A Doll's House Dramatic Irony Essay

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In the book “A Doll’s House”, Ibsen utilizes setting, tone, irony and diction in order to display Nora’s deceptiveness and Torvald’s hypocrisy which exacerbate the discord between Nora and Torvald, resulting in Nora’s decision to desert her family. Nora continually lies in order to hide about her forgery while Torvald suppresses Nora, intensifying her superficiality. Torvald, throughout the play, is portrayed as a financial provider of the family and is a very conservative man who demands Nora to be “a proper wife and mother”. He considers himself as the only one capable of making decisions. Torvald’s dominance is what mainly intensifies the situation. He is more attracted to Nora’s physical features than her emotional feeling. After the…show more content…
When Krogstad threatens to blackmail Nora, she reveals, “It would be a rotten shame. That secret is all my pride and joy- why should he have to hear about it in this nasty, horrid way…. hear about it from you”(32). This statement is an example of dramatic irony because her “pride and joy” is what contrasts to Torvald’s personal statement. Torvald once stated his strong contempt against debts as he said: “No debts! Never borrow! There’s something inhibited, something unpleasant.” Nora assuredly is incapable of understanding Torvald so is Torvald of her. In addition to this, Ibsen portrays Torvald’s hypocrisy through dramatic Irony. When Nora pleads with Torvald to keep Krogstad’s position at the bank, Torvald says that the rude behavior is another factor that disturbed him apart from his forgery. Then he adds: “I am not so heartless as to condemn a man altogether because of a single false step of that kind.” This is ironic because when Krogstad’s letter reveal Nora’s one and only fault to Torvald, he gets extremely furious that he verbally abuses her. This part of the play is what fueled and revealed the ugly reality of beautiful and peaceful seeming relationship forced by social

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