A Dolls House2

A detailed Summary of A Dolls House2

In many pieces of literary work, there are elements that are used to help develop the audiences understanding of characters and events. In the play A Doll's House * by Henrik Ibsen, animal imagery is used in the development of the main character, Nora. It is also later found that the animal imagery is a critical part in understanding who Nora is, and how other characters perceive her.

Ibsen uses creative, but effective, animal imagery to develop Nora's character throughout the play. The animal imagery is carried out through the dialect between Nora and her husband Torvald. He uses a lot of bird imagery, seeming that Torvald thought of Nora as some kind of bird. It is also evident that the animal names he calls Nora, directly relates to how Nora is acting or how Torvald wants her to be portrayed.

In Act I, Torvald asks, "Is that my skylark twittering out there?" referring to Nora. A lark is a happy and carefree songbird. A lark can also be used as a verb that means to engage in spirited fun or merry pranks. Right from the beginning of the play it is evident that Nora is a lively spirited and carefree woman, just as a lark might be. Torvald again referrers to Nora early in the play as

*A Doll's House appears in Sylvan Barnet, et al. , Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. (New York: Longman, 1997), 1061-1112. References to the plays are to this edition.

Looking deeper into the meaning behind Ibsen's animal imagery, we find that Torvald possibly wants Nora to be a bird. The birds that Torvald calls her, such as "lark" and "songbird" are stereotypically carefree, peaceful animals. This is the case on the surface however. On the inside birds may have many struggles, such as just finding food to survive. But these birds do not show their struggles, and despite what they may be going through they are still a symbol of peace and perfect happiness. This is how Torvald wants Nora to be, perfect and happy all the time no matter what she really may want or be feeling. It is possible that because he wants her to be this way, Torvald actually thinks she is this way, always happy and that she shows no emotion to what is going on in her life.

Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House." An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet et al.

11th ed. New York: Longman, 1997. 1061-1112

In Act II, Nora begs Torvald to let Krogstad keep his position at the bank. When Torvald says that it must be done, Nora gets quite worked up about it. When Torvald calms her down, he notices her "frightened Dove's eyes." A dove is the unmistakable symbol of peace, or peace keeping, which is in essence what Nora it trying to do. If Torvald fires Krogstad then she will have to give him the money she borrowed and things will be anything but peaceful after that. However, Torvald does notice that Nora is trying very hard to convince him to keep Krogstad at his bank, but be disregards it as her trying to keep things right and refers to her as a peaceful dove.

Keeping Torvald from finding out about the m

Some common words found in the essay are:
Nora Torvald's, Act Torvald, Torvald Nora, Krogstad Nora, Nora Torvald, Henrik Ibsen, Krogstad Torvald, Doll's House, Torvald Torvald, House Ibsen, animal imagery, doll's house, torvald nora, ibsen animal imagery, sylvan barnet et, barnet et, et al, nora trying, introduction literature, play doll's house, 11th ed, act ii nora, ed york, barnet et al, 1997 1061-1112,

Approximate Word count = 1224
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English