An analysis of the character of Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s `A Doll’s House.
This paper examines Ibsen’s A Doll’s House`, the story of Nora Helmer, a woman who has been given a certain role in society and has never had the opportunity to question that role or determine who she really is. It evaluates how one of the major themes of the play is self identity, versus the role that society places upon people and how this theme is expressed through the changing character of Nora. It discusses Nora’s character and her transformation through the story showing how her transformation is really just a change in the role she chooses to play and not a change in her actual character.
These events are the ones that change Nora’s character so that she begins to become aware of herself. At the beginning of the play, Nora is a child, by the end she has become aware of the situation and has matured enough to understand that she needs to find out who she is It is in the play itself that we see her grow up, when her beliefs about her husband are finally shattered and she comes to a new understanding. She then comes to see that her father and her husband have seen her as a doll to be played with and that she is not seen as someone with her own opinions or her own will. She realizes that her whole life has been based on illusion, not reality. It is this realization that forces her to make her brave choice at the end and decide to leave her husband.