By
Henrik Ibsen
Many times pieces of literature refer to another work of art, music.or
even math or science. In reading A Doll's House by Henrik
Ibsen various connections can be made. I have made a connection between
Nora, Torvald Helmer's wife, and the famous painting, the Mona Lisa, painted
by Leonardo Da Vinci.
In A Doll's House, Nora is portrayed as a spendthrift. She
spends money like she will never run out. Now She is spending more
than ever because her husband, Torvald, has just become vice president
of the bank. As the play proceeds, we are suddenly exposed to what
she has done to save her husband's life. She borrows money from Krogsatd,
as employer at eh bank to save her husvand's life. then we find that
she has forged her father's name on the I. O. U. because he will not give
her the money and she does not want anyone to know she borrowed the money.
Suddenly her father becomes ill and she does not want to bother him.
Nora " I couldn't. Papa was very ill. If I'd asked him to sign
this, I'd have had to tell him what the money was for. But I couldn't
have told him in his condition that my husband's life was in danger.
I couldn't have done that!" (Ibsen 1088). Obviously she has been
hiding this from everyone. As the play goes on, she gets the maid
and the nurse to cover for her so Torvald will not find out. Everytime
she has to face someone she pretends everything is okay and she tries to
make believe none of it has happened.
Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in 1506. Ever since the painting
was developed, people had begun to see the different expressionds on her
face. According to Dr. Lillian Schwartz, it has been shown that Leonardo
Da Vinci actually painted his own image. Dr. Lillian Schwartz has
analyzed both faces and has tried to combine the two together. When
she did, " She noticed the features of the face aligned perfectly!" (Why
is the ...).
Just as Nora
appears to be wearing a mask, showing an entirely new person to the world,
Leonardo Da Vinci has shown himself, different to his own self, to the
world. Although no one really knows why he may have done this, Nora
does it to buy herself time to get out of her situation. Instead,
she gets herself into more trouble than she has been in the first place.
"Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling?"
Mona
Lisa. Online.<http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/link2.htm>
7 February 2000.
This site told about how they have examined the Mona Lisa to find out the
answers to her secrets.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll's House."
World Literature Revised Edition. Austin: Holt, Rinchart,
and Winston, 1998. 1071-1124.
The testbook conatins excerpts from different literatures from around the
world and throughout time. Editorial includes in
"A Doll's House" background information on the author, the time period,
and characteristics of the characters. Each art is
followed by review questions.