Escaping Our Past-Relating To and Learning From Ibsen

Rick Warren once said, “we are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” Nora struggles with this idea throughout the first to acts of the play as her action in the past of forging a signature on a bank note comes back to haunt her. Today many (hopefully most) of us haven’t ever forged a signature on a bank note, but A Doll House still relates to our life. Due to Nora’s mistake of forging a bill in the past, Ibsen’s play is still relevant to readers today who surely struggle with some past error made when they were less informed on a matter because they can relate to and learn from Nora’s struggles throughout the play.

As a reader of a play written long before the current era, it can be hard to figure out what the play has to do with 2014. On the contrary, in A Doll House readers can clearly relate to Nora’s struggles, however usually on a more minor level. Stories that are relatable are important because they can provide life lessons to the readers as well as entertainment. At the beginning of the play Nora is proud of her efforts to save her husband, proclaiming, “[she] was the one who raised the money”. But as Krogstad blackmails her she realizes that her past isn’t really behind her and she must own up to her mistakes of years before. To deal with the pressure of it she considers running away from home or even taking her own life. Readers can relate to this because often lies are made to make a certain gain, just as Nora lied to try and save her husband. The lies may seem harmless or even completely okay. Nora believes that because she “did it out of love” (ln. 921) it was completely ok. This line of the play is important because all readers can relate to telling a lie to try and help a loved one. Specifically, the wording Ibsen uses really hits home, because it makes her actions seem acceptable. But readers quickly will learn that any lie, no matter how much love it was inspired by, can have dire consequences. The ability of readers to relate to Nora’s struggles is a central reason that this play is still read.

Not only can readers relate to the struggles that Nora goes through, they can also learn from them. Learning through a play can be a less painful experience for readers, because one can learn valuable lessons without having to experience the actual situations. Through the first two acts, Nora is struggling with the weight of the secrets she has kept regarding the forged bank note. As the play progresses it becomes harder and harder for her to confess to her husband what she has done as Krogstad increases the pressure on her to tell Helmer. Readers can take this as a valuable lesson: lies don’t get better with time, and they most certainly do not disappear. If Nora had told Helmer early in the play, Helmer could have secured Krogstad’s job, but as the play advances Helmer fires Krogstad which forces Krogstad to write the letter to Helmer. It may seem better to ignore a problem when it first arises, but as Nora learned, a small spark can quickly spread to create more problems. The lessons learned through this play regarding telling lies over time are an important reason that this play is still read over 100 years later.

In conclusion, even though A Doll House was written in a different country 100 years ago, it is still a quality read for today’s audiences because readers can relate to it and learn lessons from it so they can make better-informed decisions in their futures.