HENRIK IBSEN- "Symbolism in A Doll's House"

We are led to gestate that Ibsen was more interested in art than social change. Perhaps, as his nones state, he was looking for a modern tragic hero. And what we have sex from Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy is that the hero is eternally kick downstairsly trap by forces from without. And who could be more trapped by outside forces than a wife and mother in a Victorian household: "A woman can non be herself in contemporary society, it is an exclusively manful society with laws drafted by men, and with counsel and judges who judge feminine conduct from the male point of view" (Ibsen 90). In order for Ibsen to create a modern hero out of a Victorian homemaker he had to rely on all the tools of the trade. One of these tools that he employed in this and in other plays was symbol.

Mining symbolism in Ibsen can be a difficult labor indeed. Ibsen is first and foremost a poet; to the point where regular his prose sounds exchangeable poetry. Every line and any phrase comes across as packed full of meaning and symbolism. It has been observed intimately A Doll's House, "that literally not a phrase is without its direct piece to the structure" (Bradbrook 85), and that "One of the marvels of Ibsen's craft is that he hardly wastes a word" (Clurman 112). Symbolism in Ibsen is not limited to the limit devices, such as the Christmas tree. But because we are dealing with realism, even phrases that come across just as ordinary every day speech are symbolic: "In I

Needless to say, the secret that Nora has been so desperately trying to keep from her husband has to come out. But this is not before her one last attempt to cover her secret. at a time again Ibsen employs a highly useful dramatic proficiency to symbolize Nora's last effort to hide her secret: her clothing. This is not to say, however, that Nora is fighting solely to keep her husband's illusions intact. At this point in the play she still believes in the illusions of her doll's house and one of these illusions is that Torvald result take the blame for the crime she committed when she forged her father's signature.

As Northam points out, this is symbolized by "the Italian bard with a large portentous shawl over it" (Ibsen 270) that she wears to the upstairs party where she is to dance the tarantella: "The day-dream dress suggests to us that she still inhabits the world of make believe, the Doll's House, with its put on values; the black suggests to us her thoughts of suicide to end her sickness. And the costume suggests this without Nora having to say one unrealistic word of self-revelation" (Northam 106). The black part of her dress does indeed suggest to us her thoughts of suicide and death. It outright relates to Dr. Rank's notion that he will be invisible at the next masquerade party by wearing "a large black veil--you've heard of the invisible cloak, haven't you?" (Ibsen 274). In particular it seems as if Dr. Rank and Nora are having a symbolic communication above Torvald's head right before Rank's final exit. They respect for each other that they might both sleep well, and it takes no in-depth symbolic mining to realize that they are talking about death. Nora's illusions are finally dashed when she realizes that "the wonderful thing" did not and will not happen. The death of Nora's illusions is, once again, symbolized by her clothing: "But her costume speaks for her. As she discards her illusions, so she discards her fancy-dress and her black cloak and shawl, a
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.