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A Doll's House Research Paper

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A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the …show more content…

All men and women were created equally and, thus, should be treated equally; however, Nora breaks the law and lies to her husband. She should receive the same consequences as any man of that time period. “… her great and admirable trait of character was that of being ready to sacrifice all for the man whom she loved.” (Henrik Ibsen: A Critical Biography, pg. 241). The thought of a woman committing crimes that men would normally commit was unheard of. Nora was able to get away with forgery because no one would suspect a woman to commit such a crime. She is smart enough to realize this somewhat loophole could grant her crime with no justification. The human mind gives us the ability to make choices and rationalize our thoughts. It may be skewed differently by gender, but most of the time the choices we make are based on the effectiveness of everyone else around us. Nora made these choices to benefit her husband but at the same time she must lie to him and anyone else involved. “Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a is full of the germs of evil” (Ibsen, pg.47). Her husband’s health and ability to live is obviously more important than a few lies. However, Nora didn’t think twice about her choice to break the law in her husband’s honor. She is very dedicated in their relationship but at the same time wants independence and the

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