Porcelain Boundaries

Nora Helmer lived the majority of her life as a toy - an assumingly perfect plastic model of a human being. If she opposed any opinions of her father's, he would be displeased; as a result, she was "built" to portray pretend emotions and live with society the way it was. Her costumes are her own masquerade; she pretends to be a doll, allowing Torvald to dress her up and tell her to dance. The use of pet names such as "squirrel," "fritterbird," and "skylark" not only shows Torvald's affection towards his wife, but also that his affection would be terminal if she stepped outside of her porcelain boundaries. Nora's father and her husband Torvald made it a habit of treating Nora like a doll, therefore creating a domino effect in which the children (Bob and Ivan) also became dolls in the household. Multiple scenes in A Doll's House provide imagery where we watch Nora's children become her dolls. One in particular is when Nora dances with her children, then proceeds to play hide and seek, referring to them as her lovely baby dolls. "The children storm in, look, cannot find her, hear her giggling, rush to the table, lift up the cloth and see her. There is huge excitement." Typically, the role of a mother is not always to act as a playmate. The innocence of it all makes it especially natural to view the family as playthings that live happy little lives with no worries.

Nora's role in A Doll's House is portrayed like a plastic toy that is completely controlled by her husband Torvald. Dolls are looked at as being plastic, fake, devoid of emotion. Nora is quite similar in this way and it is shown whenever she is interacting with her husband. The dance referenced in A Doll's House was called the Tarentelle. The Tarentelle was originally names after the tarantula for its sting on its victims. First the dizzying rounds and rounds and laughter and chatter and "flight"

...