a doll's house macaroons essay

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"A Doll's House": Symbolism of Freedom and Rebellion

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

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The christmas tree, the macaroons, the tarantella dance.

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A Doll House Symbolism Macaroons

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the relationship between the characters of Nora and Torvald Helmer is the main focus of the theme of the play. Throughout the play, and the film based upon this famous work of fiction, there are many instances where the reader can see significance in trivial, inconsequential things that Nora does, or Torvald says. One important example of this type of symbolism used by Ibsen to convey meaning beyond the surface of an event is seen in the sneaking of the macaroons by Nora throughout the play.

Taking a deeper look into the significance of this symbol, and understanding that the macaroons are symbolic of Nora’s defiance and lying, throughout the play we can better understand the relationship between Nora and Torvald, and most importantly about the way Nora feels about herself and her life with her husband.When we are first introduced to the character of Nora Helmer we find her having just come home from a shopping trip, and she is eating macaroons that she had purchased.

Her husband, Torvald, comes in to speak to her and almost jovially asks her, “Hasn’t Miss Sweet-Tooth been breaking rules in town today?”, which she quickly denies (Ibsen, Act I, Scene I). This seems like a trivial thing for a wife to lie about to her husband especially considering the fact that Torvald is not acting upset about the macaroons, but instead seems to be teasing her in a joking way. At deeper examination, and as we continue to view the play, we begin to understand that the macaroons have an extremely important symbolic meaning.

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They represent the constant deceptive life that Nora has to lead in order to keep her husband happy. She does not feel secure enough in her marriage to even admit to eating macaroons to her husband for fear of his dissatisfaction with her.If she admits this, she is admitting that she has been lying to him constantly and that his picture of his wife that he has in his head in not real, and for Torvald it is all about the appearance, as he professes in the final scene of the play. The macaroons also come up in her dealings with Rank, a sure sign that they represent a larger issue in Nora’s life, like deceiving her husband by forging the name for a loan. When she offers a macaroon to Dr. Rank, he says, “What, macaroons? I thought they were forbidden here” (Ibsen, Act I, Scene I). She has to lie to him, saying they were given to her by Mrs. Linde in order to make it seem like it was right for her to eat them. She has to defend her simple decision to eat a macaroon just as she has to defend her decision to forge the signature on the loan.Why Ibsen chose sweets as a symbol of lies and deception on the part of Nora and within the Helmer’s marriage was because sweets were, and still are, thought of as sinful in a way. When people eat sweets they are, in a sense, indulging in something that often they feel they should not. While most people today would imagine sweets as an indulgence that everyone gives in to, to Torvald the macaroons represent something within the character of Nora that he does not like: defiance of his wishes. He tells her to not eat macaroons, and she does anyway. In many things Nora tries to appear as if she is submissive to her husband. She buys a dress so she can do the dance her husband has taught her at the Christmas party, she acts childish around him in order to make him feel like the head of the household indulging his sweet wife, and tries to do everything the way her husband wants her to, at least in appearance. The macaroons represent the part of her that is not submissive, the part of her that is desperate to break out and be herself and not have to hide her true self from her husband. Throughout the play, this becomes one of the most important aspects of what is happening to Nora as an individual, and why in the end she leaves her husband and her family in search of a new life.The play, and ultimately the film, A Doll’s House is a story about a woman who has to live her life in fear of being found out for who she is. The macaroons and other sweets that she indulges in throughout the play are a symbol of the larger picture of her marriage, which is built on lies and deception, and her own internal struggle to rebel against the role that society and her husband have carved out for her.

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Discussion of Symbols and Metaphors Used in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”

In literature, authors often use symbolism to establish a deeper meaning in the essential ideas presented in their works. Precisely, symbolism is a figure of speech where the author uses either a character, object, phrase, or situation to represent another meaning or thing with a deeper meaning. Metaphors are also commonly used in literary works as techniques in which different things are compared to each other indicating similar qualities. Specifically, metaphors play an essential role in bringing two unrelated items into comparison to add clarity and creativity of figures of speech to literary texts. Different metaphors and symbolism have been used in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” to establish the clarity and meaning of the text to the audience. In particular,  A Doll’s House  was a play published during the late nineteenth century period, specifically in 1879 to tell the story of a family consisting of Torvald Helmer and his wife, Nora, along with their children (Ibsen 72). The play talks about the internal and external struggles that the family undergoes, including the threat of fraudulent acts that ultimately result in the family’s separation. This essay contends that in  A Doll’s House,  Ibsen uses significant symbolism in the play including the Christmas tree, Nora’s costume, the tarantella, and a range of metaphors to bring significant clarity to the internal and external struggles faced by Torvald Helmer’s family. In Ibsen’s  A Doll’s House,  the title constitutes a significant symbolic meaning of a patriarchal society, in which males were highly dominant over their female counterparts. In particular, the title revolves around the character, Nora, who after her marriage, struggles to her family and house with beauty, care, and love. However, amidst all her striving, her husband does not treat her with dignity. Instead, he tortures, humiliates, and insults her, which prevents her from realizing her dream of achieving the establishment of a loving, beautiful, and caring household. During the late eighteenth century period, society was largely characterized by patriarchal practices, in which men did not recognize the efforts of women as being important, and instead, they despised, tortured, and humiliated them considering them as objects. Similarly, in Ibsen’s  A Doll’s House,  the author uses the metaphor of Nora to signify her as an innate object, in this case, a doll. An innate object refers to something that has no value or will of its own. Similarly, Nora is compared to a doll as someone who lacks personal will or a mind of her own.

