Plays augmented through Ibsen's pen strike the prevalent stereotypes in a society without presenting a one-sided picture. Hedda Gabler, a play included in our course outline of UoS, showcased the exquisite psychological trauma of a woman whose "time was up". Nora in "A Doll's House" is someone who, at the beginning is someone "less than Hedda" but when she goes through few realizations throughout the play, she becomes "more than Hedda" as our teacher puts it.
Similarity between the Plays
"Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's House" share the traits of a few common characters and themes with each other. Loevborg and Krogstad share similar back-story of getting rejected by the society and their mutual quest to regain their lost name. However, Loevborg is aided by Thea Elvested while Krogstad does it all by himself. Judge Brack and Dr. Rank keep the tradition of continuing "the tri-angular" relationship in the marital life of Hedda and Nora respectively.
However, the protagonists of the play exhibit a different approach in handling social pressure. Hedda's sole reason behind marrying George Tesman is to shut the mouths of her society. Hedda hates the term love and calls it a "sickly stupid word" while also showing clear disdain with the want of having children,
"I don't want any--- responsibilities. " - Hedda
Nora, on the other hand, submits to the wishes of her husband in the beginning and even refers to herself as Torvald's "squirrel" while taking care of the responsibility of her two children. Later, when she realizes that Torvald is treating her not like an equal human being, she prepares her maid to take care of her children if she leaves,
"NORA: Yes, but, nurse, I shall not be able to be so much with them now as I was before.
NURSE: Oh well, young children easily get accustomed to anything.
NORA: Do you think so? Do you think they would forget their mother if she went away altogether?
NURSE: Good heavens!—went away altogether?"
Unlike Hedda who kills herself because of the"fear of scandal", Nora leaves her husband and children to learn what it likes to be a free human.
Money and Reputation is Everything
It is difficult to deny that money and reputation direct the plot of the play. Nora was forced to commit the forgery when sighing the bond because she had no choice but to secure the life of her dying husband as she could not bother her departing father to sign the bond. Krogstad intended to use his position as a lender to remove the blot he had received. Christine chose to leave Krogstad because she needed the money for her family at home. Nora had to hide her signage of bond because,
"There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt." - Torvald
Thus, we see the utilization of money in both of the creation and destruction of reputation in "A Doll's House".
A Serious Commentary on the Institution of Marriage
Whether it was "Hedda Gabler" or "A Doll's House", Ibsen openly criticized the institution of marriage, not in a sense to propagate an opinion, but attempted to present two sides of the coin and let people decide of the situation. Marriage is the second most significant event of a person's life after his/her initial spark of consciousness. That is because the person in question is "giving away" his/her life to someone else.
Ibsen, in "A Doll's House" protests to say the otherwise. In fact, the title itself gives away the notion of his utter disdain for the social norm of "possession" of the dominated by the dominant. Unlike Hedda, Nora is satisfied by her marriage and is contented on being titled as a "lark" or "squirrel" by Torvald. But when her "sacrifice" is out of the bag, she losts faith in the "happening of wonderful things", and she insists on talking about such matters in "serious" terms,
NORA: I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we have never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of anything.
HELMER: But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you?
NORA: That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been greatly wronged, Torvald—first by papa and then by you.
Ibsen, through the mouthpiece of Nora, argues that it is not the job of a husband to "educate" his wife when he is not even able to understand and respect her sacrifice when his own life depended on it. The message of this play is simple: a happy marriage isn't the one where a husband just fulfills the wishes of his wife. A happy marriage is characterized by the mutual understanding of the two of their needs, desires and their individual outlooks.
