Discussion Topic
Comparison of Nora and Christine Linde in A Doll's House
Summary:
In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Nora Helmer and Christine Linde are contrasting characters who highlight different aspects of women's roles in 19th-century society. Nora, initially portrayed as a naive and childlike wife, is trapped in a superficial marriage with Torvald, while Christine, a widow who married for financial security, represents practicality and independence. Both women experience transformative journeys: Christine finds love with Krogstad, while Nora discovers her marriage's hollowness and leaves to seek self-identity. Their contrasting experiences underscore the societal constraints on women and the pursuit of personal freedom.
Compare and contrast Christine Linde and Nora Helmer in A Doll's House.
A Doll’s House, produced in 1879, was written as a social problem drama. Playwright Henrik Ibsen recognized that one of the most pressing situations in European society in his era stemmed from difficulties surrounding marital relationships. Through character development, he set out to prove to his audiences that marriage conventions so often romanticized among the middle classes did not always equate to marital bliss.
Beginning with protagonistNora Helmer, Ibsen presents a young wife in her late twenties who has been married to Torvald Helmer for eight years. She is attractive, flirtatious, and playful. Nora is lighthearted to the point of coming across to others as childlike in her actions. She often tells little “white lies.” Nevertheless, she is devoted to her husband and children. Torvald is a proud and hardworking lawyer who tends to be domineering. Although he claims to love Nora, he envisions his wife to be...
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more like a possession or a toy in a dollhouse. In reality, Torvald is a hypocrite. He pretends to be scrupulous, but he cares more about appearances and reputation than ethics or love for his wife. As a result, their marriage is shallow, empty, and oppressive. Torvald has no respect for Nora, belittles her at every turn, and completely lacks understanding of her as a woman.
To compensate for her husband’s shortcomings, Nora lives psychologically in an unrealistic fantasy world based upon stuffy European social conventions. She chooses to believe that her husband respects her, protects her, and provides for her emotional and financial well-being. She even makes an effort to conceal the debt she secretly incurred in order to save his pride:
Mrs Linde. Do you mean never to tell him about it?
Nora[meditatively, and with a half smile]. Yes—someday, perhaps, after many years, when I am no longer as nice-looking as I am now. Don't laugh at me! I mean, of course, when Torvald is no longer as devoted to me as he is now; when my dancing and dressing-up and reciting have palled on him; then it may be a good thing to have something in reserve—[Breaking off.] What nonsense! That time will never come. Now, what do you think of my great secret, Christine? Do you still think I am of no use? I can tell you, too, that this affair has caused me a lot of worry. It has been by no means easy for me to meet my engagements punctually. I may tell you that there is something that is called, in business, quarterly interest, and another thing called payment in installments, and it is always so dreadfully difficult to manage them. I have had to save a little here and there, where I could, you understand. I have not been able to put aside much from my housekeeping money, for Torvald must have a good table. I couldn't let my children be shabbily dressed; I have felt obliged to use up all he gave me for them, the sweet little darlings!
Although Nora enjoys an economic advantage over her friend Christine, she is suffering because of her submission to a domineering husband. At the conclusion of the drama, Nora realizes that her life has been a falsity. She leaves her family in search of her own self-worth.
In Christine Linde, Ibsen shows his audience a woman with a different personality also dealing with European marriage conventions in the late nineteenth century. Christine is a childhood friend of Nora, but the two have not seen each other for years. She has not enjoyed the same social class or financial advantages as her friend. She is a practical, serious, open-minded woman who, unlike Nora, strongly believes in honesty. Ibsen portrays her as a powerless female of her era, totally dependent on her husband for financial security:
Nora[gently]. Poor Christine, you are a widow.
Mrs Linde. Yes; it is three years ago now.
Nora. Yes, I knew; I saw it in the papers. I assure you, Christine, I meant ever so often to write to you at the time, but I always put it off and something always prevented me.
Mrs Linde. I quite understand, dear.
Nora. It was very bad of me, Christine. Poor thing, how you must have suffered. And he left you nothing?
