Burning Down the Doll House
'Til death do us part.' Well, not always. Everywhere one looks the violent shredding of a family is shrugged off like the daily weather, and the treasured marriage vows have become nothing but a promise made to be broken. Going against all the odds a woman faced in the late nineteenth century, Nora went behind her husband's back, borrowed a large sum of money, forged her father's signature, and went on to pay it off with hopes of Torvald never hearing of it. The play A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, is a prime example of a relationship that was terribly structured. The marriage of Torvald and Nora Helmer had many problems, because of the slamming door, and all that went before it, I think most readers would identify with Nora. To keep their nuptials alive and growing it must hold true to three qualities: loyalty, love, and trust.
Title page in the manuscript of A Doll's House, pl...
English: Detail of photograph taken in 1900 of Hen...
English: Memorial for Torvald Fiskå in Fiskå, Ro...With the incorporation of these qualities any marriage would work.
Neither Nora nor Torvald had dependence in themselves enough to truly open and become loyal to one another. Torvald was the owner of what he believed to be a perfect dollhouse. Nora's domineering father first controlled this dollhouse, and once Nora was married, the titles and deeds to this dollhouse were handed over to Torvald. Nora is frequently equated with her father and the frequent references to him suggest that Nora does wish that she were like her father "HELMER: Very like your father. NORA: Ah, I wish I had inherited many of Papa's qualities." Torvald feels that Nora should not be like her father and insults his character. "HELMER: My little Nora, there is an important difference between your father and me. Your father's reputation as a public official was not above suspicion. Mine is,