A Doll’s House Group

Question:

krazykate
krazykate
Student
Community / Jr. College

What is the significance of the play’s title, A Doll's House?  Why is it especially appropriate for the play’s events?

Rate question:

Posted by krazykate on Wednesday March 4, 2009 at 9:56 PM and tagged with a doll's house, a doll’s house, symbolism, title.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

    "A Doll's House" (actually, in the Norweigan it's apparently just titled "Dollhouse") is a really good title for the play, as there are lots of ways you can read it into what happens in the play itself.

    • Firstly, Torvald treats Nora like a doll, calling her his "squirrel", and patronising her with little pet names. She is like a little toy to him, not taken seriously, and not really credited with her own personality.

      Thus, Nora's exit from the house at the end is her removing herself from her role as a "doll" and stepping out into the real world for the first time. 

      Moreover, you might argue, it leaves Torvald as the "doll", the person trapped in a make-believe world, trapped in the doll's house.
    • Nora leaves her children at the end of the play. Some critics have argued that her children are also just playthings to her in the play, and that, like her housekeeping money and her macaroons, they are toys which needs to be left behind as she truly grows into a real person.
    • A doll, of course, is manipulated by its owner - it has no will of its own, and yet, even though Nora plays at being a doll, she actually manipulates Torvald and Dr. Rank quite successfully throughout the play. If this is the doll's house, Nora seems the one the most in control of it - and it is Torvald unable to operate after Nora's exit, not vice versa.

    Hope it helps!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/dollshouse/themes

    Rate answer:

    Posted by robertwilliam on Thursday March 5, 2009 at 7:18 AM