Primitivism in 20th century literature

Primitivism in 20th century literature

Primitivism is a belief in the value of what is simple and unsophisticated, expressed as a philosophy of life or through art or literature.

Simple is described as having few parts or features; not complicated or elaborate, easy to understand, do, or carry out, having or composed of only one thing, element, or part.

Primitivism is an internally coherent set of images and ideas that shape perceptions of the primitive.

Primitive is 1. Of or belonging to the first age, the period or stage; earliest, original.

2. Having the quality or style of that which is early or ancient.

3. Original as opposed to derivative; primary as opposed to secondary.

Benevolence is anti-thesis of intellectualism. Primitiveness helps them in being benevolent without posing as intellectual.

The subjects of "civilization" are trapped in the "primitive" hidden within themselves. Patrick White in his novel “The tree of man” has delineated the poetry and mystery in the lives of the simple farming couple Stan and Amy Parker. They deal with complex situations and the chain of events in an unsophisticated manner. The elements in the form of flood and fire are bravely fought and conquered. The bravery is the natural outcome of simplicity. Those who pretend aggression to scare the people is basically cowards. Simple life is far from any kind of pretension.

The simplicity of true grandeur found in tree transcends in the human being who live their life in the proximity of nature. The act of adultery by Amy, not only once by twice reflects that it is not impulsive but a deliberate act to overcome the boredom or an act of rebellion against a husband who had become unromantic. Their marriage was not a consequence of a decision, but an outcome of a certainty. They had a highly romantic honeymoon.

The writer says “the whole night had become a poem of moonlight…. Flesh is heroic by moonlight. The man took the body of the woman and taught it fearlessness.” Mystery and poetry of real life are revealed in an extraordinary within the ordinary. The Author has rationalized Amy’s act of adultery by concluding “Sometimes her simplicity would blaze electrically.”

Stan also makes a brief encounter with passion when he rescues Madeleine from fire. Flavor of the incident is romantic, but passions are sublimated by conviction and values. Moreover, simple deserves forgiveness. Madeline once admires the crude furniture in the house of Stan for it had reality.

For anything that is grand and simple, even the end is a new beginning. The grandson of Stan wants to write a poem of life, of what he did not know, but knew. So that in the end there were trees.

Eliot as a primitivists talked about inverting the hierarchy of savage and civilised since he spoke from a position that was, "deeper" and "older" than - and uncontaminated by - their culture.

James Clifford stated "primitives were fundamentally all the same, and important primarily as a window onto suppressed aspects of the civilized personality."

Eliot's theories of poetic imagination to his and Woolf's ideas of the importance of "impersonality" and Lawrence’s adaptation of “Psychoanalysis” were an attempt to strike a balance in their dual responsibility towards society as wells on their own-self. Primitivism is the criteria by which the work like “The Wasteland” (Eliot), “The Voyage Out” (Woolf), “The Plumed Serpent”(Lawrence) can be understood.

Do the earliest condition of man society was best? Human race treats the nature as an enemy. The human relationship has been deteriorated by an advancement of technology. Is it possible to return to primitive life we once had? We have come so far from nature, would nature forgive and accepts us?

Should native red-Indians forgive genocide when we are not ready to even apologize for Hiroshima. The harmony has been damaged beyond repair.

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Floating in The Vacuum With No Purpose

Floating in the vacuum with no purpose, not a one.

Why in the night sky are the lights on?

~ Fleet Foxes - Blue Spotted Tail

 Floating is a perfect posture for the thinking mind. Floating is a mental state reached by practicing. Whatever you need for physical buoyancy, deep breathing, lungs full of air, more oxygen in the blood, relaxed body, the first thing for you is to believe that you can float.

The same is true with the life. The journey starts with a belief. If you believe you can, you can. Then you need a dose of oxygen, positive energy. An oxygenated mind is like fertile soil. The ideas germinate and find a purpose in the lights put on in the night sky, a purpose in every single breath that you inhale and exhale.