Mrs Linde. No.
Nora. And no children?
Mrs Linde. No.
Nora. Nothing at all, then.
Mrs Linde. Not even any sorrow or grief to live upon.
Nora[looking incredulously at her]. But, Christine, is that possible?
Mrs Linde[smiles sadly and strokes her hair]. It sometimes happens, Nora.
Nora. So you are quite alone. How dreadfully sad that must be.
Christine’s first marriage is not based on love but only financial benefits. At the conclusion of the play, she finds love in an open and trusting relationship with Nils Krogstad, but Ibsen makes it clear that she remains a stereotypical woman who is incomplete without a man to take care of her.
Ibsen uses the institution of marriage as an indictment of the nineteenth-century European social conventions that treat women as second-class citizens. He develops his contradictions of the romanticized version of marriage as “bliss” through the characters of Nora and Christine. The author proves through Nora’s character that abused women can escape to freedom, even abandoning children in the process.
Christine Linde and Nora Helmer are similar in several ways. These Norwegian women were schoolmates and friends in their youth and both married soon after finishing school. Both also made difficult decisions based on the desire to help a loved one.
The numerous differences between the women are primarily connected to their class position and attitudes toward matrimony. Christine took a more practical approach, partly out of concern for her ailing mother. She married a wealthy man whom she did not love, expecting him to support her and help her mother. The couple did not have children. Business problems and her husband’s death left her to fend for herself. She has worked since becoming widowed and, currently in need of a job, has come to seek Nora’s assistance. Christine seems to have a pessimistic attitude toward life.
Nora married Torvald based on mutual love, and she is a proud mother of their three children. When Torvald was ill, Nora’s desire to help him led to her criminal mistake of committing forgery. Her subsequent experiences with work, which have been done in secret, are connected with her efforts to repay the borrowed money. Nora’s apparently cheerful disposition is often a front to cover up her concerns about the secrecy and fraud.
Despite the fact that Christine and Nora are the same age, Christine appears "a little paler" and "a little thinner" than Nora does; Christine herself even says that she looks "much, much older" than her one-time school friend. Christine has spent the nine or ten years since they last saw each other quite differently from the way Nora has: Christine married a man she did not love because he could care for her and her family, then she became a widow who was left "nothing" by her husband (when his business "fell to pieces at his death"), and she had to work hard to support herself for the last three years (since his death). Nora, on the other hand, has a healthy and successful husband and "three of the loveliest children."
Christine tells Nora, "it must be delightful to have what you need," and Nora replies that she has "not only what [she] need[s], but heaps of money -- heaps!" Nora is pretty tactless, even in the face of her friend's need; her old friend has clearly fallen on difficult times, but Nora continues to brag about her family and her money. She claims that she's had to work, too, "light fancy work: crochet, and embroidery, and things of that sort" though her work clearly has not affected her the way Christine's has her. Christine talks about how the last three years "have been one long struggle" for her, but now she feels that her life is "inexpressibly empty."
By the end of the play, however, Christine and Krogstad have reunited, and she will finally have a husband that she loves, but Nora has realized how empty her own marriage is and abandons her family in order to discover herself.
Compare and contrast Nora and Kristine in A Doll's House.
Kristine Linde acts as a foil to Nora, highlighting certain character traits which Nora has. Though initially a minor, somewhat insignificant character, Kristine comes to perform a crucial role in the play's eventual plot development. As well as providing an opportunity for Nora to reveal some of her innermost thoughts, Kristine's own revelations concerning Krogstad contribute to exposing Nora's marriage for the sham that it is.
Over the course of the play, Nora and Kristine experience a radical role reversal. Initially, Nora appears to be a blissfully happy married woman, whereas Kristine is a tragic widow, an object of pity. Yet by the time we've reached the end of A Doll's House, all that's changed dramatically. Nora's marriage is in tatters, and Kristine is happily daydreaming about a life of wedded bliss with Krogstad.
