Analyze “A Doll’s House”

-----The truth often was hidden behind the appearance.

The drama “A Doll’s House” was written by Henrik Ibsen, and it can be regarded as Ibsen’s masterpiece. In the three ACT, it has described the main protagonist Nora’s change process. In the early time, she cared for her husband Torvald, and she also trusted in her husband. But, in the later, their relationship was broken, and Nora ran away from her house. Finally, Nora got rid of her doll figure. The drama has three ACTs, the first ACT can be regarded as the introduction. The third ACT is the main plot in the drama, and it seems like the result. In the third ACT, people’s characteristic is exposed thorough. The second ACT can be regarded as a base function.

In the drama, Ibsen not only described Nora’s awakening. He written a few people, and these characters had their own personality, and these personality reflected the drama’s topic. With these person’s characteristics, the author has revealed that some unknown truth were hidden behind the appearance. In the drama, behind the sweet happy relationship between Nora and Torvald, it hid some contradictions, and it led to a broken in the family. Next, I will analyze the characters and plot, and interpret why the truth often was hidden behind the appearance.

In the beginning, Nora loved her husband, and she devoted herself to the family. She bought some gifts to other family members except her. When she was asked why she did not buy gifts to her, she said: “For me? Oh I don’t want anything.” (Ibsen 64).

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This showed that she loved the family. When her husband Torvald got a serious illness, in order to saving Torvald’s life, she saved money, and borrowed money from other people. She said: “So if Torvald gave me money for a new dress or something, I never spent more than half.” (Ibsen 422-424). This was an evidence that Nora loved her husband. However, she gradually realized that she liked a doll in the family, and she also realized her husband’s selfish and hypocrisy. Afterward, she resisted against the social fact, and ran away from house. In my opinion, although in the begging, it seemed that Torvalds loved his wife, this love only existed in the appearance because Nora’s action not affected with her husband’s right. Once his right was affected, after he read the letter, he changed attitude toward to his wife. Thus, this is reason why I state that in the drama, the truth often was hidden behind the appearance. Besides, this drama also reflected a social fact in that time: the relationship between women and men was not equal.

After I interpreted the reason why the truth often was hidden behind the appearance in the drama. Next, I want to analyze the main person’s characteristic in the drama.

NORA

At the beginning of the drama, the author described Nora: “She takes a bag of macaroons from her pocket, eat a couple, then crosses quietly to Torvald’s door and listens carefully.” From this sentence, I think that Nora is a lively, and even a little naughty woman. Afterwards, form the conversation between her and Mrs. Linde, Nora did not write a letter to Mrs. Linde many years, and she simply expressed regret. These plots indicated that she was a na?ve, and self-centered woman because she

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rarely to consider other people’s feeling. However, in order to saving her husband, she borrowed money form Krogstad, and under Krogstad’s threat, she did not give up her action. After Nora found that her husband was a hypocritical person, she made a decision to leave Torvald. These plots showed that Nora love her husband, but she did not like a doll in the family.

TORVALD

In the drama, Torvald called Nora as “little lark”, and “little songbird”, and “little squirrel”. He also appreciated Nora’s dance. These plots indicated that Torvald loved his wife. However, after he read the little, and after the truth was revealed, he worried about it, and he afraid the comments from other people. In the drama 2100 to 2130, the plots showed that Torvald was selfish, hypocritical man. Only in order to his private right, he blamed and belittled his wife Nora. Obliviously, compared with Nora’s love, Torvald’s ugly point was described thorough. When he was in front his wife and his reputation, he chose the latter one. Therefore, I think that Torvald’s love is not true, and these plots also reflect my topic: The truth often was hidden behind the appearance. Torvald thought that Krogstad had a worse behavior, and he fired Krogstad. But I think that this may not be the real reason why Torvald fires Krogstad because Torvald is a selfish and hypocritical man.

KROGSTAD

It seemed that Krogstad was a bad behavior person in the drama. Dr. Rank described Krogstad: “There is a man in there with Helmer who’s a moral cripple.” (Ibsen 506-507). He used Nora’s forged signature, and the purpose was that he wanted

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to keep his position in the bank. Just as his action, it made that Nora was blamed by her husband, and it also made Nora left his husband. However, because Mrs. Linde abandoned him, and he also had two children. This made that his life was casted in a shadow. But after conversation with Mrs. Linde, he gave up his threat thinking. In fact, he may be not an evil man. Maybe he was affected by the social environment, and it seemed like a bad behavior man.

In the end of the drama, the appearance that the family had a happy life was not existence. No doubt, Torvald’s characteristic of selfish and hypocrisy was exposed. In his heart, Nora liked a doll in the family, and it seemed that she was not importance. Therefore, the author showed a real relationship in the family to us.

After reading the drama “A Doll’s House”, in my opinion, no matter what is the appearance or no matter what the truth is hidden behind the appearance. When reading a fiction or drama, we should understand the real meaning and truth other than only stay in the surface. Just as the life, in front of the love, people should seek for the real love with practice, and we should not be inducted by wonderful words.

