A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
My little skylark. My little squirrel. My pretty little pet. These are the condescending nicknames Torvald Helmer has for his wife Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s drama A Doll’s House. The nicknames manifest his dominance and inclination to superiority over Nora, whom he treats as his doll- totally succumbed to his control . The inequality of power in their relationship and consequential loss of self for Nora, inspires her to renounce her role as Torvald’s wife (more suitably his doll) and mother of his children in order to supply her own meaning to life. Her moral conflict incited by Krogstad, and the repercussive, yet ultimately enlightening effects on her marriage established the rationale for which she walked off in the middle of a winter night, slamming the door of her family’s home behind her.
Nora’s contemplation of the morality behind her decision to forge her father’s signature to obtain the funds to save Helmer’s life leads to her distress in the role as Torvald’s wife. [that’s a long list of prepositional phrases] Krogstad’s threat of revealing her transgressions risk the “functionality” of her marriage because she is aware her husband cherishes his unadulterated reputation (functionality is in quotation marks because Nora is not fully aware of the dysfunctionality of her marriage just yet) [it would be better to show the reader this than tell them it, but parentheses are the correct place for the comment]. She relates to Krogstad she feels compelled to kill herself or leave her family to relinquish Torvald of his ties to an immoral wife, which would tarnish his reputation. However, Nora acknowledges the virtuous foundation of her decision as she is her husband’s savior. She consistently refers to the inevitable event of Torvald learning of her past as “the most wonderful thing that will happen,” while delaying it with fervent efforts such as zealously dancing with error to distract her husband’s attention.
Although Torvald’s...