The similarities between Nora and Krogstad are few and far between. Both could be described as somewhat naive in the ways of the world. The difference, however, is that Nora eventually grows and matures as a woman, indicating a marked willingness to learn about the big old world outside after she's closed the door behind her. Katrine, on the other hand, is willing to embrace the traditional role of housewife, occupying—in fact, if not in substance—the same position in Krogstad's life as Nora once did in Torvald's. Nora, for all her travails, is still young and beautiful; Kristine is middle-aged and plain. The symbolism is unmistakable—Nora stands for the future, Kristine for the past.
One noticeable difference between the two women lies in their respective abilities to manipulate men to get what they want. Try as she might, Nora cannot get through to Torvald, cannot make him see her point of view or get him to respect her needs. Kristine's much more successful with Krogstad. She is the one who persuades him to let Torvald read the letter explaining Nora's deception. Her complete domination of Krogstad stands in stark contrast to Nora's position within her own marriage. It is ironic indeed that Nora can only experience the kind of control that Kristine enjoys by leaving her husband and children behind. Yet Kristine can continue to get Krogstad to do whatever she wants within the confines of an impeccably conventional, respectable marriage.
How do Nora and Christine Linde compare in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen?
Another difference between the two characters is that Mrs. Linde realizes that she has compromised her independence and freedom much earlier than Nora does. When she, in her youth, decided to leave Krogstad, the man she really loved, in order to marry a man who was much more financially secure, she knew full well what she was doing. She tells Krogstad of that time, "You ought not to forget that I had a helpless mother and two little brothers. We could not wait for you, Nils, as your prospects then stood." Thus, she married a man she did not love in order to do her duty to her family, relinquishing her own desires and hopes for the future.
Nora, on the other hand, did marry a man she loved, but she soon came to learn—as Mrs. Linde already seems to have known—that love is sometimes not enough. Nora made mistakes, to be sure, but her heart was in the right place when she took the loan from Krogstad: she did it in order to save her husband's life! When he learns of her well-intentioned deception, Torvald calls her a "wretched woman," berating her cruelly. He says,
I ought to have known how it would be. I ought to have foreseen it. All your father's want of principle—be silent!—all your father's want of principle you have inherited—no religion, no morality, no sense of duty . . . You have destroyed my whole happiness. You have ruined my future . . . And all this disaster and ruin is brought upon me by an unprincipled woman!
Only when Torvald learns that Krogstad has forgiven the debt does he change his tune. He promises Nora that he's forgiven her, without realizing that he now requires her forgiveness. He even goes on and on about how good forgiving her makes him feel, saying,
There is something indescribably sweet and soothing to a man in having forgiven his wife—honestly forgiven her, from the bottom of his heart. She becomes his property in a double sense. She is as though born again; she has become, so to speak, at once his wife and his child. That is what you shall henceforth be to me, my bewildered, helpless darling.
Only now does Nora realize how her marriage has compromised her, as Mrs. Linde's did for different reasons. Her husband thinks of her as his property, his possession, to do with whatever he pleases. He thinks she is unintelligent and unprincipled, but now that he will not be harmed by it, he sees her "bewilder[ment]" and "helpless[ness]" as endearing evidence of her womanhood. She tells her husband,
You have never understood me—I have had great injustice done me, Torvald; first by father, and then by you . . . I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong. It is your fault that my life has come to nothing.
In the end, both Nora and Mrs. Linde right the wrongs of their unfulfilling first marriages: Mrs. Linde gets to be with the man she has loved all along, and Nora leaves Torvald and her family, striking out on her own to be independent and free, to find out who she really is and what she wants out of life.
What distinguishes Nora and Christine Linde's character traits and social standing in A Doll’s House?
As you know from having read or watched Henrik Ibsen’s play, there are many differences between Nora Helmer and her friend Kristine Linde, or, as she’s called in the play, Mrs. Linde.
You could start by talking about the main character Nora. She’s married. Her husband is relatively prosperous and has just earned a promotion. Soon, he’ll be the official bank manager. The prosperity is not lost on Nora. She spends a lot of money. Mrs. Linde labels her a “spendthrift,” and Nora’s own husband pokes fun at how much money she goes through.
