A Doll’s House — Henrik Ibsen: A Realistic and Unrealistic Play in the Present Time
A play “A doll’s house” was written by Henrik Ibsen. This play was well-known as a realistic drama in the Victorian Era. Reasons why a feature — character makes the play become realistic and reasons why the play is not realistic in the present time will be discussed.
The reason why the feature — character make the play “A doll’s house” become realistic is because of the character — Torvald Helmer. His characteristic are having a high morality and insecure that also reflects the Victorian society too. The word “insecure” means some people who are sensitive of how other people or surrounding people perceive their image in society. Because of his personalities, so he is also the character that reflects marriage in the Victorian Era because people in the Victorian Era got married and were friends with people that were able to give them benefits and maintain or increase their reputation. It is very obvious for audience to perceive that he is having the high morality because he blames Nora that she does not have the morality a lot after he found out that she faked her father’s signature to save his life which was being sicked in that time in act III. From the act I until the act III, audience can perceive that he does not love Nora. It was because of his personality which is insecure making him marry with Nora for his own benefits but he did not notice himself about this thing. According to act I, audience can perceive that he does not love Nora because he cares about her physical appearances, and actions. Audience can see that he always controls Nora to do anything that satisfies him and he even controls Nora about her actions such as dancing and eating macaroon in act I in the opening scene and II in the scene that Nora tries to dance in order to prevent Torvald read a letter. He likes to control her because if she does something wrong, he will lose his reputation as well. For example, he concerned about Nora’s dancing because if Nora is failed in dancing, he will lose his reputation in act II in the scene that Rank is playing the piano while Torvald is correcting Nora’s dancing. This evidence emphasises his personality — insecure. Moreover, audience also know that he does not love Nora because he has never tried to understand what Nora explains to him about reasons why she fakes her father’s signature and reasons why she wants to break up with him in act III. Furthermore, He told Nora that he will not risk himself for Nora if she is in danger in act III. Therefore, these pieces of evidence illustrate that the character — Torvald is a factor that makes this play becomes realistic because of marriage in the Victorian Era.
The reason why the play “A doll’s house” is not realistic in the present time is because of the character in the play — Torvald Helmer that can reflect to the Victorian Era. It was because of people in the present time will get married only with people who they truly love. As the present-day people do not care much about reputation or benefits that they are going to get after getting married like the Victorian Era, so this play is not realistic in the present time.
In sum, the character — Torvald Helmer is one of the factors that makes this play become realistic in the Victorian Era in the society and marriage aspect. However, this play is no longer realistic in the present time because people in the present time only want to get married to the one that they truly love. In my opinion, actually there are still some couple or some families that belong to each other or getting married because of wanting benefits from each other in the present time but this case is really rare to see. Besides, I think people in the present time are not like the Victorian society because they have much more freedom and individuality.
