SYMBOLISM IN ‘A DOLL’S HOUSE’

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a great dramatist of 20^th century who penned a number of grand masterpieces which emerged on the firmament of the English Literature as bright stars. ‘A Doll’s House’ contains a score of multifarious qualities and features. Symbolism is the quality in this masterpiece that has won wide acclaim all over the world.

Christians take Christmas as an important family celebration. But in ‘A Doll’s House’, Christmas day is working as an anti-climax.

 

Nora: “Oh, do! Dear Torvald; please, please do! Then I will wrap it in a beautiful glitter paper and hang it on the Christmas tree. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

 

At the beginning of the play, on Christmas Eve, Nora is believing her marriage to be happy. She brings a Christmas tree and insists that it should be kept hidden until she decorates it completely. The matter of fact is that there are some hidden aspects of the life symbolically presented. The life this household is not as Nora estimates.

All the pet names that Torvald uses for Nora symbolically tell us that he does not see her as an equal.

 

“Come, come, my little skylark must not drop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper?”

 

He believes that her role is to amuse and delight him. Torvald choses a fancy Neapolitan fisher girl dress that he had made for her in Capri. She wears it for her beloved husband. The very sight of the dress and her dancing throw him into a state of erotic fascination. This symbolically indicates that it were Nora’s superficial and transient qualities that he liked.

The most worth mentioning pint here is that Nora notices that the dress is torn off as the nurse brings out. This may be symbolic of the flawed state of her marriage and of her feelings about it.

Mrs. Linde being a mature lady suggests Nora to prepare the dress but she says that such dresses are irreparable. If we probe into a symbolic significance of this statement, we come to know Nora holds a strange but perhaps a strong notion that the marriage like the dress is beyond repair.

Light symbolizes awareness. While Nora is talking to Dr. Rank, the light begins to grow dark. This symbolizes two processes. First, Nora is using her sexual attractiveness to allure the dying Dr. Rank to give her money to pay off her loan. When Dr. Rank confesses his love for her, she is shocked. She immediately brings in a lamp telling Dr. Rank that he must feel ashamed of himself. Secondly, light appear to symbolize hope when Dr. Rank talks to Nora about his fast-approaching death. He talks of death as a big black hat that will make him invisible.

 

Mrs. Linde: “One must live, Doctor Rank.”

Rank: “Yes the general opinion seems to be that it is necessary.”

Nora: “Look here, Doctor Rank – you know you want to live.”

Rank: “Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients are like that. And so are those who are normally diseased; one of them, and a bad case, too, is at this very moment with Helmer.”

 

The matter of fact is that Dr. Rank loves her. Though Nora shows a dubious behaviour towards him yet she has given understanding, compassion and acceptance. We receive a symbolical implication that Nora wishes to join him in death by committing suicide.

The Tarantella is a dance and generally is danced by a couple or a line of couples. It was named after Tarantella spider whose poisonous bite was mistakenly believed to cause tarantism which means an uncontrollable urge for a wild dance. The only cure of this disease was to dance to exhaustion. The only outlet for passionate self-expression was the ‘Tarantella’. In this light, it is significant that Torvald tells Nora to practice Tarantella while he shuts himself away in his office;

 

“I shall hear nothing; you can make as much noise as you please.”

 

Ibsen was a possessor of manifold talents and multifarious qualities. He took English drama to the Alpine peak and the heights reached by him could not be kept by the later dramatists.

‘New Year Day’ is traditionally viewed as a new beginning and the Helmers at the beginning of the play are looking forward to just such a new beginning.

 

Nora: “This is the first Christmas that we have not needed to economize.”

 

Nora has intrinsically made a new beginning by the end of the play by leaving Torvald and her children. In the meanwhile, Mrs. Linde and Krogstad begin their new life and Dr. Rank dies after long periods of suffering.

To conclude, we may say unhesitatingly that Ibsen has succeeded in introducing new and marvelous symbols in this drama ‘A Doll’s House’.