Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen Book Report

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Doll's House

What is the "miracle" Nora anticipates? The miracle Nora hopes for is that she and Torvald would actually have a romantic relationship in which shared respect and household equality would emerge. She of course is weary of being the "doll child," and of being the little toy that was passed from her father down to Torvald. She realizes that he is controlling, that he really cares only about himself but enjoys her company. In effect she is a kept woman, a kind of slave who will wear erotic garments for him, who will dance sexy dances to amuse him and will agree to remain submissive to his whims. She tires of his condescending attitude when he says that she "doesn't understand how to act on your own responsibilityno, no, only lean on meI should not be a man if this womanly helplessness die not just give you a double attractiveness in my eyes" (102). He will protect his "frightened little singing-bird" like "a hunted dove that I have saved from a hawk's claws," he says, and hence, once he forgives her she is by way of becoming "both wife and child to him" (104).

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But the miracle she wishes for wasn't about to happen, so she is ready to depart.

Another miracle / fantasy that Nora wishes for is to have a "rich old gentleman" fall in love with her, and upon his death, his will would read, "The lovely Mrs. Nora Helmer" shall be bequeathed "all I possess paid over to her at once in cash" (p. 25). When she couldn't come up with all the money needed to pay back the loan she took out illegally to save Torvald's life, she had that fantasy of being willed a large sum of money.

Why does Nora at once hope for the miracle and fear it? In Victorian society women had very little authority, in particular they were for the most part beholden to their husbands. They could not borrow money without the husband's consent. Her first desire for a "miracle" so to speak is that by rebelling against Victorian society through the act of breaking the law and forging the documents for the loan to save Torvald's life, she can also break out of the chains that women were controlled by….....

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