Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'

Film Accounts - Part Four

So I left the classroom just before the film went to Act III and unfortunately broke my leg, so despite the sub title this account is actually just from reading the script online on http://www.stagebeauty.net/plays/th-doll3.html. 

The Helmers are upstairs at the party and Christine is downstairs, everyone is asleep or away, as she receives Krugstad into the house. It is apparent that he used to love her and she turned him away as he calls her a 'heartless' woman, adding to the griefs that we are aware Krugstad has suffered throughout his in-fact quite hard life. His love for Christine is extremely apparent as Ibsen uses the image that he is 'a ship wrecked man - clinging to a bit of wreckage'. Slightly symbolic that Nora is the piece of wreckage along with him, due to the similar crime that they have committed. Their love seems to still be alive as Christine suggests that they as two ship wrecked people come together, she has always worked her entire life and in a sense it has been her greatest pleasure, but now she wants someone to work for instead of just herself. Her character contrasts so strongly with Nora's who is completely naive and hasn't seemed to done any hard work ever - showing the sort of women that were going to help change the stereotypes were not Noras with rich husbands but Christines who need to work to put food on the table and to provide for their families. As they discuss how they plan to be together Krugstad feels in himself the desire to change himself and become who he wants to be seen by others as Christine ignores all the facts about him she knows, even admitting that she knows what is happening between him and the Helmers now. At first I thought that she was doing it purely to help Nora as from the beginning of her entrance she seemed to be a hard working woman always doing things for other people, even describing herself as a woman who 'has once sold herself' for another person - I now believe that she is truly being with Krugstad for her own benefit. 

As Nora and Torvald come back down the stairs from the party, having danced the tarantella, Christine pretends that she has waited there that whole time to see Nora's dress. Torvald shows off his wife as he wants Christine to 'take a good look at her, I [he] think[s] she is worth looking at.' Continuing the way he looks at her like an object and only compliments her beauty and not her brains or personality. As Christine tells Nora that she has to tell Torvald, who seems to be a little drunk at this stage, about what has happened Nora is described in brackets as being expressionless - this is the beginning of her acceptance I believe. Nora tells him that 'everything you [he] do[es] is right' and Torvald accepts it, showing the dominance in the relationship and his self assertiveness and arrogance over Nora. He continues to speak to her as if she is an object with comments such as 'all that beauty that is mine, all my very own' and never comments on anything else, whilst continuing to call her random bird names - he thinks he owns and control her. He is startled when Nora doesn't seem to want to entertain him after he describes all his boyish fantasies he has in his head about her, separating their real relationship from some fixated dream he has in his head. 

As Dr Rank comes in for a visit and Nora discusses that he may have made some scientific investigations today, Torvald begins to mock her for talking about that type of conversation, as if it was not meant for woman but only men - appearing extremely patronising. After an odd conversation about how Dr Rank would be invisible at the next party, Nora and Torvald receive a letter from him after he leaves with a black cross - he was telling them of his death. Torvald despite his best friend dying is a selfish character, Ibsen uses the simile that Dr Rank was 'like a cloudy background to our sunlit happiness' as if they were a perfect couple, when really it is sort of ironic for what is anticipated to follow them as Nora bids him goodnight and tells him to read his letters - she has accepted her fate. 

Nora repeatedly tells herself 'Never, never' with regards to seeing her husband and children again. She almost reaches the door when Torvald stops her and shouts at his disbelief over the contents of the letter. Accusing her of being a 'miserable creature' when before he would only call her beautiful, the direct contrast is effective as his anger is translated. He describes the lies as an 'ugliness' and it further enhances my thoughts that Torvald is obsessed with the beauty of things in life, only the appearances of people and not the inner feelings. The appearance that he is obsessed with is continued as he wants himself and Nora to 'appear as if everything between us [them] was the same as before' as he constantly is obsessed with how he is seen by other people. He merely wants to save the 'the remains, the fragments, the appearance-' again this tricolon emphasises the obsessive nature he has towards beauty and appearance. 

In the middle of his panic and anger he reads another letter from Krugstad returning the bond and essentially freeing them of all worries. Torvald completely flips and is rejoicing and even caring about Nora, he starts to think of the agonies she went through and instead of thinking about himself he tries to see the other side of the story. He speaks of how she has loved him 'like a wife ought to love her husband' and goes on to say that 'I should not be a man if this womanly helplessness did not give you a double attractiveness in my eyes'. He once again, despite acknowledging the lengths Nora has been through condemns her to being less than what he is, always seeing himself as more knowledgeable and worthy in society than a mere woman. The term 'womanly' shows a generalised feeling towards the gender and gives an astounding realisation of the lack of gender equality in these times. Torvald speaks a lot about how he has forgiven her, while Nora stands there with a cold set face. He speaks of how now he has forgives her 'it seems as if that had made her, as it were, double his own; he has given her a new life' where as there is no mention of how she spent the money to give him a new life in Italy - he only speaks of what he can do for her and not what she can do for herself, as if she is unable and unworthy of such status. 

Nora finally stands up for herself and gives herself a voice stating how Torvald has 'never understood me [her]. I [She] has been greatly wrong, Torvald first by papa and then by you'. She finally starts to blame the men in her life as she realises that she has been subjected to become what they want.

When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like a poor woman--just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.

As Nora speaks a million things which scream out her longing to find herself and be independent she says this quote I've entered underneath and it really epitomises the name of the play and the meaning of it in relation to her character.

No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.
Torvald continues to treat Nora as the equivalent to the child, as I have written in my other parts of the film accounts that he refers to her behaviour as child like. He states 'You talk like a child. You don't understand the conditions of the world in which you live.' Which is true to an extent, for both the audience to acknowledge and also for Nora, she realises that she has not been educated but instead has been told what to do - like a child would. She finally wants to become a woman who can make her own opinions in life. As she explains to Torvald that she wants to leave him because he did not act in the way in which she has hoped when he read Krugstad's letter he says 'But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves' and she replies, probably indicating to herself as well as 'It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.'

Nora has finally had enough. she realises that she can 'receive nothing from a stranger' - the stranger being her husband.