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第二篇：《玩偶之家》读后感

09级汉本3班 0920021307 洪莹

表象后的真实

——读《玩偶之家》有感

【摘要】三幕话剧《玩偶之家》是现代散文剧之父易卜生的代表作，主要是写主人公娜拉从爱护丈夫、信赖丈夫到与丈夫决裂，最后离家出走，摆脱玩偶地位的自我觉醒过程。然而本剧并不是简单的阐述娜拉的觉醒，剧中的每个人物都有自己的个性，以及，在平常的语言行为背后藏着的不为人知的真实。剧中娜拉和托伐幸福甜蜜的家庭背后也笼罩着若隐若现的阴云，让人捉摸不透。于是，本文就着表象与真实的辩证关系对《玩偶之家》中的人物和情节进行分析，从而揭露表象的不可靠性。

【关键词】表象；真实；不可靠性

亨利克·约翰·易卜生于1828年出生于挪威，是众口皆碑的现代散文剧之父，三幕剧《玩偶之家》是其著名的代表作之一。易卜生一直认为，夫妻不仅要共同生活，更要平等相处，自由发展自我的个性，这种观念在《玩偶之家》中得到了充分的体现。剧中，女主人公娜拉在家庭生活中不断成长不断觉醒，成为思想成熟的先进女性，认识到了自己在家庭里“玩偶”的地位，于是进行反抗，离家出走。然而本剧是带有欺骗性的，在表象的外衣下人们往往看不清人物的真实性格和真实情况，直到最后才有一个清楚的认识。

在本剧的开头，“她一边脱外衣，一边还是在快活地笑。她从衣袋里掏出一袋杏仁甜饼干，吃了一两块。吃完之后，她踮着脚尖，走到海尔纳书房门口听动静。”，从行为上可以看出娜拉是个活泼开朗，甚至有点小淘气的女人。而后林丹太太向她提及丈夫的去世，娜拉没有给她写过一封信，时至三年后的今日才表示遗憾，可她并没有考虑自己以外的事情，对林丹太太丈夫的去世表示同情似乎也只是礼节。种种迹象让人们以为作者塑造的主人公是个天真幼稚、以自我为中心和很少体恤他人的形象。可是，娜拉为了救治丈夫勇敢机智的借债，在柯洛克斯泰的要挟下也没有停止对自由的思考，在发现丈夫的虚伪之后毅然决然的离开，等等事实表明，娜拉其实是个坚强独立，思想深邃的人。

托伐爱称呼娜拉为“我的小鸟儿”，爱看娜拉跳舞，总想着出现一件危险的事情让自己拼着命牺牲一切去救娜拉一次，他对娜拉的疼爱让人羡慕。可是，当柯洛克斯泰的事情发生以后，他的真性逐渐鲜明。他像个大孩子一样，害怕别人对他的评论，他之所以开除柯洛克斯泰并不是因为柯洛克斯泰的本性很坏，而是害怕“银行里的人全都取笑我”。无论娜拉怎么求，他也不改变自己的决定。在自己的名声和娜拉的愿望之间，他选择了前者。娜拉对他来说，更像是自己的女儿，由着他来保护、引导。其实，他是一个胆小、狭隘、自私的人。

而柯洛克斯泰的出场像一个反面角色，阮克大夫说他“害了道德上治不好的毛病”。他利用娜拉冒充签名借债的事情要挟娜拉留住自己在银行的职位，害得娜拉险些自杀。可是，他也是富于同情心的，用感人肺腑的话语去阻止娜拉自杀。他也是深情的，林丹太太的抛弃、孩子的牵绊，让他的生活蒙上了阴影，逐渐堕落，可是林丹太太的爱让他瞬间醒悟，后悔并且放弃要挟娜拉，寄去了借条来帮助娜拉和托伐的一家。其实，他是个善良的人，是个受社会环境影响、被人们误解的可怜人。

不仅作者对人物性格的刻画让人始料不及，剧中巧妙隐晦的人物关系也让读

者对人物产生了误解。

起初柯洛克斯泰拜访托伐，林丹太太碰巧也来拜访娜拉，柯洛克斯泰喊门的时候，林丹太太“吃了一惊，急忙躲到窗口去”。她告诉娜拉柯洛克斯泰做的事并不体面。从这一点，能够让读者认为林丹太太与柯洛克斯泰是对立的角色，林丹太太是认为柯洛克斯泰的人品上有问题的。可事实上，林丹太太与柯洛克斯泰是多年前的恋人，因为生计林丹太太才嫁给了有钱的林丹先生，但她和柯洛克斯泰是相爱的。

戏剧接近尾声的时候，海尔茂一家幸福快乐的表象已经维持不住了，因为托伐不惜牺牲真正的幸福来维护这种表象。他自私、狭隘的性格已经暴露无疑，在他心里，娜拉远没有他的地位、形象重要。海尔茂一家真实的不和谐赤裸裸的展现在读者面前。

《玩偶之家》里的表象以及表象后的真实，让我们明白，无论是阅读一篇作品，观看一部剧作，还是了解人和事，都必须透过现象看本质。在爱情、婚姻的世界里更应当用心去感受，不能被甜言蜜语所蒙蔽，要真正的了解对方的为人，感受对方的真爱。但是如果在爱情、婚姻里你已经失去了自由，请你果断的离开，因为爱情需要平等需要尊重。

【参考资料】

[1] 浅谈易卜生《玩偶之家》中出走的娜拉.李幸.《神州》20xx年第二十四期

[2] 哈佛双语名著导读——玩偶之家.王蓓.天译科技翻译出版公司