like Nora, he commits forgery and sacrifices his reputation because he needs money to support his family.
Kristine and Krogstad used to be lovers. However, Kristine selflessly chooses filial piety. Accodring to Kristine, she leaves Krogstad because she needs money to raise her younger brothers and take care of her mother. At the beginning of Act 3, Ibsens questions that should marriage be sentimental or rational? Kristine and Krogstad tell us that it should be rational. Both Kristine and Krogstad are shipwrecked people. They finally come together because they can support on each other. Kristine earns money for the family while Krogstad takes care of his children. Therefore, their marriage is mature and rational. Here, Ibsen implies that true marriage does not need to be sweet, but it does need to be practical.
Kristine and Krogstad seperated a long time ago, but finally reunite. Their marriage is mature and stands the test of reality. They both lose their spouses, depend on each other for survival, and are candid to each other. Unlike Nora and Torvald, they both confess their past and understand what each other needs. Krogstad, unlike Torvald, does not feel ashamed to lose his job and look after his children at home. And even though Kristine is a woman, she is willing to work and support Krogstad and his children. They are both selfless and responsible. Hence, Ibsen uses the story of Kristine and Krogstad to answer that true marriage is sacrifice and responsibility.
