Book Review on Nora the Squirrel

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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We will be looking at the emphasis and impact that relationships have on one when one is dominated and controlled. In The Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen, we will see that Nora is a very interesting character and very much dominated. Nora led a sheltered life, as many of us have. She married and moved from her father's home into her husband's home. Nora never got to grow emotionally as she should have. Nora was very childlike, immature and careless with money. One might compare this to society today in regards too the attachment we sometimes make without realizing it, until it is too late.

Nora's husband Torvald Helmer calls her his "little squirrel." One might be able to relate this to the childish and immature ways that Nora has and Torvald continually makes her feels smallness within herself. Nora is a thoughtful person and giving, although Torvald says she is thoughtless.

Torvald is in control of the money and the household. Thus in essence he is in control of Nora's life. He does not like her to eat candy. One would see this by the comment Torvald makes to Nora when she came back from town, "Surely your sweet tooth didn't get the better of you in town today?" She has to hide candy to eat it. In this, one would see she is trying to please her husband and put her feelings aside for him. In addition, Nora may have possibly been searching for her husband's approval, something that she may not have gotten when she lived at home with her father. One might say Nora was looking for a father figure when she married Torvald. Torvald came down with an illness and Nora had to borrow money from a banker to take him to Italy...