Essay on "a doll's house"

Nora Helmer, a character in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”, is the prime metaphor of the Helmers’ marriage. Being a “songbird”, a “squirrel”, and a “squander bird”; Nora flutters around her apartment under a mask of illusion, a helpless “creature” to please her husband. Nora’s whole life has been a tree of deceptions branching up from its roots to its leaves, the leaves absorbing the most of life-her children. The metaphor in the title of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” suggests Nora has a childlike relationship with her father, her husband, her children, and even reality.
Nora’s father and Torvald Helmer have basically the same duties; they play, provide for, and adore Nora. They see Nora as they want her to be, a pretty doll, not what she is. In the beginning of the play the reader sees Nora Helmer as shallow, much like today’s “Barbie”; but as the play progresses, the reader sees a change in Nora as her dark secret comes to the surface and threat...