Realism of the play: ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen

Is 'A Doll’s House' Believable?

'A Doll's House' follows the story of a young woman in Norway, during the Victorian period. She is "happily" married, and has three children. The play follows her transition, from helpless child, to strong woman. In my opinion, ‘A Doll’s House’ is both realistic, and unrealistic. I will discuss why I feel this way, below.

'A Doll's House' is realistic because it showcases the fact that women were treated as helpless, weak, and clueless. 

This is shown by Nora forging her father's signature. She has no knowledge of the law, and therefore has no idea of the gravity of what she has done. Although this scenario might not have been commonplace, it does hold truth. Women received little to no education, meaning that they did not know about important topics such as law for instance. This meant that they couldn't have meaningful conversations with their spouse or other people, because they did not know about these things (and if they did, they only had the very basics).

Torvald treats Nora as a helpless creature. A "Songbird". He believes that she cannot possibly do things by herself, and on top of that, he finds her "Doubly attractive" when she is playing into the idea of "Feminine helplessness". This is realistic because at the time that this play was written, men ruled the roost. They were seen as stronger and more powerful than women, and women were seen as more attractive if they were seen to not be a threat to their masculinity fueled idea of dominance. 

As mentioned in my points above, that I believe that 'A Doll's House' is realistic. However, I also mentioned that I think the play is unrealistic. I think this because, the position of society at the time, would make it almost impossible to do what Nora does at the end of the play.

At the end of the play, Nora announces that she is leaving Torvald, and is going to educate herself about the world. I believe this to be unrealistic because, although a woman could leave her husband, I don't think that this scenario would occur. At the time, women who were divorced would have been seen as dangerous and undesirable. People would wonder what she had done to become divorced, and therefore would not want to associate with her. Based on this, I feel that it would be very hard for Nora to get a job, find a husband, etc. 

I also believe that Torvald allowing her to leave, is unrealistic. During the Victorian period, men had all of the power in the marriage. This means that they had near complete control over their wives. I don't think that in the real world, Torvald would have let Nora leave. Throughout the play, we see that Torvald (men) clearly believes that Nora (women) are incapable. This means that he sees himself as dominant over Nora, and as having the right to control her, meaning that he could/would stop her from leaving. 

In conclusion, 'A Doll's House' had parts that were realistic, and parts that were unrealistic. Despite this though, the play highlighted some very important issues. Ibsen was way ahead of his time, and his ideas can be applied to today's world.