Symbols in 'A Dolls House'

Henrik Ibsen’s, ‘A Doll’s House’ primarily explores the idea of in equality between men and women. Excessive power is assigned to men at the expense of women, with social practises, beliefs and attitudes contributing to this unequal distribution of power. Particularly in the time in which the play was constructed, male roles were privileged in society, whereas female roles were excluded and silenced. Ibsen’s effective use of symbols throughout the revolutionary play incorporates the dominating theme of inequality, centred on the patriarchal world of masculinity and identities of the matriarchal world. Symbols are often naturally accepted by the human mind as a way of understanding complex, important, underlying messages. Ibsen uses symbols extensively throughout the play to illustrate the social hierarchy of specific characters, and to incorporate significant ideas. Symbols also embrace important morals and opinions, which are carefully woven throughout the play. In ‘A Doll...