AUTHOR- HENRIK IBSEN

TITLE- A DOLL’S HOUSE

PLACE OF PUBLICATION- COPENHAGEN, NORWAY
YEAR OF PUBLICATION- 1879

Vijay Rohan Krishna

Section—A

Serial Number-- 60
 SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
A Doll’s House opens on Christmas Eve. Nora Helmer enters her living room carrying several packages. Torvald
Helmer, Nora’s husband, comes out of his study when he hears her arrive. He greets her happily, but then chides
her for spending too much money on Christmas gifts. Their conversation reveals that the Helmers have had to be
careful with money for many years, but that Torvald has recently obtained a new position at the bank where he
works that will afford them a more comfortable lifestyle.

Helene, the maid, announces that the Helmers’ friend Dr. Rank has come to visit. At the same time, another unkown
visitor has arrived. To Nora’s great surprise, Kristine Linde, a former school friend, comes into the room. The two
have not seen each other for years, but Nora mentions having read that Mrs. Linde’s husband passed away a few
years earlier. Mrs. Linde tells Nora that when her husband died, she was left with no money and no children. Nora
tells Mrs. Linde about her first year of marriage to Torvald. She explains that they were very poor and both had to
work long hours. Torvald became sick, she adds, and the couple had to travel to Italy so that Torvald could recover.

Nora inquires further about Mrs. Linde’s life, and Mrs. Linde explains that for years she had to care for her sick
mother and her two younger brothers. She states that her mother has passed away, though, and that the brothers
are too old to need her. Instead of feeling relief, Mrs. Linde says she feels empty because she has no occupation;
she hopes that Torvald may be able to help her obtain employment. Nora promises to speak to Torvald and then
reveals a great secret to Mrs. Linde—without Torvald’s knowledge, Nora illegally borrowed money for the trip that
she and Torvald took to Italy; she told Torvald that the money had come from her father. For years, Nora reveals,
she has worked and saved in secret, slowly repaying the debt, and soon it will be fully repaid.

Krogstad, a low-level employee at the bank where Torvald works, arrives and proceeds into Torvald’s study. Nora
reacts uneasily to Krogstad’s presence, and Dr. Rank, coming out of the study, says Krogstad is “morally sick.”
Once he has finished meeting with Krogstad, Torvald comes into the living room and says that he can probably hire
Mrs. Linde at the bank. Dr. Rank, Torvald, and Mrs. Linde then depart, leaving Nora by herself. Nora’s children
return with their nanny, Anne-Marie, and Nora plays with them until she notices Krogstad’s presence in the room.
The two converse, and Krogstad is revealed to be the source of Nora’s secret loan.

Krogstad states that Torvald wants to fire him from his position at the bank and alludes to his own poor reputation.
He asks Nora to use her influence to ensure that his position remains secure. When she refuses, Krogstad points
out that he has in his possession a contract that contains Nora’s forgery of her father’s signature. Krogstad
blackmails Nora, threatening to reveal her crime and to bring shame and disgrace on both Nora and her husband if
she does not prevent Torvald from firing him. Krogstad leaves, and when Torvald returns, Nora tries to convince him
not to fire Krogstad, but Torvald will hear nothing of it. He declares Krogstad an immoral man and states that he
feels physically ill in the presence of such people.
Act Two opens on the following day, Christmas. Alone, Nora paces her living room, filled with anxiety. Mrs. Linde
arrives and helps sew Nora’s costume for the ball that Nora will be attending at her neighbors’ home the following
evening. Nora tells Mrs. Linde that Dr. Rank has a mortal illness that he inherited from his father. Nora’s suspicious
behavior leads Mrs. Linde to guess that Dr. Rank is the source of Nora’s loan. Nora denies Mrs. Linde’s charge but
refuses to reveal the source of her distress. Torvald arrives, and Nora again begs him to keep Krogstad employed at
the bank, but again Torvald refuses. When Nora presses him, he admits that Krogstad’s moral behavior isn’t all that
bothers him—he dislikes Krogstad’s overly familiar attitude. Torvald and Nora argue until Torvald sends the maid to
deliver Krogstad’s letter of dismissal.