Buoyancy is a principle of Physics. It is just an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object, or in other words, anything with higher density than water, will sink in water. The human body is naturally buoyant like all other animals, but they need to learn swimming. Most of other animals have a natural instinct to swim by keeping their nose above water. Mammalian Diving Reflexes, Vertical Anatomy of Ape, Guerrilla and Homo sapiens and Theory of Evolution are interesting attempts to understand this unresolved issue.

In the ocean of life, mind is under a weight of memories and past deeds, hope is the upward thrust required for buoyancy. Righteous deeds carry the consent of conscience and are light in gravity. Wrong deeds are conducted under temptation against the conscience, become heavy in gravity and cause a downward thrust. Every human being is a mix of these two streams. Wrong deeds or bad conduct creates hurdles in achieving the object of completeness. Complex situations are gifts of nature to advance evolution. Temptations have tendency to camouflage. Most of them elope when identified. Repentance is the hope of being forgiven.

"The highest type of man is he who effectively unites in himself the widest variety, complexity, and completeness of life."~ Spencer

Our Central Nervous System and Skeletal System are obsessed with specific gravity of the body. Salty water gives a buoyancy that makes our mind free to concentrate on other issues like elevation. Secretion of chemicals also determines the nature of our response. Adrenaline causes fear and extra glucose help to run or retort aggressively. However, by meditation the secretion of chemicals can also be controlled.

The human mind is said to be superior in the whole animal kingdom. Prenatal memories or memories of past incarnations are also possible. Man chases the secured buoyant life he had in the uterus. Right brain, which governs creativity and imagination is more active in a buoyant state. The homeostasis is ideal in a floating position, since external stimuli are at a minimum.

Buoyancy is bliss. We have arbitrary notions of progress that creates conflict in the mind. The Unknowable sets up a vacuum. Though acceptance of unknowable also implies that we have certain knowledge of the thing (Spencer). In the great sea of existence, we are a transient wave. The wave is an effort to restore the force of gravity.

Next time, when you are in water, seek buoyancy and float. Christ could walk on water. Many Buddhist monks walk on water, even today. Learn Buoyancy.

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The River is Everywhere

“The River is Everywhere.”

                           ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

CC at Ganges in Banaras

For long, long hour rain writes the story on the breast of the river. In different moods. Fast and slow, mild and fierce, stroke after strokes. Clouds feed the ink. Thunder claps, lightening cries. The story is tragic. The story is a comedy. The story is the story of life. 

Rain stops writing. River is always flowing indifferently. Rain has writer's block. The boredom of repeating the words, which have no meaning. As purposeless as life. River has swelled. Like desires. She looked so thin and cute. She has crossed margins. Wayward flow of life.

River is older than civilization. Richer than Kings. More thoughtful than sages. She is also like an ignorant peasant youthful girl. It has reflections. The trees, cattle drinking water, or taking a bath, children ready to jump, blue sky, birds, clouds, the bridge everything is recorded on the breast of the river. But nothing remains forever. Every moment a new story is drafted with different characters. Continuity of flow causes stress. Every moment is a pull and push. The future becomes present and past at that single moment.

River has problems with ungrateful people. Those who take her for granted. Those who render her feel dirty and ugly. She silently seeks to teach them. They have inflated ego and swollen pride. They do not understand. Then river retorts. It is not an easy decision. She finds another path, her course. New terrain, new people. They welcome her with open arms. The abandoned path becomes barren. People beg for mercy. She does not listen. She can’t.

No other part of nature is dynamic like her. Nor so omnipresent. For the theist, she is symbolic of God, for an atheist, a friend. She prefers being friend rather than God. Friends do care. Theists have destroyed her. They are the enemy of civilization.

She sings beautiful songs, with blissful abundance. The rainbow plays the tune; birds chirp and wind create sound with the rustling of leaves. The symphony played in the orchestra of nature.

 The river splits the world apart. On one end, are sensual on the other end, abstemious. Denial and acceptance are same for the river. River has bridges. Root bridges are hereby replaced by concrete bridges. The other side always is more enchanting. Bridges facilitate swift transformation, swimming across the river is a miracle.

Look at the face of the river. The turbulence is merely apparent. Deep down, she has reflection of your soul. It has many stories to share. She has ancient and modern stories in her treasure. You should have patience. Listen to them.

