Introduction
Disease brings the abrupt end of Helmer’s marriage in the play ‘A Doll’s House’. The play has various characters. It has Mr. Helmer, Nora, Mrs. Linda, Dr. Rank and Krogstad as the main characters. The play contains three separate parts. In the first part, the stage conveys a positive and happy living home. Mr. Helmer’s marriage seems to be nice in the first part with limited challenges despite some hidden secrets emerging. It shows the Christmas joyous mood and buying of presents by Nina .
In the second part of the play, Mr. Helmer successfully secures the managerial position in the bank. We know about his health and the medication currently prescribed by doctor Rank who seems to be his personal doctor. In this part, we learn about Krogstad. He works in the bank where Mr. Helmer was promoted. He previously had misconduct in the bank by defrauding the bank. The serious crime carries a penalty of dismissal in the bank. However, we learn that he has a weapon to secure his position despite being Mr. Helmer’s friend. In the same part, we learn that Nora also referred to as Mrs. Helmer had borrowed some money to help his husband secure treatment of his ailing condition abroad. Nora lied to her husband the source of money to be her late father’s wealth. She borrowed the money from Krogstad. She had this secret from all but reveal it to her old friend Christine referred to as Mrs. Linda in the play. However, she never reveals the identity of the source. Mrs. Linda lost her husband and came to seek help from her friend’s family. Mr. Helmer promises her a position in the bank as he takes over the management role. Dismissal of Krogstad will create a vacant position for Mrs. Linda. Krogstad uses her secret weapon by detecting Nina’s mistake of signing the lease document and indicating a date past her father’s death in the name of her father . He considers it as fraud and compares it to his dismissal from the bank. He decides to use it against Nina to blackmail her husband retain Krogstad in the bank. However, in the third part of the play Mr. Helmer reveals to Nina that Mrs. Linda was Krogstad replacement. She tries to convince her husband but fails at last. Doctor Rank worries about her position, but later gets assurance after discovering that Mrs. Linda would work at the bank and not at home. The truth gets revealed at the end of the play, and Nina decides to return home. It marks the end of their marriage.
Nina used her lovely body to entice Krogstad and other people raise that amount of money. This disgust Mrs. Linda and make her refer to Nina as a fool. She lies to her husband and continues to eat sugary macaroon. Doctor Rank finds her consuming macaroon, but she defends herself by using Mrs. Linda. Mrs. Linda gets surprised by the ability of Nina an old classmate to change the minds of mind and be her followers. She gets convinced that she will secure employment through Nina. She gets the guarantee from the husband who confirms the vacant position. The husband’s disease causes Nina to reveal to her friend the source of money to Mrs. Linda . She gives her advice as an elder friend and a widow, but Nina turns a deaf ear. She decides to keep the secret to herself believing that it could never be revealed to anyone else. She hoped that her family would remain intact with love if she never said about it. From her story, Mrs. Linda noted that she was spoilt and absorbed by the world and needed to change for her to succeed. However, pride would not allow her accept correction. She believed in finding solutions to all her problems. She never cared about the source of the solution or never considered her husband’s idea.
On the other side, Mr. Helmer did his work according to the rules and regulations. He loved his family and ensured they lived together in harmony and respect. He involved his wife in all the family decisions and considered her views on various issues. He allowed her wife to do the Christmas shopping for the family and provided additional funds when requested. He trusted her wife in all areas. He also considered her wife’s friend Mrs. Linda for employment in the bank when the wife brought him the idea. However, where law was required by the bank he had to follow the law. Thus, this led to his disagreement with the wife on dismissing Krogstad. The wife got disappointed since Krogstad threatened to reveal the secret and sue the Nina for fraud. She had forged her late father signature which was the same case as that of his dismissal in the bank. She used all means to convince her husband not to dismiss Krogstad, but it was on deaf ears. The law had to be followed, and Krogstad was dismissed from the bank . Information was revealed when Krogstad was dismissed. Mr. Helmer learnt the truth about her wife. He learnt the source of money for his treatment. He leant all what Nina had been doing in their marriage. This led Nina to moving out of the marriage. She claimed that she did all that to save his ailing husband. She concealed the truth from the husband for fear of the family and children. She hoped that she would repay the loan and proceed with her family well. However, the husband viewed this as a plot to something Nina was planning. He never understood why Nina had to opt for these measures . He never understood the reasons for his wife holding information from him yet he was true to her. It betrayed her love and trust. Nina could also not bear it. She opted to leave the marriage. She decided to move out of marriage and leave the children with their father. It was a hard decision, but she also had a weapon of her beauty. She believed that she wouldn’t fail to have a man with her beauty.
Conclusion
Work Cited
Fisher, Jerilyn and Ellen S Silber. Women in literature: reading through the lens of gender. New York: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Maryland: Serenity publishers, LLC, 2009.
Jones, Robert B. Jean Toomer and the Prison-house of Thought: A Phenomenology of the Spirit. Boston: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Kiebuzinshka, Christine. Intertextual loops in modern drama. London: Rosemount Publishing & Printing Corp., 2001.
Shmoop. A Doll's House: Shmoop Literature Guide. Serenity Publishers: Maryland, 2010.