Another essential symbol that is commonly used throughout Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” includes the Christmas tree. In particular, the Christmas tree is used to symbolize Nora’s excitement in her efforts to achieve unity and happiness in her household. Precisely Ibsen uses the Christmas tree as a symbolic representation of the joy, happiness, and excitement Nora embraces in creating an attractive and pleasant home for her family. Christmas trees are used in contemporary societies as attractive festive objects often used to establish attractive homes for family members to gather in unity and joy and celebrate the Christmas festive period. In the play however, especially during the beginning of the second Act, the Christmas tree ultimately gets “bedraggled” implying it is stripped (Ibsen). This description symbolizes that the joy and unity that Nora tries to achieve is stripped off and the family’s unity eventually disintegrates.

Another symbolism used in the play involves Nora’s costume along with the tarantella that she dances at the party which represents her willingness to pretend to be something she is not to make her husband feel the belief that he controls her fully. In this context, the tarantella is viewed as a romantic spark that Nora uses in the dance during their practice to take part in the upcoming ball. Consequently, Nora is dedicated to using the tarantella and the practice of dancing as her excuse for preventing her husband, Torvald from checking and finding out about the constituents of the mailbox. Therefore, Ibsen uses the tarantella in the play as a symbolic representation of Nora’s uncontrollable character, in which she plays dumb consistently to stoke her husband’s ego. For instance, during the play, Nora asks her husband to assist her pick up the costume and teach her to dance. This determination symbolizes Nora’s role as a helpless young girl who is unable to make any decision without her husband’s assistance, something characteristic of the period’s patriarchal society in which the women’s efforts were considered useless and invaluable.

Throughout Ibsen’s  A Doll’s House,  the author continues to use symbols to represent some hidden and deeper meaning of the play. One of the consistently used symbols includes the macaroons. In particular, the macaroons mainly represent Nora’s deceit and disobedience, especially in her marriage. In particular, Nora goes to eat the macaroons alone while she is in the living room even after her husband has banned her from consuming them during the opening of the play. In this context, Ibsen uses the macaroons to symbolically represent Nora’s disobedience to her husband’s rules. They also demonstrate her deceit because even after she is banned from consuming them, she goes ahead and betrays her husband and claims that she has never disobeyed Torvald.

Ibsen’s  A Doll’s House  generally constitutes the use of several symbols and metaphors to exalt the clarity and meaning of a society characterized by patriarchal practices and experiences of the time when the play was composed. Symbols like the Christmas tree, the tarantella, and the macaroons mainly represent the characteristic experiences and behaviors of women in a society characterized by patriarchy. They illustrate the struggles that women faced including their indignation, humiliation, and torture, and their subsequence pretense keeping up with them to stark the ego of their husbands. This play offers important insights into the struggles of families, especially families that still embrace the system of patriarchy, and the role of such a family setting in leading to separation and instability in today’s society.

Works Cited

Henrik, Ibsen.  A doll’s house . Xist Publishing, 2015.

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A Doll’s House Analysis: Symbolism & Setting

On this page with A Doll’s House analysis, you can find a few aspects that may help you understand Ibsen’s work. Custom-Writing.org experts have prepared it for those who love getting into details.

The first things to look into are A Doll’s House symbolism and literary devices since there may be some minor signs you’ve missed while reading the play. Then, we get into such details as genre and setting . An additional issue that should be highlighted is the central conflict in A Doll’s House .

• 🦄 Symbolism
• 🖋️ Literary Devices
• ⚔️ Conflict

🔗 References

🦄 symbolism in a doll’s house.

Symbolism always plays an essential role in getting a deeper insight into the main ideas that the author presented there. Usually, it is pretty easy to miss those minor signs during the first reading. That’s why we created such a guide so that all students and interested people could have a chance to learn more about symbolism in A Doll’s House .

