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A Doll's House As a marriage counselor I was given the task to analyze the situation of spousal misunderstanding, which occurred between Mr. and Mrs. Helmers. The conclusions and recommendations are based on my personal observations of both parties behavioral patterns. First of all it needs to be mentioned that this case is much more complicated than it might seems to be on the surface. In the Part 1 of Henrik Ibsen's play A Dolls House, Nora Helmer appears to be a regular light-headed housewife, totally deprived of any sense of social responsibility.
She doesnt seem to understand that her irresponsible actions, regarding borrowing money, might lead to certain consequences. When Torvald tells her that sooner or later borrowed money needs to be paid back, she replies: If that were to happen, I don't suppose I should care whether I owed money or not. Nora's intellectual level appears to be compatible with her young children that she likes to be playing with so much: Come, let us have a game! What shall we play at?
Hide and Seek? Yes, we " ll play Hide and Seek. Bob shall hide first. Must I hide? Very well, I'll hide first.
Yet, there is also no doubt she does her housewifes duties in the best possible way. What is the most notable in Nora's behavior is her constant strive to please her husband, who takes this for granted. This cannot be considered as anything else but a threatening symptom of future spousal discontent. Husband and wife are supposed to enjoy equal rights and responsibilities towards each other.
This appears to be far from being the case from very beginning. Torvald treats his wife nicely, yet it never occurs to him that he might have to take her point of view into account, when it comes to discussing serious matters. When Nora asks him to reconsider his decision to fire Krogstad, he even rejects the idea that he might have to listen to his wife: Do you suppose I am going to make myself ridiculous before my whole staff, to let people think that I am a man to be swayed by all sorts of outside influence? I should very soon feel the consequences of it, I can tell you! In Part 2 of the play, Nora appears in the new light it becomes obvious that is capable of going as far as breaking law, in order to save her husbands life.
She forges her deceased fathers signature to obtain money, needed for Torvald to be able to take trip down South, as his doctors prescribed him. Although her action is unlawful, it nevertheless is totally justified from the moral point of view. She doesnt seem to understand that public laws and morality very often contradict each other: Is a wife not to be allowed to save her husband's life? I don't know much about law; but I am certain that there must be laws permitting such things as that.
This shows her being an idealist and person of great courage. As play continues on, one gets to realize that Nora is not just a little cuddly thing, like her husband thinks of her she doesnt hesitate committing a fraud to preserve family's unity. We see that Nora is also very honest individual, for whom even the thought of being charged with a fraud is unbearable. Nora's foremost concern, in this case, appears to be not even what will happen to her personally, but Torvald's reputation. She is well aware of the concept of dignity and as events escalate, she begins to consider suicide as the only way out.
With a smile on her lips, while still trying to please her husband, Nora thinks to herself: Seven hours until midnight Thirty-one hours to live. Torvald, on the other hand, appears to be nothing but a selfish and superficial individual with a twisted understanding of morality. Hes just one of those men who simply follow pattern, in order to gain respectability. His reputation he puts above his wifes happiness, which had sacrificed so much for him. What is really repugnant about Torvald, is that his Christian-based morality is only skin-deep, which makes him nothing but regular Bible-thumper, whos not worthy of his wife. After having found out about what Nora did, he gets enraged: What a horrible awakening!
All these eight years -- she who was my joy and pride -- a hypocrite, a liar -- worse, worse -- a criminal! The unutterable ugliness of it all! -- For shame! For shame! Yet, after he realizes that none will find out about his wifes fraud, he totally changes his attitude and tells Nora that nothing had really happened and they should just carry on with their lives. This shows him as an ultimate hypocrite, as we get to see that the morality wasnt something he was really concerned about, but his own reputation.
After all, bank clerk will always remain a bank clerk deep inside, doesnt matter how high he might rise within burocratic ranks. In the Part 3, Nora proves one more time that she is actually capable of practicing moral principles and not just declaring them, like Torvald. After having realized that she was being married to shmo, she decides to leave him in the very same day. Nothing would stop her from doing this, as she feels being cheated. She realized that she used to make sacrifices for the coward without heart: As soon as your fear was over -- and it was not fear for what threatened me, but for what might happen to you -- when the whole thing was past, as far as you were concerned it was exactly as if nothing at all had happened.
For me, as marriage counselor, it seems that there can be no reconciliation between Nora and Torvald, because the misunderstanding that occurred between them, has a deep psychological nature. Devoted and faithful woman will never forgive her husbands treachery, especially when she gets to realize that her man is not worthy of her devotion. What is the most important in every marriage is psychological capability, which guarantees that both parties treat each other with respect. As practice shows, even the loveliest women are having hard time, being married to those who seriously believe in Christian nonsense, unless their intellectual level allows them not to be bothered with the fact that their husbands consider them inferior. Being a marriage counselor, it appears quite clear to me that divorce is the best way to deal with cases when psychological incompatibility is involved. What happened between Nora and Torvald fits just this category
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