Blog post on A Dolls House

    What does in mean to be human?

In as far back as we can look in history, women have been mistreated, silenced, and dimitutized by society. This is a sad symptom of traditional gender roles where men are expected to be strong and controlling and their wives submissive to them. Even with the strong presence of these gender roles in society, there are brave women who break free of their oppression and become independent. The play A Doll’s House explores the life of Nora, who is subjected to those gender roles by her husband Helmer. Throughout the story, Nora comes to  realize her mistreatment and belittlement and has the courage to break free from her oppressive husband, and in doing so, Ibsen reveals aspects of our humanity. In the play, Henrik Ibsen utilizes symbolism and diction to explore what it means for us to be human.

One of the main factors explored in the text is how Nora is oppressed by Helmer. She is constantly being belittled and controlled by him, but for most of the play she accepted and allowed his control of her. This ties into the human experience because women have been in similar situations as Nora for as long as we can know, and many of those women were never able to escape their oppression. Ibsen is trying to illustrate how we accept these set beliefs in our society even when they harm others and even when they are harmful to us. One way we can see Nora being subjected to this oppression is through the use of Diminutive diction. Helmer constantly diminutizes Nora by comparing her to small animals like when he says “My little bird must never do that again! A song bird must have a clean beak to chirp with”(25). Helmer treats Nora like a pet by calling her a bird which is weak and small, this matches the societal expectation of women being weaker and smaller physically and emotionally. He suspects her of lying and instead of outright saying it he uses a childish metaphor saying she needs a clean beak. This diminutive diction shows How men like Helmer think women lack the capacity to make decisions themselves and have personal lives. Ibsen is trying to show that our human nature is to adopt these oppressive human traditions and use them to keep a societal order where women are seen as accessories. The problem with our human nature is that it doesn't give everyone the chance to explore their own humanity free of the bonds of societal norms. 

As humans, we always strive for free will even when we lack it. We want to make decisions on our own and create our own paths. Ibsen uses Nora to show how the oppressed can break free from their oppressors because of their will to do so. Our human nature is what gives us this will to strive for better opportunity. Ibsen uses symbolism of doors to show how Nora uses her will to break free from her oppressive relationship with Helmer “Helmer: Nora! Nora! Empty! She is gone. The most wonderful thing of all----? [The sound of a door shutting is heard from below]”(72). The door symbolizes Nora shutting out Helmer on by herself. This is a very brave thing to do for a woman in this time period and her bravery shows how human nature gives us the will to make these life changing decisions. The contrast in human nature causing Helmer to oppress Nora and Nora to try to escape that oppression shows the cycle of oppression in our society. Humans cause oppression to be ever present, but it is in people’s nature to try to break free from that oppression.

Within the play, Ibsen uses literary devices to show what it means to be human and shed light on how human nature causes a cycle of oppression.