Role Playing and Control in A Doll’s House Essay -- Dolls House essays

This essay will explore the issue of roles, or game playing, in A Dolls House. This concept is one key to approaching the play, and particularly Noras role. Let me further make the observation that one crucial cistron in the roles Nora plays is that she needs to be in check out, to take the lead role, as it were, employ other people either as supporting actors or reference and that she writes her own script.This notion helps me to deal with a question which frequently arises here How can one woman make so some unexpected transitions? How is it realistic for the child-wife to play the adult female tease (with Dr. Rank), the capable determined businesswoman (in her secret dealings with the debt), the frantically desperate woman thinking of suicide, and, above all, the coldly single-handed mature woman at the conclusion of the play? Well, one common feature these manifestations of Noras character all suffer is that they enable her to control others, to assert herself without in truth attending to, listening carefully to, learning from, or acting on what other people say.Consider for a moment why Nora would not have told Torvald long ago about the debt. The reason she gives is interesting she doesnt need to at this point in her life--shes young enough and pretty enough to exert her control over him in other ways (and telling about the debt would shatter her image as the clueless but sexy child-wife). However, she is looking forward to using that event in the future, when she can no longer rely upon her looks. How exactly this would help restore his affections may not be clear, but there is for certain a sense that Nora hopes it will make her more important to him. The fact that Nora thinks of her relationship with Torvald in ... ...d she did it (society be damned). Moreover, the hard disciplined work over many years necessary to repay the loan is a tribute to Noras determination and skill in carrying out her own project, all the while sustaining her own coupling in quite another role.This quality lies at the heart of Noras heroic character. Her confidence in herself, in her abilities to control the situation, to solve the problem, has led to her success and has confirmed, in her eyes, that she is right. She flouted societys laws, worked hard, and is now about to reap the success of that action by handing over the final payment. It has not been easy, and there are times when a certain tension shows through (as in that mention of the word Damn), but theres no sense that Nora feels that she has been compelled to act in this way, that she has not freely chosen to be the psyche she is.