Complete 8 page APA formatted essay: Analysis paper.The major conflict that Nora faces is finding her personhood that clash with male-defined womanhood ideals, but she resolves this, when she realizes

Complete 8 page APA formatted essay: Analysis paper.

The major conflict that Nora faces is finding her personhood that clash with male-defined womanhood ideals, but she resolves this, when she realizes that the only way to become a person is to leave the entire marriage and family institution that prevented her from doing so.

The title of the play can be connected to the argument that marriage is one of men’s many doll houses, especially the most important one. Marriage legalizes the authority of husbands over their wives. As wives, women are bent to follow their husband’s needs and desires, during these times when patriarchal structures were strong, although increasingly challenged because of the suffragist movement. The title of the play argues that the true owner and player of the doll house is Torvald. His wife and children are mere toys to his power play. In the last act of the play, Torvald reminds Nora of her duties to him as his wife, and her related duties as a mother: “Before all else, you are a wife and a mother” (Ibsen Act 3). Nora is about to leave him, which pushes him to remind her that they are, in fact, in a contract. Marriage is a social contract that, more than ever, binds women to men. Langås underscores that through these pleas, Torvald accentuates his rights as a husband, in a marriage where equal rights for spouses do not exist. Marriage becomes a legal imprisonment for women that they cannot and should not easily break out from. Furthermore, marriage subordinates women to their responsibilities as mothers. Nora is constantly worried of her children, not only because she is their mother, but increasingly so because society expects her to look after them. In Act 1, Nora narrates to Mrs. Linde her financial predicament. She emphasizes how she must continue the charade that includes maintaining her children’s physical appearance: “I couldnt let my children be shabbily dressed” (Ibsen Act 1). This statement reveals that she is taking care of her