A Doll's House from a Sociological Criticism (Essay Sample)

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A Doll’s House from a Sociological Criticism
Literary criticism plays an important function in the interpretation of a text. Typically, various approaches are utilized in such a process including formalism, reader-response and sociological to name but a few. Usually, these methods take different routes in the interpretation depending on the chosen style. As a result, literary criticism completed using a sociological approach will be different from one done in biographical or feminism criticisms. While some of these focus primarily on the content, others connect the author’s life with a story. Still, others focus mainly on the historical context of the story and correlate it with the author’s assertions. For this paper, sociological criticism will be utilized in the interpretation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House play. Typically, a sociological criticism correlates a man’s relationships with others’ in society, business, politics and religion.
An important component of sociological criticism is the analysis of the relationship existing between characters in a story and their society (Pederson p.211). In the first scene of the play, a couple of issues come out including how the characters behave in the society. For instance, Nora is Torvald Helmer’s wife with a secret related to a loan. Kristine Linde is Nora’s former schoolmate struggling with life as a result of her husband’s demise. Krogstad seems to be a man struggling with life and is on the verge of losing his job at the bank where Torvald is a manager. Ironically, Krogstad knows about Nora’s crime of forgetting her father’s signature to acquire the loan (Ibsen and Haldeman-Julius p.15). From this scene, one can realize that the man at the center of the episode is Torvald Helmer since all the characters in the scene are connected to him.
Another important component of sociological criticism is that it analyzes how a story addresses societal issues including gender, class and race. In this story, these issues are addressed. For instance, it seems that the female gender revered men evidenced by Nora’s anxiety to reveal she took a loan. Also, men appeared to have negative perceptions toward women as evidenced by Torvald’s treatment of Nora. Upon arriving home from shopping, Torvald accuses Nora or being a spendthrift. Worse still, Torvald goes on to use other demeaning words such as ‘singing lark’, ‘songbird’ little squirrel’ and even ‘a doll’ (Ibsen and Haldeman-Julius p.18). Moreover, the mistreatment of women was not limited to Torvald. Prior to getting married to Torvald, Nora endured similar treatment from her father who "played with me just as I used to play with my dolls" (p.20).
Social class is distinct as well and confirmed by the author’s revelation that Krogstad is a low-level employee of the bank. Additionally, it is upheld in another case where it is revealed that Mrs. Linde was once in love with Krogstad. Apparently, Mrs. Linde left Krogstad ostensibly for a richer man who would support her (Ibsen and Haldeman-Julius p.35). The economy is one of the social forces evident in this play and affects people differently. For instance, because Torvald is economically stable, Krogstad has to beg Nora to be reinstated in his position. Similarly, since Nora engaged in a forgery activity, she has to endure Krogstad’s blackmail instead of being transparent with the husband.
Additionally, the microcosm is a clear reflection of the macrocosm in various ways. For instance, the small world existing between these parties is one that relationships are suffering because of poor communication. By the same token, some parties such as Krogstad and Linde are struggling financially. It is the same with the macrocosm- the larger world- where people outside the play could be struggling with similar issues. Dr. Rank’s condition that eventually leads to his death is a clear indication of incurable diseases both in the microcosm and macrocosm.
Evidently, there is Marxism in this story whereby the people seen as having money seem to control those with little. A case in point is when Torvald keeps criticizing Nora for a perceived blatant overspending (Ibsen and Haldeman-Julius p.28). Also, it is present in a scenario where Mrs. Linde is offered job by Torvald upon her request for the same. In this case, Torvald decides on Mrs. Linde’s fate the same way capitalism determines how low income-earning people live. Another case of capitalism entails Nora’s decision to borrow money secretly to pay for the husband’s sickness. Apparently, the decision to keep this information secretive was because Nora knew the husband’s pride and ego could be hurt.
Also, sociological criticism also addresses how characters respond to the various types of government (Gaus p.22). Some of these government styles include democracy, socialism, fascism, communism, and dictatorship. Predominantly, the play depicts a dictatorial type of government. For instance, Torvald is a dictatorial husband who hardly listens to anyone challenging his decisions. One tendency evident in a dictatorial government is a refusal to accept a varied opinion (Geenens p.80). Despite passionate pleas from Nora not to fire Krogstad, Torvald eventually goes ahead with the decision. Another common attribute of a dictatorial regime is suppression of subordinates. Torvald views both Nora and Krogstad as juniors and thus their opinions and positions are not highly regarded.
Democratic tendencies in the play are also present though a handful of them. One is evidenced in the scene where Mrs. Linde informs Krogstad of the decisi...