In stories many roles are insignificant when affiliated with other greater ones but it is those insignificant ones that ameliorate the greater ones. Mrs. Linde is one of the greater roles in the play of “A Doll’s House” that is enhanced with the help of Nora; a figure that helps Nora unmask her reality, a role model for all women and with her selfless personality, fits the mold of an overall well rounded character.
Throughout the play Nora is described by Ibsen to set the picture for the average 1900’s women. After reading the letter, Helmer’s true feelings towards Nora are released as shown when he says ”...No religion, no morality, no sense of duty...” towards Nora and questions her beliefs. Of course soon afterwards Nora does not defend herself and simply says “Yes, this.” Throughout the play Nora was required to always sacrifice her desires in order to put her husbands before her own even without any appreciation from Helmer,
Nora: But don’t you think it is nice of me, too, to do as you wish?
Helmer: Nice?-- because you do as your husband wishes? Well, well, you little rogue, I am sure you did not mean it in that way.
The black paint to that picture is Mrs. Linde who defies the standard issued wife; places her husbands needs before her own, doesn’t speak out on her feelings, or even stands up for her own beliefs.
Helmer:You should embroider instead, you know.
Mrs. Linde: Oh? Why?
Helmer: So much prettier. Watch! You hold the embroidery like this in the left hand, and then you take a needle in the right hand, like this, and you describe a long graceful curve. Isn’t that right?
Mrs. Linde: Yes, I suppose so…
Helmer: Whereas knitting on the other hand just can't help being ugly. Look! Arms pressed into the sides, the knitting n...
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...lways referring to Nora throughout the play as an animal or a small creature which creates a heavy weight on Nora’s position as a person. Eventually Nora gets into the mindset of being below Helmer. Even when Nora decided to share her secret that she was able to take out a loan without a mans signature with Mrs. Linde, Nora seemed to be more boastful rather than sharing which emphasizes Mrs. Linde’s personality even more.
Without Nora taking on her role in the play Ibsen’s selection of Nora that the theme of women rights would have been displayed very negatively. Mrs. Linde influenced not only Nora to stand up for herself but every women in that era of time, was the positive image of what many women dreamed to be of and encompassed her personality; all of which elevated Mrs. Linde towards her position as the most important character in the play “A Doll’s House.”
to discover and educate herself. She must strive to find her individuality. That the perception of woman is inaccurate is also supported by the role of Torvald. Woman is believed to be subordinate to the domineering husband. Instead of being the strong supporter and protector of his family, Nora's husband is a mean and cowardly man. Worried about his reputation he cares little about his wife's feelings and fails to notice many of her needs. The popular impression of man is discarded in favor of a more realistic view, thus illustrating society's distorted views. Ibsen, through this controversial play, has an impact upon society's view of the subordinate position of women. By describing this role of woman, discussing its effects, and predicting a change in contemporary views, he stressed the importance of woman's realization of this believed inferiority. Woman should no longer be seen as the shadow of man, but a person in herself, with her own triumphs and tragedies. The exploration of Nora reveals that she is dependant upon her husband and displays no independent standing. Her progression of understanding suggests woman's future ability to comprehend their plight. Her state of shocked awareness at the end of the play is representative of the awakening of society to the changing view of the role of woman. "A Doll's House" magnificently illustrates the need f...
The author clearly reveals the imbalance in power within the Helmer’s marriage. When Torvald addresses his wife, he continuously reinforces his dominance by calling her belittling pet names such as, “my little lark… my squirrel” (Ibsen 1190-1191). Only when Nora is being criticized does her husband address her by her name. Torvald condemns her for being wasteful with money, and connects it with the fact that she is a woman. Nora endures constant ridicule for her “feminine” acts of squandering money, “Nora, how like a woman… you little prodigal” (Ibsen 1191-1192). Throughout the play, Ibsen reiterates “little” to expose Torvalds’s repetitive disparaging of Nora’s character. But not only does Nora continue to allow the condescending treatment, she responds by acting helpless and in need of proper guidance. When discussing the responsibilities of women in the Victorian era, Hsin Ying Chi, English instructor at Troy State University, points out, “Her first duty is to be a submissive wife who loves and obeys her husband” (par. 27). In A Doll’s House, Nora represents the “traditional” subordinate house wife who solely exists to please her husband. She is shown to be oblivious to any outside issues, and it is apparent to the reader that Nora is completely dependent upon Torvald. Therefore, as a Victorian women, Nora must blindly follow her husband’s
Throughout the play we never get to know who the real Nora is and what her true personality consists of. Nora also realizes that she does not know who she is, and decides to leave her life. She comments that she needs to discover who she is separate from her husband, children and more importantly society. Nora feels she is not respected, and she is a “doll” to her husband.