Even though symbols can be hard to interpret and there are many different opinions to find, some of them are pretty straightforward. For example, Ibsen placed at least two of them: macaroons that Nora secretly munches on and a tarantella dance which is a part of the ball.

Macaroons are sweet round cookies that have become so popular all over the world recently. It seems pretty innocent that they appear in some of the scenes of the play. However, macaroons in A Doll’s House play a much more critical role. The sweets are mentioned already in the first scene when Nora comes back from shopping. She eats them while alone and hides them in the pockets as soon as her husband walks in. It appears that Torvald forbids her to eat sweets.

Hasn’t Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today?.. Hasn’t she paid a visit to the confectioner’s?.. Not even taken a bite at a macaroon or two? A Doll’s House , act 1

Even though the woman swears that she would never go against her husband’s will, the audience sees her eating macaroons and even requesting them later for dinner. She even lies to Dr. Rank that it was Mrs. Linde who brought them. As a symbol in A Doll’s House, macaroons show her real nature. Nora only pretends to be an obedient wife when deep inside, rebellious actions are what attracts her. She is forced to hide from everyone to keep her marriage intact.

Tarantella Dance

The tarantella dance in A Doll’s House appears to be an essential part of the couple’s life. It is something they brought from their trip to Italy and may be seen as a romantic spark. They have decided to incorporate the dance into the upcoming ball. In the play, Nora uses the wish to practice it as an excuse to keep Torvald from checking the mailbox. However, there is another side to this symbol. The tarantella represents Nora’s uncontrollable character. It is a passionate, emotional, and fiery dance, so she can finally stop pretending and enjoy the element while dancing. It comes from the fact that Victorian women were not welcome to be so open with their emotions.

My dear darling Nora, you are dancing as if your life depended on it. A Doll’s House , act 2

Moreover, Nora likes to please her husband, and Torvald enjoys it. However, it appears that he only finds it acceptable when his wife dances under his control and when everyone else approves the dance. It points out his controlling and self-conscious nature once again.

🏠 A Doll’s House Setting

The setting of A Doll’s House is a small town or city somewhere in Norway. It is Ibsen’s native country, even though the play was written in Germany . However, most of the action appears to be happening in the living room of the Helmer family. It is described as a place where a respectable middle-class gentleman would live.

Choosing such a general setting is not a coincidence. Ibsen did it on purpose so that the audience in any country would identify the setting with their own perception. It may have been a trick to draw more attention to spiritual and existential issues opened up in the play.

A Doll’s House Time Period

Unlike the place where the play is set, the time period of A Doll’s House can hardly be taken as familiar nowadays. Ibsen describes the Victorian era , which was a tough time for all women. Their rights were widely repressed , leaving the window of opportunities almost shut. The only thing women could do is get married, obey their husbands, and raise kids. On the other hand, men could aim for any goal they wished in their career and life in general. Husbands were managing all financial issues in the family and wanted nothing to deal with their children. Therefore, Ibsen’s play presenting the rebellious behavior of female characters was so scandalous back then.

🖋️ Literary Devices in A Doll’s House

Some of the literary devices in A Doll’s House are pretty typical for the genre. Therefore, there is no point in highlighting them separately.

However, Ibsen’s two tricks fit perfectly in the overall impression of the play being revolutionary and shocking:

• Not every audience would understand irony , so the author had to present it smoothly. In the explanation below, you can find out more about it and check out the examples of its use.
• Another device masterfully implemented in the play is foreshadowing . Some moments when it is present in A Doll’s House may even be considered ironic as well.

One of the first examples of irony mentioned in the play is when Torvald calls his wife a spendthrift . It might look like it’s true for someone who doesn’t know the story. However, as the audience finds out later, Nora puts away all her allowance because she needs to pay off the loan. She borrowed the money illegally to pay for Torvald’s treatment and save his life. Since, as a woman, Nora only gets financial support from her husband, she has to sacrifice some things and spend money carefully . 

An example of dramatic irony in A Doll’s House is when Torvald promises to support and protect Nora whatever happens. He wishes there can be a situation in which he could prove it. However, when such time comes at the end of the play, Torvald’s words appear to have been an empty promise. Krogstad reveals Nora’s secret and blackmails the family. The woman expects her husband to stand up for her and give up social rules. Meanwhile, Torvald doesn’t care about his wife and only worries about his reputation and position.

