Equality and honesty in marriage
A doll’s house by Henrik Iben is a revolutionary play that reveals the importance of
equality and honesty in marriage.
The main characters Nora and Torvald seem have a happy marriage at the beginning.
But digging deeper, their unequal marital relationship becomes more and more apparent.
Torvald treats his wife as an object rather than a thinking individual.
Nora has been playing roles of Torvald’s doll wife, “little girl”, “little featherhead”,
“little skylark” and the “little songbird” for 8 years. Her main responsibility is to plays
along with Torvald’s games in his dollhouse and to meet her husband’s physical and
emotional needs. In some sense, Nora is literally trapped in a doll’s house as a slave. She
is only centered on her children and husband.
The most obvious example of Torvald’s mental control over Nora is how he calls her
pet names such as little “sparrow” or “squirrel” all the time and keep reminding her that
she is belong to him forever.
Besides, the scene of tarantella teaching exposes how Torvald imposes physical
controls on Nora as he says “You’re only playing your little teasing bird game with me;
aren’t you, Nora? Don’t want to? I’m your husband, aren’t I?”(Ibsen,1879). And these
physical controls are emphased through showing Nora’s complete submissiveness.
What’s more, Torval even apply financially control over Nora. He thinks Nora is
spendthrift and reminds her “we can’t spend money recklessly” (Ibsen,1879). His
comments “No one would believe how much it costs a man to keep such a little bird as
you” further reflect his domineering.
All unequal treatments not only deny Nora’s right to think, but also places a limit on
her fulfillment. In the final act, Nora reveals her true feeling as “always merry, never
happy”(Ibsen,1879). And she enforces herself to accept uncomfortable truth that unequal
partnership cannot lead to real happiness. As she claims, “You have never loved me. You
have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me” (Ibsen,1879). Without equal
relationship, they are not able to create a way of life that they both enjoy and maintain the
feelings of love in marriage.
On the other hand, another factor, which also contributes their marriage breakdown, is
dishonesty. Throughout the play, the lie between Nora and Torvald is a dreadful fuse
