Genre: Drama texts: 19th century; Plays; Drama; Plays / Drama; Continental European; Drama / General; General;
Average Review: 4 stars
Review: somaia n. A Doll's House : A Doll's House is an outstanding play that brings up many topics into question, topics such as gender roles, love in marriage, and self fulfillment vs. family duties and responsibility. I think that Nora's and Torvald's characters are excellently drawn out to show the extremes of what could go wrong in a seemingly normal and happy home in 19th century Europe. Gender roles, even though they have changed drastically over the century, have roots from the beginning of time that stick throughout the years. Roots such as that women are more likely to stay at home and men are more likely to be the ones to work; even though these days women and men are legally and socially equal. Nora's actions in the play were courageous and good intentioned, even though they went against her husband's wishes. I really liked how she was created to be so naive that she did not realize that she had no life of her own, but despite that naivete, she still understood that something was missing. Torvald, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that Nora was not living life as people should, but out of his selfishness, he let things be as they were; he enjoyed life that way. What I liked most about this play was Nora's decision to live and to learn and be her own person, even though that meant huge sacrifice on her part and that of her family's. Was she selfish in doing what she did? That question is hard to answer. Should one live for themselves or is that right gone once they have children? Usually, I would say that a mother's duty to her children comes before anything, even her own needs; but what made Nora's situation so difficult was that she was a child herself, she never had the choice to live her life, once she had the chance it's good that she took advantage of it. The play was definetely worth the time spent reading it.
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