"I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

~KonaBody

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Isabel’s Dilemma in The Portrait of a Lady

What Women Look For In a Man?

Bathsheba Everdene is the main character in the novel by Thomas Hardy, “Far from the madding crowd” and Isabel Archer is the main character in the novel by Henry James “The portrait of a lady.”

In chapter 42 in "The Portrait of a Lady" Isabel introspects her life. Henry James has an intention to rationalise the act of Isabel. She is an epitome of American innocence struggling against European experience. However, the reader is hardly convinced, but the reflections of Isabel as the “central consciousness” to understand herself are honest. Isabel had three suitors, and she makes a wrong choice.

In “Far From the Madding Crowd” Bathsheba also had three suitors and she also makes a wrong decision. Isabel is educated aristocrate girl from US while Bathsheba is from the countryside of England called Wessex. Isabel selects Gilbert Osmond and Bathsheba opts for Sergeant Troy as their life partners. Osmond and Troy were already having an affair with the women of low stature, Merle and Fenny respectively.

What women look for in a man? Why a prudent pretty girl would make a wrong choice? No, they are not at fault. Osmond and Troy represent archetype 'sly and greedy male'. They know how to entice pretty and rich girls. They play romantic tricks to win the heart and squeeze the flesh and money out of their beloved. Both women felt immense pleasure in squandering their inherited fortune.  The inheritance was a good gesture of some distant relative.  It sat on their conscience, so they lavishly bestowed it on their Prince Charming. They did not care if their spouse gamble or buy a rare piece of art. Bathsheba in chapter xxv draws various conclusions. “Idiosyncrasy and vicissitude had combined to stamp Sergeant Troy as an exceptional being.” They believed every word their beloved spoke to flatter them. When all the money was exhausted the true characters of their beloved husbands were disclosed, but by that time, it was too late.

In the movie “Far from the madding crowd”, Bathsheba Everdene says, “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language chiefly made by men to express theirs.” They are not a victim of destiny; they are victims of their frailty. Hamlet saw this frailty in his mother Gertrude when she chose a goat-man over a sun god.

The suffering of a woman who makes a wrong choice is an “active condition”. She has an urge to develop and beat the circumstances. She finds a way to get rid of the relationship that has become a burden. They cannot carry it forever. Feminine pride is distinct from masculine pride. Feminine pride is hidden underneath her “identity” and no woman compromises on that, even if her self-esteem is low due to an immoral act. Man’s pride is in “Self”. If his self-esteem is poor, he loses his pride. They reflect to consciousness in different ways, which defines the basic character.

Either we may presume about the author’s intention or we may draw our own conclusions. Ernest Hemingway probably had this view in mind when he wrote, "books should be judged by those who read them—not explained by the writer.” According to new criticism author’s real intention is to create a work of art and reader can draw his own interpretation (Wimsatt and Beardsley essay “intentional fallacy”). The author is dead once the book is completed. His opinion then is as good as that of others. Thomas Hardy and Henry James have already put their intention in their work. Reading literature is not an exercise to decipher the message of the author, but an experience to find the solution and perspective about the world around us. How does it matter if deceased cousin Minny Temple inspired the character of Isabel Archer?

Isabel conceives a deep mistrust for her husband. She is suffered by deception. She thought she could change-as he wanted. “She was, after all, herself- she couldn’t help that;” So she stops pretending.

A woman is obsessed to occupy the mind of the man she loves. A clever man pretends the privilege and defeats the objective. He is only interested in her pretty appearance and not her ideas. When a husband realises that he is unable to regulate the emotions of his wife, there is nothing left but to hate her. Therefore, Isabel generously renounces everything and goes to Rome, to look for answers.Henry James has left her heroine 'in the air'. The 'whole' of anything can never be told. According to Joseph Conrad, it makes the ending "life-like". Life itself is incomplete and inconclusive.

Thomas Hardy makes a happy ending.Bathsheba and Oak are together finally. James Wright says “The scheme is charmingly neat; it is satanically false to Hardy.”

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Immanence and Transcendence in Literature

When there is no belief in soul, there is very little drama.