Now you have destroyed all my happiness. You have ruined all my future. A Doll’s House , act 3

Foreshadowing

Perhaps the most prominent case of A Doll’s House foreshadowing , which also serves as a symbol, is Nora having macaroons . She is not allowed to buy anything from a candy shop. Still, she greatly enjoys some sweets in the first scene. Already then, the audience perceives it as a hint. Nora’s nature is rebellious, and she is pretty disobedient, only trying to look like an innocent good wife. Therefore, this act foreshadows her realization of Torvald’s repression, which also leads to her decision to abandon the family.

One more example of this literary device is used in the conversation between Nora and the maid. They are talking about the maid’s past and how she was forced to leave her child. Nora, still tense after talking to Krogstad, exclaims that if anything happens with her, the maid can be a great substitute in the role of mother for her three children.

And if my little ones had no other mother, I am sure you would—What nonsense I am talking! A Doll’s House , act 2

The whole situation with the secret debt gets Nora into thinking about either killing herself or escaping the shame. However, it is merely a foreshadowing of her actually leaving by the end of the play. Only the reason for such a decision is different.

📒 A Doll’s House Genre

Since A Doll’s House is a play, its genre would be identified as drama . It wouldn’t be so easy to fully feel and understand the piece until it is realized on the stage.

However, we can also claim that the A Doll’s House genre is a tragedy .

Ibsen took an exciting path to create the play since it came out slightly different from the previous tragedies. In this one, he highlights the clash between an individual and society. Therefore, even though there is no death at the end of the play, the audience witnesses the end of a marriage and the “death” of Nora’s previous identity.

⚔️ A Doll’s House Conflict

As mentioned in the previous section, there is a significant clash in the play. A Doll’s House conflict is represented by Nora’s attempts to fight the social rules. Therefore, it can be argued that the central conflict revolves around an individual going against society. Nora stands for the rights of all women who are repressed and unable to function as separate members of the community without their husbands. Moreover, her most obvious conflict is with her husband, Torvald, who doesn’t treat her as equal. She is not satisfied with being his obedient doll anymore, and she realizes that the institute of marriage itself must be faulty.

I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls… That is what our marriage has been, Torvald. A Doll’s House , act 3

Thank you for reading this article! If you need help with formulating a thesis for your paper on A Doll’s House try our thesis statement generator . If you are looking for an essay idea on the play, you might want to take a look at the essay topics collection . Any questions left? Check the QA section !

• What is Symbolism in Literature? – Definition, Types & Examples
• Genre Definition and Examples in Literature – ThoughtCo
• 45+ Literary Devices and Terms Every Writer Should Know
• ‘A Doll’s House’: Themes and Symbols – ThoughtCo
• A Doll’s House – Context
• (PDF) “Dramatic Irony in A Doll’s House play” – ResearchGate
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A Doll's House

Henrik ibsen.

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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… read analysis of The Christmas Tree

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… read analysis of Macaroons

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… read analysis of The Tarantella

The Doll’s House

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Everyone who Made This Happen

A Performance Piece That Required a Fencing Coach and a Sex Doll Maker

The artist Miles Greenberg’s latest show lasted for nine hours. It took much longer to come together.

By Kate Guadagnino

“ Everyone Who Made This Happen ” takes a look at the outsize teams of artists and creative types it often takes to produce a single work.

Number of people involved: Over 40, including those from the Art Gallery of Ontario, which co-commissioned the work alongside the Luminato Festival Toronto, and Phi Studio, a Montreal production company.

Time from commission to performance: Six months.

From noon to 9 on a Wednesday this past June, the Canadian artist Miles Greenberg, 26, stood in Walker Court at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and sliced the air with swords and daggers. Instead of dueling a human opponent, he squared off against a camera held by a robotic arm that countered and recorded his movements. All around him, strewn across the mirrored floor, were nine uncanny silicone sculptures of his likeness positioned as if they’d already been slain. Occasionally the artist stabbed one of his clones, picking up its weapon before reassuming his position in front of the camera.

Greenberg, who has made his name with elaborate performance pieces that emphasize the body and how it changes yet perseveres over what’s often a grueling period, found inspiration for “Respawn” (2024) in R.P.G.s, or role-playing video games. Every hour on the hour, a disembodied voice interrupted the soundtrack’s progressively deepening ambient bass drone to announce, “Level 1,” “Level 2” and so on. Additionally, the camera footage, which was projected on two monitors outside of the court and will live on as a video work, mimicked the perspective of a gamer sitting on their couch. The artist saw a parallel between the many lives of R.P.G. characters and how, in our own lives, we dispense with versions of ourselves as we evolve. The more exhausted he became, though, the more compassion he had for his corpselike clones. “I ended up feeling very held by them,” he says — just as he did, in a different sense, by the people behind the scenes.

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