Torvald leaves. Dr. Rank arrives and tells Nora that he knows he is close to death. She attempts to cheer him up
and begins to flirt with him. She seems to be preparing to ask him to intervene on her behalf in her struggle with
Torvald. Suddenly, Dr. Rank reveals to Nora that he is in love with her. In light of this revelation, Nora refuses to ask
Dr. Rank for anything.

Once Dr. Rank leaves, Krogstad arrives and demands an explanation for his dismissal. He wants respectability and
has changed the terms of the blackmail: he now insists to Nora that not only that he be rehired at the bank but that
he be rehired in a higher position. He then puts a letter detailing Nora’s debt and forgery in the -Helmers’ letterbox.
In a panic, Nora tells Mrs. Linde everything, and Mrs. Linde instructs Nora to delay Torvald from opening the letter
as long as possible while she goes to speak with Krogstad. In order to distract Torvald from the letterbox, Nora
begins to practice the tarantella she will perform at that evening’s costume party. In her agitated emotional state,
she dances wildly and violently, displeasing Torvald. Nora manages to make Torvald promise not to open his mail
until after she performs at the party. Mrs. Linde soon returns and says that she has left Krogstad a note but that he
will be gone until the following evening.

The next night, as the costume party takes place upstairs, Krogstad meets Mrs. Linde in the Helmers’ living room.
Their conversation reveals that the two had once deeply in love, but Mrs. Linde left Krogstad for a wealthier man
who would enable her to support her family. She tells Krogstad that now that she is free of her own familial
obligations and wishes to be with Krogstad and care for his children. Krogstad is overjoyed and says he will demand
his letter back before Torvald can read it and learn Nora’s secret. Mrs. Linde, however, insists he leave the letter,
because she believes both Torvald and Nora will be better off once the truth has been revealed.

Soon after Krogstad’s departure, Nora and Torvald enter, back from the costume ball. After saying goodnight to Mrs.
Linde, Torvald tells Nora how desirable she looked as she danced. Dr. Rank, who was also at the party and has
come to say goodnight, promptly interrupts Torvald’s advances on Nora. After Dr. Rank leaves, Torvald finds in his
letterbox two of Dr. Rank’s visiting cards, each with a black cross above the name. Nora knows Dr. Rank’s cards
constitute his announcement that he will soon die, and she informs Torvald of this fact. She then insists that Torvald
read Krogstad’s letter.
Torvald reads the letter and is outraged. He calls Nora a hypocrite and a liar and complains that she has ruined his
happiness. He declares that she will not be allowed to raise their children. Helene then brings in a letter. Torvald
opens it and discovers that Krogstad has returned Nora’s contract. Overjoyed, Torvald attempts to dismiss his past
insults, but his harsh words have triggered something in Nora. She declares that despite their eight years of
marriage, they do not understand one another. Torvald has treated her like a “doll” to be played with and admired.
She decides to leave Torvald, declaring that she must “make sense of herself and everything around her.” She
walks out, slamming the door behind her.
 OPINION
A play about women empowerment is the Victorian era is something that we don’t get to see very often. In a
time where women were suppressed to the point that they thought that their place in society was just to cook
food and take care of the children, where it was seemingly impossible to comprehend women as thinkers and
not as just dolls just fulfilling duties prescribed to them by the society, Ibsen’s play must have given the people
a refreshing perspective, however controversial.

Needless to say, I loved the play. Not only because the writer focuses on an issue which has become to
important in today’s world but also because the way in which he has brought that message to light. A Doll’s
House is an inspiring piece of literature and must have encouraged the women of that era to stand up against the
wrongs that were being committed against them. If the people had heeded Ibsen’s message at that time, maybe
feminism would not have become such a hotly contested issue in our time.

