Equality in "A Doll's House"

Although Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was written in the Victorian era in Scandinavia, to speak to Scandinavian audiences, its message resonates with audiences across the globe and through time, and has never lost its relevance. What A Doll’s House tells its readers and audience is that, unless one is considered an equal (particularly by a spouse, like with Nora and her husband Torvald), the relationship is, in reality, a sham; equality is necessary for any relationship, or even a single person like Nora, to flourish. It is this endurance of its message to families and women alike that has kept it so popular throughout the years. Ibsen relates this to us through his use of characterisation of Nora and Torvald via their conversations and patterns in speech, but it is related most directly through Nora’s final action.

Through the use of patterns in Torvald’s speech when he is speaking to Nora, Ibsen sets up their relationship as one built on inequality. His constant use of diminutives and condescending language to his wife, a grown woman who has children, is what gives it away. Torvald only ever uses pet names (“pet” here may be taken quite literally) that make Nora seem small like “[his] sweet little lark” to address his wife, and even when he uses her name he must add “little” before it (Act I, line 117). An instance of his condescension can also be found within the same scene:

HELMER: (Shaking an admonitory finger.) Surely my sweet tooth hasn’t been running riot in town today, has she?

NORA: No. Why do you imagine that?

HELMER: My sweet tooth really didn’t make a little detour through the confectioner’s?

NORA: No, I assure you, Torvald -

HEMER: Hasn’t nibbled some pastry?

NORA: No, not at all.

HELMER: Not even munched a macaroon or two?

NORA: No, Torvald, I assure you, really -

HELMER: There, there now. Of course I’m only joking.

(Act I, lines 123-133)

Although this could be taken to simply be a joke at first, that he says “Of course I’m only joking” suddenly crushes any hope of it being an innocent joke and pulls the exchange back toward obvious condescension. On top of that, too, he tends to cut his wife off instead of letting her finish her sentences, yet again showing how unequal their relationship is. This pattern can be found throughout the play, as Torvald continues to treat his wife as a child even in front of Doctor Rank while she is dancing. (Even setting aside the fact that Nora has kept her forgery a secret from Torvald, their relationship is unhealthy.) Actions speak louder than words however, and Ibsen corrects this appalling gap between them through Nora’s decision at the end of the play.

Until the last scene, Ibsen has been making it abundantly clear to the audience how unequal things are between Nora and her husband. He makes up for it however, with one simple stage direction: “(From below, the sound of a door slamming shut.)”. When Nora decides to leave it is because she has realized what has been so wrong with their marriage, ever since the beginning: Torvald thinks of her as “[his] little lark, [his] little doll,” and that she has been living a lie (Act III, line 748). Ibsen pulls the rug out from under us and it becomes Nora who cuts off Torvald, Nora who has the last say, and Nora who tells Torvald what to do. It is also important to note that Nora says to Torvald, “Don’t feel yourself bound, any more than i will,” as it puts them on a level playing field where it is typically thought that a wife would be utterly grief-stricken should her marriage disolve; for Nora, this is not the case and she makes it known (Act III, line 778-779). In this moment, in the termination of their relationship, Torvald respects Nora’s authority and autonomy and, perhaps unwittingly, treats her as an equal. Although it is Helmer who has the last line in the show, it is the sound of Nora slamming the door on her way out that is what the audience is left with, and that is no mistake.