The Road To Independence Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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fantasy: I pretend to myself you’re my secret mistress, my clandestine little sweetheart, and that nobody knows there’s anything at all between us I pretend to myself that you are my young bride, that we’ve just come from the wedding, that I’m taking you to my house for the first time-that, for the first time, I am alone with you-quite alone with you, as you stand there young and trembling and beautiful. (Ibsen 421) Torvald treats Nora as if she has no sense about her soul purpose in life, and that it is only being pretty. To Torvald she is only a doll, to dress up and show off. Nora was given no responsibility while growing up and cannot handle stress. As the play progresses Nora is faced with Torvald’s illness. She is forced to take desperate measures to make sure he

becomes healthy. By taking out a loan, which was unheard of by a woman during that time period, she is able to send the family to Italy where Torvald is able to recover. The signature on the loan backfires and it seems as if her life is falling apart. Nora is not able to deal with the situation, for she has never dealt with personal confrontation. The only logical resolution for her is to run away and leave her problems. Nora put her whole self on the line when Torvald was ill and needed medical attention. The doctors advised her to take him to Italy, where the warm climate would help him heal. Nora borrows a large amount of money in order to save the life of her husband. She is not motivated to help Torvald by her intense love for him. Nora demonstrates how she does not know or

love her husband when she claims she “can’t spend the night in a strange man’s bed” (Ibsen 432), but rather her drive originates from the social pressures of society. Social pressures kept her in a captive marriage, where there were “not merely social pressures that have kept her a captive marriage but the psychological division that has made her a willing collaborator in her own imprisonment” (Hurt 439). Although she claims to Mrs. Linde to be in the happiest eight years of her life with Torvald, she is lying. The realization that she must totally distance herself from Torvald, which entails the refusal to associate with anything that is a reminder to her, arrived at a crucial time in Nora’s life. This sudden insight came at the moment she discovered she was a part

of a loveless marriage (Hurt 439). Nora’s entire life is completely dependent on a predominant male figure. She begins to grab control of her life, along with finding independence, the moment she makes the decision to leave her family and start a new life. Nora’s Victorian upbringing is responsible for her attitude toward life and her acceptance of a dominating mate because she was never given any independence and responsibility. Nora’s new independent personality causes her to abandon her current life. She grasps for a new life, and receives it with great determination.