~Flanner O'Connor

Thomas Hardy and Edmund Husserl (wiki)

Immanent means 'indwelling' or 'inherent'. Beauty is not something imposed, but something immanent — Anthony Burgess. Spinoza and Husserl, who influenced Wordsworth, Shelley, George Eliot and Beckett gave signs of the Theory of Immanence. Edmund Husserl was of the view that realities must be treated as pure phenomenon. Everything that is not immanent to consciousness must be ruled out.  There is no fundamental substrate reality other than what it appears to us. Thus, sign for the object and the object itself are perhaps one and the same thing. Likewise, Spinoza says the sign is immanent to substance. The implication of this postulate on English literature is taking us in a new direction, where, despite the philosophy the story would be interesting. Literature would incorporate political. Scientific and social advancement in the core to present an expanded homogenous vision of the universe.

 The effect is inherent in the cause. The interpretation of the effect is limited by comprehension and stands at an uncertain point in time and space. To establish certainty we must ignore everything that is beyond our immediate experience. Transcendence is extra objective experience. It is possible due to the causal link between objective immanence and transcendence. In Swastika (Hindu Sign), there is a juxtaposition of immanence and transcendence. The horizontal line represents the immanent which results in “Knowing” and vertical line represents transcendence which results in “Being”.

Thomas Hardy had a conflict of fatalism and determinism in his work. The elements and unstructured forces of nature are unscrupulously appropriated and misused by man. God created country man created town. William Patrick has explored the extraordinary out of the ordinary  in the Tree of Man. The woman is a dangerous natural force and is potentially violent. She represents male inadequacies and fears and in future would shape the destiny of our planet by Immanent Will. 'Immanent will' manifest itself in many ways. Woman is one of them.

Nature acts as setting for those who live a life in perfect harmony with it. The Light, Inertia and Action are the three elements of nature according to Indian philosophy. They have a tendency towards harmony and balance. When we become an instrument of imbalance, the nature plays the role of actor and restores the balance at our cost. Not only one gets what he deserves, but deserves what he gets.

When a writer is in harmony with nature, he does not make any effort to reflect divinity in his work. The divinity pervades the entire cosmos and it automatically transcends into his work. The extraordinary emerges out of the ordinary. And the reader may have extra objective transcendental experience which writer had while writing the book. Life and Death are part of the same 'plane immanence' (Deleuze) so it is not necessary to conclude a story.

Existence of Moral Universe leads to Immanent Justice. Every negative experience is punishment for prior misdeeds. Prior may also mean the prior birth. Plato believed in the Myth of Er in the conclusion of the Republic. This is an account of 'afterlife' experiences of a soldier who died in a war. Hermeneutics sees “interpretation as a circular process whereby the valid interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts”. Can we presume that human intellect is progressive? Exposure to knowledge does not sharpen the intellect. The author's intent is not immanent since it has determinants and the reader must experience the inner life of the text to understand and interpret it. Thus, all interpretation would be relative.

Immanent may remain dormant and fossilised as a perspective for a long time and may reveal and manifest itself in an encounter. It may take other centuries when that perspective will be socially acceptable.

If literature is examined and interpreted through the lens of immanence, a new kind of divine message can be read which could shape our destiny.

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Old Age in Literature

The Best is Yet To Come

The Old Age is one of the prime issues for Literature. How society provides necessities and comfort to older generation is the criterion of its evolution. The old age is embodiment of all types of physical and mental degeneration. The consumption of youth is old age and consumption of old age is death. The inevitability has an unexpectedness and epiphany in store.

The Time has arrived to change your old tattered coat and get a new one. The Master has already chosen a perfect design that would suit you best. He has already forgiven all your sins and Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for you.

Literature has deep connections with old age. Every great poet has written at least something about it. Every person has his own perception of old age. What is the age when a person can be called old?

Being a senior citizen is different from being an old man. How old is really old that everybody would agree is old. How does anybody matter if that person himself does not agree to it.

