During the summers before 11th and 12th grades, I had to read numerous books and keep a reflective journal focused on my readings. Some of these journal entries are provided below.
Themes [entry dated August 22, 1997]
Two major themes were apparent throughout the play A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. Those themes are: 1) the duty one has to oneself, and 2) the differences between appearance and reality.
Ibsen says that one’s greatest duty is to understand oneself. At the beginning of the play, Nora does not realize that she has a self. Nora is playing a role: the purpose of her life is to please Torvald or her father and to raise her children. By the end of the play, Nora discovers that her "most sacred duty" is to herself. She leaves to find out who she is and how she views the world.
At the beginning of the play, family life is not what it seems. Nora is Torvald’s "little squirrel"; they appear to have a perfect marriage and their home is debt-free. Nora seems content and Torvald is in control. Scandal cannot touch them. Everyone concerned wants to keep up appearances. But, little by little, as the play progresses, reality replaces appearances.
Dr. Rank wants to appear healthy. Nora is upset when Dr. Rank shatters the appearance that their relationship is innocent. Torvald is appalled when Krogstad calls him by his first name at the bank—it does not appear proper. Both Krogstad and Nora want to hide their past deeds and are enmeshed in a tissue of lies. Torvald insists on keeping up the appearance of marriage even after rejecting Nora for her past crime.
Only when the characters give up their deceptions and cast off their elaborately constructed secrets can they be whole. Dr. Rank, Nora, and Krogstad succeed in casting off their respective appearances. Only Torvald fails in becoming whole once again.
Nora [entry dated August 29, 1997]
In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House, there seems to be a lack of appreciable action once the play commences. This is because nearly all of the major events in the character’s lives have happened before the curtain rises. The audience is not looking at a life story but rather at a snapshot of the characters.
Yet within this snapshot view some characters can change immensely. Many critics have pointed out that a immature, ignorant creature such as Nora could never have attained the understanding and revolutionary qualities that she has attained by the end of the play (Sturman 30). Ibsen, however, has accounted for this by developing Nora on a multi-layered levels, always making sure that her capriciousness does not overshadow her independence.
Certainly the circumstances surrounding the loan Nora took out in order to care for her husband are proof of this point. Her independence shows through when she arranges for the loan herself. Unfortunately, women cannot borrow money without a male’s countersigning. Here her capriciousness is revealed when she forges her father’s name after his death. But look closer. Her independence has made itself known again because she does not even pause to consider if that which she is to do is morally or legally correct. She acts independently of anyone telling her what to do.
It is this select mix of traits that enables Nora to fulfill her role in the play. She must be immature enough to rebel against society’s standards but yet wise enough to discover what she wishes for herself. Ibsen’s creation of this character is a fabulous work of genius.
Heredity [entry dated August 30, 1997]
One major topic incorperated in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House is the influence of heredity on a person. Ibsen seems to think that heredity is responsible for all faults in a person’s existence. Even what modern-day scientists would classify as environemental factors are ocnsidered heredity in Ibsen’s play.
The first discussion of inheretid traits comes barely a dozen pages into the play. Helmer is telling Nora how she is a spendthrift:
HELMER. You’re an odd little one. Exactly the way your father was. .
. . It’s deep in your blood. Yes, those things are hereditary, Nora.
Most of the discussions having to do with heredity seem to be accusing the person of inheriting an ill-suited trait. This could be because in general people want to appear as though everything good that happens to them is a direct result of something they themselves did. Anything bad that happens is always someone else’s fault.
Also, characters in the story place such credence upon the concept of heredity that one does not want to give his sons a bad start in life due ot his bad "genes." Krogstad is an example: "My boys are growing up. For their sakes, I’ll have to win back as much respect as possible here in town."
Helmer, perhaps more than any other character, puts much faith into this system. He remarks, "Because that kind of atmosphere of lies infects the whole life of a home. Every breath the children take in is filled with the germs of something degenerate." Further, "Oh, I’ve seen it often enough as a lawyer. Almost everyone who goes bad early in life has a mother who’s a chronic liar."
Heredity plays a large part in setting up the belief systems of the characters such that the background provided in the first act carries through to its eventual conclusion in the final act. The power of heredity ot shape the play is shown by the last line of the first act, uttered by Nora: "Hurt my children—! Poison my home? That’s not true. Never. Never in all the world."