Fiction: Drama

The setting of A Doll’s House by Henrick Ibsen takes place during the timethe Helmers celebrate Christmas and New Year.  Christmas is a time when Christ was born while New Year is associated with renewal and rebirth. A good number of the characters of this play undergo the processe of being born again and keep on changing. Examples of these characters are Nora and Torvald. At first our heroine, Nora, seems like a woman who does not  think in organized way. One may agree with Torvald, when he calls Nora  "little lark", "little squirrel," and, worst of all, a "featherhead," she does not give adman instead she even seemed to enjoy and even entertain him into it.

When Torvald calls Nora a spendthrift, we tend to agree with him since the reader can see her giving the porter a very huge amount of money, presents for Christmas.  Also when the porter raised the issue of his debt she behaved in a way that showedthat she had never cared too much about it . She’s actually thrifty rather than spendthrift.. When her doctors claimed that the husband was going to die if they never went for one year trip to India she tried all means to get the money to save his life. She's secretly been stealing small amounts of money frequently over a period of time from her allowance and doing odd jobs to pay back the debt she had .

Nora was very much determined in saving her husband. This led him to commit fraud to do so. Nora’s trials led her to the condition sorrowful that her marriage experiences; the love that she imagined could not exist. There was no chance for the amazing things she'd hoped. She therefore understood that she would not settle or focuse unless she divorced her husband. The torture of Krogstad's blackmail commences the process, but the last blow is Torvald response when he realizes the truth. When such amazing thing doesn't occur, when Torvald does not endeavor to sacrifice himself, Nora recognizes that the relationship they had was empty; she therefore decides to walk from the house at night and leaving her husband. Though this, she is not single-handed in her spiritual awakening. Her husband as well has realized the complete insufficiency of his existence. Both Helmers are thus reborn as the play ends.

Krogstad and Christine are reborn as well they get a new start and view their new love affair as a salvation chance. Krogstad hopes that Christine’s influence will make him be a polite personand that he will also be part and parcel of his community. Christine also gets a purpose for her life, she is happy that she will have someone to take care of.

The Christmas tree is symbolic as it brings all the points made in the section above, also its presence tells us what season it is. It can also be realized as being a direct symbol of Nora. The tree seems to copy Nora's psychological state. The stage directions at the beginning of Act Two, tell us that, he Christmas Tree appears in a way that it has ornaments as well as with candle-ends that have been burnt down on its branches , ‘Nora is alone in the room, walking about uneasily’, she is in a mess so is the tree (Ibsen, 1923). She has gotten the bad news from Krogstad. As a result she is stressed and disturbed as the tree. The tree has lost all its decorations as well as Nora, all the pretty lies that she used as her cover up are falling down and soon the truth will emerge.

Nora's function in Tovarlds house is same to those of the tree. She is very decorative; she decorates up the tree just as her husband dresses her up for the Stenborgs' party. She tells Torvald that she cannot be seen in her costume until the party this reminds us of the time she had asked her house help not to let the kids have a look at the Christmas tree until when it would be decorated.