The NY Times has many views of its readers on this topic. The range is wide. Some believe that 30 is the onset of old age while others believe that 75 is a good age to be labeled as old. It seems that every person becomes old at different age. There are many external factors that determine the oldness of a person. How disciplined life you have lived? Were you moderate in your approach? Did you sin and never heard the voice of conscience? Have you earned the love and respect of your family and friends?

Not only the factors that are in your hand, but also there are factors over which you had no control. Have you inherited a strong body? All those to whom you loved and cared are safe and healthy? Have you attended many funerals of your loved one younger to you?

Robert Browning in his poem Rabbi Ben Ezra said

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life for which the first was made:

In fact, all the thirty-two stanzas in this poem are full of wisdom to accept the old age and depart happily.

W. B. Yeats in his poem “Sailing to Byzantium” declares

There is no country for old men.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick,

W. B. Yeats in his poem “The Tower” cries

What shall I do with this absurdity

O heart, O troubled heart - This caricature,

Decrepit age that has been tied to me

As to a dog’s tail.

Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem "Ulysses" said

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil

Death closes all; but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

At the end of this poem Tennyson revealed

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

R. W. Emerson in "Terminus" accepts

It is time to be old,

To take in sail:-

DH. Lawrence in "Beautiful Old Age" expects

It ought to be lovely to be old

to be full peace that comes of experience

King Lear in a play by Shakespeare laments

I am very foolish fond old man…

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

“The old man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway is a saga of an old man who had a strong will power and conquers the nature.

The literature is quite optimistic about old age.

                                                        From ”Tall Man Small Shadow”.

“The Old Man and the Nymph” show how life force of nymphs can rejuvenate the old age.

Other Related Post

Old Order Changeth Yielding Place to New

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India 

Men will never be equal to Women

Negative Feminism

Havelock Ellis 

Wollstonecraft and Virginia Wolfe had a great vision. They knew the direction in which the society was heading. They talked about issues which will remain relevant for many centuries to come. The saga that started with demand of a room of one's own, has not come to an end. Every strong thesis has an equally strong antithesis. Feminism does not have any antithesis. Neither Masculism  nor Egalitarianism serves the purpose. Anti-Feminist is, one who does not subscribe to Feminism. Feminism is a theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes and covers all organized activities to claim the right, and protect the interest of women. My antithesis of Feminism is Negative Feminism. "Negative Feminism is protection of the right and needs of Men. Some important components of this theory are as follows:

1. Masculism-

This term is still unknown to the dictionary. Though an ambiguous page on Wikipedia says that it is the advocacy of the rights and needs of men. In case of women it is ‘right and interest’ while in case of men it is ‘right and needs’. This explains a lot. The women are already standing at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They are searching for identity, which in a way is self-realization or self actualization need. Men on the other hand, are striving to fulfill their physiological needs. The responsibility to earn a square meal is on his shoulder. He is supposed to work hard and earn all amenities for his family. The society condemns a man who fails to do so. On the play 'Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman commits suicide when he fails to provide facilities for his family. He had one dream; to fulfil the dreams of his family members. On the other hand, in the play ‘The Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen, Nora Helmer deserted her husband and three children just because her husband refused to take the blame of forgery she had committed. Either way, it is the man who is a sufferer if he fails to fulfil expectations of  woman from him.

Women lack genius and genuine morality, men lack passion and compassion, for these qualities they have to imitate each other.

2. Bachelorette

The female counterpart of the Bachelor is Spinster. Now a single unmarried woman is called Bachelorette. Spinster is woman past the usual age of marrying and is considered unlikely to marry. So a male spinster is still waiting to be christened. We need to acknowledge the psychological needs of the man who is past the usual age of marriage and is considered unlikely to marry. Why famous artist like Voltaire, Beethoven, Leonardo Di Vinci and Henry James chose to remain celibate? Why an imaginative genius child is retarded by a dominating woman in his life ? Women may be classified on the basis of their relationship with men. Prefix of Miss and Mrs. defines their status and thus availability but men have been denied any such privilege. Virginity also defines a women, but no parallel word is coined for males of the same species. Man has constantly been ignored, since he has no platform to raise his voice. While the word prostitute and whore have ancient origin the word gigolo was coined in 1920.

