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Signs of Strength in a Doll's House

            Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House sheds some light on how married women of the middle class in the nineteenth and early twentieth century were not respected in the household to the extent where even their thoughts and ideas were ignored. Torvald is a man who plays right in to the role of a man in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with the way he treats Nora. When Torvald calls Nora "my little skylark" (1490) or "my squirrel" (1489) he is degrading her and treating her like an unwanted possession, rather than his wife. He constantly emotionally and mentally abused Nora in the way he treated her. Due to the way he treated her and her lack of freedom with her own life Nora made the choice to leave him and her three children to make a better life for herself. .
             Throughout their life together Torvald pushes Nora farther and farther into leaving him and their children. By calling Nora a multitude of unpleasant nicknames rather than by her own name he is initiating his dominance in their relationship in those instances. When he uses "my little" he is essentially telling her that she is his possession rather than his wife or partner through life. Not only does Torvald talk to her like she is less than him, he treats her the same way. When Torvald doesn't need her to keep face with his peers or to entertain him, he just tucks her away until he wants her again, like a doll. Where he can use her (play with her if you will) and then put her away until he wants her again. .
             In a healthy relationship a wife should not have to hide certain things she eats, or things she does from her husband because she is afraid of what he may do. When she is talking to Doctor Rank, she offers him a macaroon to which he immediately responds "What, macaroons? I thought they were forbidden here" (1498) in Nora's response to that she lies and says that Mrs. Linde gave them to her because Torvald told Nora she wasn't allowed to have them anymore.


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