A Doll's House Symbols Flashcards
Macaroons
Torvald has banned Nora from eating macaroons. Although Nora claims that she never disobeys Torvald, this is proved false in the very opening of the play when Nora eats macaroons while she was alone in the living room. The macaroons come to represent Nora’s disobedience and deceit. She lies to Dr. Rank about having been given some by Mrs. Linde, and after giving a particularly tempestuous performance of the tarantella asks that macaroons be served at dinner, indicating a relationship between the macaroons and Nora’s inner passions, both of which she must hide within her marriage.
The Tarantella
Like the macaroons, the tarantella symbolizes a side of Nora that she cannot normally show. It is a fiery, passionate dance that allows Nora to drop the façade of the perfect mild-mannered Victorian wife. Throughout the play, Nora uses performance to please Torvald, and the tarantella is no exception; he admits that watching her perform it makes her desire her. However, this is only under very controlled circumstances, and Torvald seems to enjoy the fact that it is a performance that impresses other people more than anything.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is delivered in Nora’s flurry of excitement for Christmas. It symbolizes family happiness and unity, as well as the joy Nora takes in making her home pleasant and attractive. At the beginning of Act Two, the tree has been stripped and the candles burned out; the stage directions dictate that it should look “bedraggled.” This represents the end of Nora’s innocence and foreshadows the Helmer family’s eventual disintegration.
The stove
The stove is a conventional source of heat but, in Nora’s actions after Krogstad has gone into Helmer‘s study to have a talk with him in Act 1), the significance of the stove is extended to include emotional as well as physical warmth. Nora nods indifferently as she closes the hall-door behind Krogstad. Then she walks across the room and “sees to the stove”. There is no real need for Nora to touch the stove but her action reveals the state of her mind. Krogstad’s visit to Helmer has given rise to a vague fear in her mind, and so she makes up the fire, instinctively seeking a physical remedy for a nervous discomfort.
Oh, dear Doctor Rank, this is really horrid of you !”
Here (in Act II) she seeks mental comfort from the stove in her state of mental disturbance caused by Doctor Rank’s unexpected declaration of his love and the consequent giving up by her of her original plan to ask Doctor Rank for money and pay off the balance to Krogstad. Thus Ibsen makes use of a symbolic device to establish the emotional state of a character.
Birds Symbolism in A Doll’s House
Pet imagery has been used by Ibsen in order to symbolize possessiveness of Torvald Helmer towards Nora. When Nora feels excessive happy, he calls her “skylark” or “songbird”. When she is frightened, she is his “dove.” When he is unhappy, Torvald scolds Nora, referring to her in terms of birds, such as “A songbird must have a clean beak.” Birds represent Torvald’s view of Nora as a creature meant to entertain and delight him, whom he must protect. They also represent Nora’s flight to freedom, as she is like a bird in a cage, singing for her keep in the beginning of the play, but escaping by the end.