3. Literature in appreciation of female beauty

Voluminous literature has been created in praise of female beauty. Some characters like Helen and Cleopatra have become immortal, though it is not sure if they were really beautiful. Males have received no such praise even from female authors. Female authors have never revealed if they are attracted by the physical attributes of a male. They pose that character is more important for men. In ‘Joseph Andrews’ by Henry Fielding, Joseph writes a letter to his sister Pamela. He writes"chastity is as great virtue in a man as in woman”, and vows to preserve it at any cost.Men deserves better attention from women writers. We need more female writers to write about physical beauty of men and his sufferings if he chooses to remain chaste.

4. Henpecked Husbands

Havelock Ellis in his book "Psychology of Sex" said 95% male masturbates and rest tell a lie. The same is true for henpecked husband. All married men are henpecked in some way or other. Either they are proud of it or they are ashamed of it. This is an eternal suffering. Nagging is said to be the birthright of women.This is high time we make certain law to protect rights of henpecked husbands.

5. Cuckold Husbands 
The definition is funny, but not the situation.

William Congreve in his famous play "The way of the world" has shown deceit among upper class English households. Fainall complains "My wife is an arrant wife and I am a cuckold...".A cuckold husband is more despised character than a whore. There is a complete genre of man which is grossly condemned by society. Pimp is one of them. We have stories about famous harlot and prostitutes but nobody has written about pimps who made them famous.

Other related posts

1. The gender of God

2. Woman president of USA

3. The hybrid Women

4. Women in Defense Services

5. Why Indian English authors are not feminist?

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

A Doll's House By IBSEN - A play that can save marriages

Marriage Counseling in Literature 

Torvald and Nora are husband and wife. They have three children. Nora is a housewife and Torvald is making a career in banking. They are apparently a happy couple. They face ups and down slowly and their relationship disintegrates without any obvious major flaw.

We read the play and trace the events that caused a loving, lovely wife to abandon her caring and careerist husband. It may help in saving a marital relationship.

1. Secrecy and Suspense

If either of the spouses is fond of keeping secrets to give a surprise, it definitely is going to hurt sooner or later.

Opening line of the act

Nora: Hide that Christmas tree away, Helen. The children mustn't see it before I've decorated it this evening.

The opening dialogue reveals the character of Nora. The Nora is in the habit of hiding the things. She is prone to keep the things secret. Since it is a trait of her character she is not only hiding the things from children but also from the husband.

Symbolically, she herself is a Christmas tree and she hides her character from her husband, children and friends.

Surprises are good, lest you don't have to pay for it.

It reminds us a story by O. Henry "The gift of the Magi". Magi sells her long lustrous hair to buy a chain of a golden watch for Jim, while Jim sales his watch to buy a set of combs for his beloved Magi. To surprise each other they sold the only two precious things in their house.

Some people are not apt to handle a surprise, suspense or secret. The spouse should avoid to keep anything secret between them. This relationship needs absolute transparency. May be both of them would undergo a turmoil, but it might save their marriage.

pixabay

2. Avoid to call pet names

Helmer, the husband of Nora arrives home from the office and found his wife busy in opening parcels of the gifts she has bought from shops.

Despite the fact that Helmer does not like the overspending habits of his wife, he calls her by lot of pet names like skylark, squirrel and squander-bird.

A lot of pet names should ring a danger bell in your ears.

Quinine is always sugar- coated.

Excessive polite persons are dangerous.

They are not newlywed couple. Nora is already mother of two children. Any wife should be proud of being called by so many pet names by her husband. A wise wife would be suspicious.

3. Debts may ruin a relationship:

Helmer believes "a home that is founded on debts and borrowings can never be a place of freedom and beauty".

Wrong act for a right cause does not justify the action. Nora borrowed money for the treatment of her husband. Helmer needed a change of weather  to recover from an ailment. Nora borrowed the money from a crook Krogstad by forging documents.

Nora has acted just against the philosophy of her husband. She knew very well how much her husband hated borrowing money.

If we know Nora we cannot overrule the possibility that she herself was interested in a tour to Italy. It was her long awaited cherished dream.

Even if she went with the pious objective to save the life of Helmer, she did the folly of hiding the fact from the husband.

