A doll's house Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A doll's house - Essay Example Her identity has always been established by her husband Torvald who treats her as one of his responsibilities. Nora at the start of the play seems happy and does not mind her doll like existence and responds to the teasing of her husband affectionately. With the progression of the play various facets of her intelligent and courageous nature is highlighted which is far removed from the inauthentic â€Å"silly girl† her husband thinks her to be. She took a loan to preserve her husband’s health and this proves very clearly that she was intelligent and possessed qualities that were beyond mere wifehood. All her life she lived under the care of her father and later her husband thus she is inexperienced in the ways of the world. Over the course of the play she emerges as a strong and authentic individual who refuses to be a doll and rejects the false union of marriage and the burden of motherhood, telling Torvald in no uncertain terms that, "Ive been your wife-doll here, just as at home I was Papas doll-child."(1608) Her childhood friend Mrs.Linde comes into her life after losing her husband and mother. Her life is filled with poverty and struggle. She is hard working, practical, sensible and very down to earth. Her adherence to the norms of society provides a perfect foil to the impetuous nature of Nora. Her view of the world is practical whereas Nora’s views are childlike. Mrs. Linde is a perfect foil to Nora’s exuberance as well as to her feminist ideas which erupt at the end of the play. Mrs. Linde is an archetype of the woman of those days, whose qualities Michael Meyer has described as â€Å"stuffy Victorianisms. She looks forward to the label of a wife, even if it means marrying the rascible Krogstad. She has been the dutiful daughter who nursed her sick mother until her death, whereas Nora had no such filial emotions and