Apart for the message he’s endorsing, the prose has been presented beautifully. The writer puts forth a
compelling tale that forces the reader to put himself in Nora’s shoes and look at the prejudices she is being
subjected to through her eyes. In just three acts, Ibsen has brought to light perhaps the most troublesome
problem that that era was facing and has helped modern readers realize that the problem still exists and through
his prose encourages us to respect women and think of them as equals and not just objects fulfilling their roles.
 CHARACTERS I LIKED
NORA
In the beginning of the play, Nora seems completely happy. She doesn’t seem to mind that she is basically a
doll. But as the play progresses, Nora reveals that she is not just a “silly girl,” as Torvald calls her. That she
understands the business details related to the debt she incurred taking out a loan to preserve Torvald’s health
indicates that she is intelligent and possesses capacities beyond mere wifehood. Her description of her years of
secret labor undertaken to pay off her debt shows her fierce determination and ambition. Additionally, the fact
that she was willing to break the law in order to ensure Torvald’s health shows her courage. Krogstad’s
blackmail and the trauma that follows do not change Nora’s nature; they open her eyes to her unfulfilled and
underappreciated potential. Torvald’s severe and selfish reaction after learning of Nora’s deception and forgery
is the final catalyst for Nora’s awakening. But even in the first act, Nora shows that she is not totally unaware
that her life is at odds with her true personality.

MRS. CHRISTINE LINDE

She enters as an almost forgotten friend, a lonely widow seeking a job from Nora’s husband. As the play
progresses, events of her life are revealed and her hardships come to light. In her younger days, she had to
sacrifice love for the sake of her family. Rather than marrying Krogstad, she married a businessman, Mr. Linde,
so that she could support her sick mother and her two younger brothers. In order to sever herself from Krogstad,
she even wrote him a note saying that she didn't love him anymore. Now her brothers are grown up, her mother
and her husband are dead but Christine has survived, doing jobs here and there to eke out a living for her and
her children. A self-sufficient woman in Victorian Europe.

But when she meets Krogstad again, she is more than willing to become revert back to a wife and a mother
again because after being “free”, she has realized that freedom is just having nothing to lose and she realizes
that she cannot be happy that way. The difference between her and the other women in that era is that she and
Krogstad enter the marriage and equals.
 THEMES
MARRIAGE

The main message of A Doll's House seems to be that a good marriage is a joining of equals. The play centers
on the dissolution of a marriage that doesn't meet these standards. At first the Helmers seem happy but over the
course of the play, the imbalance between them becomes more and more apparent.

By the end, the marriage breaks apart due to a complete lack of understanding. Together in wedlock, Nora and
Torvald are incapable of realizing who they are as individuals.
WOMEN AND FEMINITY

Nora of A Doll's House has often been painted as one of modern drama's first feminist heroines. Over the course
of the play, she breaks away from the domination of her overbearing husband, Torvald. Still, throughout this
drama there is constant talk of women, their traditional roles, and the price they pay when they break with
tradition.
MEN AND MASCULINITY
The men of A Doll's House are in many ways just as trapped by traditional gender roles as the women. Torvald
Helmer being the chief example. The men must be providers. They must bear the burden of supporting the
entire household. They must be the infallible kings of their respective castles. By the end of the play, these
traditional ideas are truly put to the test.

SACRIFICIAL ROLE OF WOMEN

In A Doll’s House, Ibsen paints a bleak picture of the sacrificial role held by women of all economic classes in
his society. In order to support her mother and two brothers, Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon
Krogstad, her true but penniless love, and marry a richer man. The nanny had to abandon her own child to
support herself by working as Nora’s and then as Nora’s children’s caretaker. Though Nora is economically
advantaged in comparison to the play’s other female characters, she nevertheless leads a difficult life because
society dictates that Torvald be the marriage’s dominant partner. Furthermore, she must work in secret to pay
off her loan because it is illegal for a woman to obtain a loan without her husband’s permission. Nora’s
abandonment of her children can also be interpreted as an act of self- sacrifice. Despite Nora’s great love for her
children, manifested by her interaction with them and her great fear of corrupting them, she chooses to leave
them. Nora truly believes that the nanny will be a better mother and that leaving her children is in their best
interest.
 CONCLUSION
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is a work of literature way ahead of its time. It portrays how the society
prescribes us gender roles, how easily we’re inclined to just fit into them and how hard it is to escape them. As
people whole belong to a society where feminism and gender equality are such hotly contested issues, we can
acutely relate to the message the writer is trying to put forth. It forces us to look into ourselves and see if we do
the things Nora or Torvald or any of the other characters are doing and rectify ourselves. This book is a must
read and I recommend it to everyone.

“I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are—or, at all events, that I
must try and become one.”