Her husband remained under the impression that she has inherited money from deceased father.

Helmer was a lawyer and a banker. He could have arranged financing. What tempted Nora to manage finances on her own. It is illegal for a wife to borrow money without the knowledge of her husband.

4. One lie leads to another

Nora accepts that she wants money in the gift. She always needs money to pay the installments to Krogstad.

Later, Helmer, while returning home saw Krogstad  depart. He asks Nora if there was any visitor and she declines. Helmer says ""A songbird must have a clean beak to sing with, otherwise she will start twittering out of tune."

Helmer is of the view ''an atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons every corner of the home. Every breath that the children draw in such a house contains the germ of the evil."

5. Fruitless Efforts

Helmer reminds her how Nora tried to surprise him on Christmas by making flowers which were later ruined by a cat, before she could gift them on Christmas.

Helmer says those were the most boring three weeks of his life when Nora shut her up in a room to prepare surprise gift for him. But Nora did not find it boring, despite the fact all her efforts remained fruitless.

Nora has her obsessions and she is self centered also. She does not care if her husband suffers a boredom so far as she enjoys making flowers. For her, making flowers is more important than providing a company to her husband.

Helmer says "You simply wanted to make us happy , and that's all that matters".

But that's not all that matters, obviously. Fruitless efforts to make marriage work does more harm than good.

6. Female friends of wife

They are a potential threat to marriage. Mrs.Linde, who is a childhood friend of Nora is frequently visiting Nora's home. She becomes jealous of her happy life. She is also an ex lover of Krogstad, and now has a plan to rejuvenate her relationship. Helmer hates Krogstad and has removed him from bank job. Nora, innocently or foolishly shares her secret with her best friend. Later, when Krogstad writes a letter to Helmer, disclosing the secret of Nora, Mrs. Linde stops him from withdrawing the letter, though she knew it would destroy the marriage of her best friend.

Shakespeare says " Frailty, thy name is woman", That frailty might be jealousy also.

When Nora suggests her to take a break, Mrs. Linde retorts "I have no papa to pay for my holidays, Nora". The spite is evident.

7. Money matters

Most of the girls would prefer a rich husband. Ideally, they would circumvent the truth to sound as if of high morale.

Mrs. Linde ditched penniless Krogstad to marry a man who was well off, so that he would take care of her aged mother and two minor brothers.

8. We owe each other

Nora has an argument "he is so proud of being a man-it'd so painful and humiliating for him to know that he owed anything to me. It'd completely wreck our relationship."

Nora does not cut on luxuries of her husband or needs of her children, but cut expenses on her cloth to pay installments. She also earns money by copying.

"It was almost like being a man"- she says.

She is not satisfied with her role of wife and mother. It gives her pleasure to act like man, to earn money. It serves her egocentric need of an identity.

9. Guilt destroys the fun

The whole story is fabricated on the lie told by Nora. Nora is constantly suffering from a guilty conscience.

10. Jealous husbands are not necessarily loving husband.

In Act 2 Nora says to her friend "Torvald is so hopelessly in love with me that he wants to have me all to himself".

A possessive husband is no guarantee of true love.

Nora represents the entire generation of women who are sick of being possessed. The protection or security promised by husband doesn't come cheap. Women feel a loss of identity in their traditional role model. A husband as a companion should help in her search. Only a insecure husband would say what Helmer says "I shall watch over like a hunted dove which I  have snatched unharmed from the claws of falcon."

Helmer had conditioned the mind of Nora by constantly comparing her with bird and squirrel. In his opinion, no woman was more than that.

When he reads the letter of Krogstad his true character is revealed. It is an eye opener for Nora. Helmer loves his own reputation more than he loves Nora. Nora was crestfallen, she imagined that her loving and caring husband would take the blame of forgery to save her.  

When this realisation precipitates, she takes her decision."I must stand on my own feet if I am to find out truth about myself and about life."

Nora walks out from stage and also from the life of Helmer.

Related Topics

1.Games Spouse Play

2.Charms of Domestic Violence

3.Marital Rape

4.The Hybrid Women

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India