"I'm Not a Doll and This Isn't a Doll's House" (3)

The deeper I read into Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the more I dislike Torvald’s role in the Helmer family.  He is rude, impulsive, and most of all controlling, just like a doll keeper would act towards his dolls, his property.  Priscilla Renea, a modern day woman in the same possition as Nora Helmer, puts it perfectly in "Doll House."  Nora is definitely like Torvald’s personal doll in the way that he controls her.  Nora even says, in a conversation with Dr. Rank that Torvald is like a father to her, like HER father to her (Ibsen 52).  Even earlier in the story, you can tell that she wants to please him as a child would to her father in even the smallest ways such as looking intelligent for a dinner (Ibsen 43).  I remember when I was about ten years old I always wanted to be the best for my parents.  I always wanted to impress them by being better than everyone else, including my sister, who did not like me very much for that.  In this way, I could very easily compare myself to Nora and my parents to Torvald.          

Did you forget? (3)

Just a few pages into the third quarter of A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, I noticed that even Nora is beginning to realize that she is changing as a result of everything going on in her life.  I became aware of this when Nora casually asked the nurse, “Do you think they would forget their mother if she went away altogether?”  What I took the most into consideration was not her comment on going away altogether, although it did catch my attention along with the nurse’s, but more her comment about people forgetting each other.  Nora herself is starting to become conscious of her actions, or better said neglect, towards her children (Ibsen 39-40).  Although I know that this is not a real story, ever since I read Nora's line on neglect, I had one song stuck in my head.  The reason i connected the two is because the singer if the song says one line,"Did you forget, that I was even alive?  Did you forget, everything we ever had?  Did you forget?  Did you forget, about me?" This line, for some reason, instantly reminded me of this. (Demi Lovato's "Don't Forget") This theme of forgetting people pops up again later on when Mr. Rank pays a visit.  As he and Nora are talking about his recent bankruptcy and how soon he would be dead because of the child abuse from his father that caused his back problems in his later life and how their loss would be an easy one to get over and would soon be forgotten (Ibsen 49-50).  Mr. Rank's story on how he was abused by his father reminded me of a movie I have recently seen, Pay it Forward, in which he was raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father.  I think that this may be an important idea or theme and may even come out again in Act III because of how often it is used in Act II.