Throughout Act one, Nora’s most noticeable characteristic is her child like personality and her inability to understand the importance of honesty. As the play opens on Christmas Eve Nora comes home with an abundance of extravagant gifts for her family. She also eats some macaroons that she secretly bought that her husband doesn’t allow her to eat. When questioned about the purchase of the dessert by her husband Torvald Helmer, she denies it. Through this act of deception we are able to see that Nora, in denying buying and eating the macaroons is more like a child to her husband. In a normal husband-wife relationship, the wife would have admitted that she did in fact eat them due to the fact that they are on an equal playing field. In this case, Nora was scared to tell him in fear that she will be punished and get in trouble. The deception allows us into Nora’s mind to see that she hasn’t yet understood that if she stand up for herself and says that she did, that with time Torvald will stop treating her like one of his children but instead like the mother and wife that she is. Throughout the first scene yo...
In the end, all three minor characters have undergone a radical change, having arrived at some other position in life. Krogstad and Mrs. Linde have become a couple, and Dr. Rank is soon to pass away. This is significant, as Nora has chosen to abandon her family to pursue her own independence and individuality. She will no longer play the part of a doll and depend on Torvald to support her and resolve all of her problems and thus, takes a giant step forward towards the development of women as their own individuals. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House explores the role of women in the late 1800’s and stresses the importance of their realization of this believed inferiority. Living in our present day society sometimes causes us to underestimate the transition that women have undergone throughout these last hundred years. However, Nora’s progression at the end of the play arouses an awareness to an awakening society recognizing the changing view of the status of women at that time.
Nora Helmer was a delicate character and she relied on Torvald for her identity. This dependence that she had kept her from having her own personality. Yet when it is discovered that Nora only plays the part of the good typical housewife who stays at home to please her husband, it is then understandable that she is living not for herself but to please others. From early childhood Nora has always held the opinions of either her father or Torvald, hoping to please them. This mentality makes her act infantile, showing that she has no ambitions of her own. Because she had been pampered all of her life, first by her father and now by Torvald, Nora would only have to make a cute animal sound to get what she wanted from Torvald, “If your little squirrel were to ask you for something very, very, prettily” (Ibsen 34) she said.
A grandiose sense of importance and uniqueness can be argued for Nora in the beginning of the play when she reunites with a friend she hasn’t seen in many years. Instead of allowing the friend to talk Nora rhapsodizes about her ideal life with her husband and children all while knowing about the hardship her friend has faced in recent years (Ibsen, 1731). Although this is a selfish thing to do to a friend; Nora is a secretive person afraid of allowing people to get close enough to see under the mask she wears every
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, a drama written in the midst of an 1879, middle-class, suburban Europe, he boldly depicts a female protagonist. In a culture with concern for fulfilling, or more so portraying a socially acceptable image, Nora faces the restraints of being a doll in her own house and a little helpless bird. She has been said to be the most complex character of drama, and rightfully so, the pressure of strict Victorian values is the spark that ignites the play's central conflicts. Controversy is soon to arise when any social-norm is challenged, which Nora will eventually do. She evolves throughout the play, from submissive housewife to liberated woman. It seems as though what took women in America almost a century to accomplish, Nora does in a three-day drama. Ibsen challenges the stereotypical roles of men and women in a societally-pleasing marriage. He leads his readers through the journey of a woman with emerging strength and self-respect. Nora plays the typical housewife, but reveals many more dimensions that a typical woman would never portray in such a setting.
Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.
At the beginning of the play, Nora and Helmer’s relationship appears to be a typical marriage in the 1800s. Helmer, as the man, is the head of the house and Nora is portrayed as the naïve, “spendthrift” wife who has no dealings with the financial situation of the family. However, as the story evolves, a different side of Nora emerges. She attempts to conform to society’s views of gender roles in order to keep her “beautiful and happy home” and fears that telling her husband about what she did will “completely upset the balance of [their] relationship” (891). ...