Mrs. Linde is not married. Her husband died. Mrs. Linde cannot spend lots of money like Nora. Mrs. Linde doesn’t have any money to spend. She needs a job. Thankfully, Nora’s husband gives her a job at the bank.
As the play progresses, Nora and Mrs. Linde basically switch roles. As Nora’s past financial deceptions come to light, Nora realizes how her marriage is superficial and condescending. By the end of the play, Nora has left her husband. Now, she’s the independent one, although, Nora’s independence seems to be more of a choice. Mrs. Linde’s initial independence was the result of a death.
As for Mrs. Linde, by the end of the play, she finds another husband. This time, Mrs. Linde is actually marrying for love. She’s marrying Krogstad, whose history of shady behavior is justified by how Mrs. Linde married someone other than him at the onset.
In Ibsen's A Doll's House, how do Nora and Mrs. Linde compare and contrast?
In his play The Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen created the characters
of Nora and her close friend Mrs. Linde with many differences and many
similarities.
One of the most significant differences between Nora and Mrs. Linde is their
situation in life. Nora has always been well-cared for, first by her father and
then by her husband. Nora lives in a comfortable home. The author makes a point
of noting that it is not a richly furnished home, but it is very comfortable.
While, on the other hand, Mrs. Linde has suffered a great deal for the past ten
years. She has been a widow for the past three years and was left nothing by
her husband, neither money nor children. Mrs. Linde has had to spend the past
ten years working to care for her mother and her younger brothers. She
describes her life as one long working day with no rest.
Another significant difference is that Nora is portrayed as very young and
naive. Nora realizes that she is unfamiliar with the ways of the world and that
she is a very uneducated person. In contrast, Mrs. Linde has aged a great deal
through her hard work and suffering.
Nora feels, however, that there are similarities between herself and her
friend. Nora also feels that she has struggled in the world to earn money. When
Torvald and Nora first married, they struggled financially. Torvald had to work
very hard to earn enough money and drove his health into the ground. In order
to save his life, Nora felt obliged to forge her father's signature on a loan.
Nora has been working hard behind Torvald's back to earn money to repay the
loan. She works late into the night copying, sewing, and knitting to earn
money. Similarly to Mrs. Linde, Nora often feels quite exhausted.
While both women have had to struggle in the world, it is safe to say that Mrs.
Linde is the one who is more experienced with the world and the one who is more
experienced with hard labor and suffering.
What are the differences in character traits and social standing between Nora and Helmer in A Doll's House?
Nora and Torvald are such completely different characters in so many respects that one wonders how they ever got together. The most obvious explanation would be their common social background. Then again, they say that opposites attract, and perhaps that offers a more plausible explanation of how this misalliance came about in the first place. But a further clue to answering this question comes in the shape of Nora's remarkable capacity for dissimulation, or hiding her true character.
When Torvald married Nora, he most probably thought he was getting a pretty, not very bright, compliant little woman who would devote herself completely to her husband's every whim. Evidence for Torvald's presumption comes in the patronizing way he talks down to Nora, using awful terms of endearment that would be better suited to a small child.
But then a small child is precisely how Torvald appears to regard Nora. As such, she's to be protected like a small child from the big, bad world outside. How little does Torvald know! Because in actual fact, beneath her unprepossessing exterior, Nora is actually quite a complex character. Contrary to what Torvald seems to think, she's a woman of hidden depths. For one thing, she understands very well the workings of the business world and is prepared to use that understanding to her advantage in committing fraud. In doing so, Nora shows herself to be a very determined young woman, prepared to do whatever it takes to do what she believes to be the right thing.
Torvald, by comparison, is a one-dimensional character. There's really not much more to him than the image of the respectable bourgeois banker he presents to the world. Whereas Nora shows herself able to challenge the existing norms of middle-class society, Torvald is trapped by them, patently lacking his wife's flexibility, adaptability, and moral courage. Lacking the imagination to change his situation in life, Torvald remains a prisoner to it.