The enforcement of specific gender roles by societal standards in 19th century married life proved to be suffocating. Women were objects to perform those duties for which their gender was thought to have been created: to remain complacent, readily accept any chore and complete it “gracefully” (Ibsen 213). Contrarily, men were the absolute monarchs over their respective homes and all that dwelled within. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora is subjected to moral degradation through her familial role, the consistent patronization of her husband and her own assumed subordinance. Ibsen belittles the role of the housewife through means of stage direction, diminutive pet names and through Nora’s interaction with her morally ultimate husband, Torvald. Nora parades the façade of being naïve and frivolous, deteriorating her character from being a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the security of home and ironically her own sanity. A Doll’s House ‘s depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th century housewife and the societal pressures placed upon her displays a woman’s gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald’s progressive infantilization of Nora and the pressure on Nora to adhere to societal norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century societal standards and their oppressive nature result in the gradual degradation of her character that destroys all semblances of family and identity.Nora’s role in her family is initially portrayed as being background, often “laughing quietly and happily to herself” (Ibsen 148) because of her isolation in not only space, but also person. Ibsen’s character rarely ventures from the main set of the drawi...
The characters of this play help to support Ibsen's opinions. Nora's initial characteristics are that of a bubbly, child-like wife who is strictly dependent on her husband. This subordinate role from which Nora progresses emphasizes the need for change in society's view of women. For Nora, her inferior, doll-like nature is a facade for a deeper passion for individuality that begins to surface during the play and eventually fully emerges in the ending. An example of this deep yearning for independence is shown when Nora tells her friend, Kristina Linde about earning her own money by doing copying. Nora explains, "it was tremendous fun sitting [in her room] working and earning money. It was almost like being a man" (A Doll's House, 162). Mrs. Linde is an inspiration to Nora, because Kristina has experienced the independence that Nora longs for.
Nora Helmer was a delicate character that had been pampered all of her life, by her father, and by Torvald. She really didn't have a care in the world. She didn't even have to care for the children; the maid would usually take care of that. In every sense of the word, she was your typical housewife. Nora never left the house, mostly because her husband was afraid of the way people would talk. It really wasn't her fault she was the way she was; it was mostly Torvald's for spoiling her. Nora relies on Torvald for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet that is dependent on its puppet master for all of its actions. Her carefree spirit and somewhat childish manners are shown throughout the play with statements such as, "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" (1). "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?" (2). A lark is a happy, carefree bird, and a squirrel is quite the opposite. If you are to squirrel away something, you were hiding or storing it, kind of like what Nora was doing with her bag of macaroons. It seems childish that Nora must hide things such as macaroons from her husband, but if she didn't and he found out, she would be deceiving him and going against his wishes which would be socially wrong.
At the beginning of "A Doll's House", Nora seems completely happy. She responds to Torvald's teasing, relishes in the excitement of his new job, and takes pleasure in the company of her children and friends. Nora never appears to disagree with her doll-like existence, in which she is cuddled, pampered and patronized. As the play progresses, Nora's true character appears and proves that she is more than just a "silly girl" as Torvald calls her. Her understanding of the business details related to the dept she incurred in taking out a loan to help Torvald's health shows her intelligence and her abilities beyond being merely a wife. The secret labor she undertakes to pay off her dept demonstrates her determination and ambition. In addition, her willingness to break the law in order to aid her...
In A Doll's House, Ibsen paints a bare picture of the sacrificial role held by women of different economic and financial standards in his society. The play's female characters demonstrate Nora's assertion that men refuse to sacrifice their integrity. In order to support her mother and two brothers, Mrs. Linde found it necessary to leave Krogstad. She left her true love, Krogstad, to marry a richer man. These are some of the sacrifices that women have to make to provide for there family. The nanny had to abandon her own child to support herself by working as Nora's children sitter. As she often told Nora, the nanny considers herself very fortunate to receive the job as the sitter, since she was a poor girl who was left astray. Isben concerns about women in society are brought up throughout the play. He believed that women had the right to develop their own individuality, but only if they made a sacrifice. Wo...