When Krogstad and Christine Linde speak during act 3 about their past relationship, he learns that she had only left him and married someone else because of money. Although he feels that she "had no right" to break things off with him for such a reason, she feels it was justified because of her responsibility to care for her bedridden mother and younger brothers then. The man she married had money, and Krogstad had none at the time. Krogstad admits that when he lost her, he felt "as if all the solid ground went from under [his] feet," and he claims that, now, he is a "shipwrecked man clinging to a bit of wreckage." In the first of these metaphors, he likens losing Christine to losing his footing; it knocked him off balance, so to speak, and perhaps made him do things he normally wouldn't. In the second metaphor, he compares himself to a survivor of a shipwreck who is just barely clinging to some piece of wreckage and holding on for dear life. He feels that he is perilously close to drowning, figuratively speaking.

During this altercation between Nora and Torvald in act 3, he calls her a "miserable creature," and this is certainly belittling. He demands that she "stay and give [him] an explanation" and that she "answer [him]!" He gives her orders as one might a child, not an equal or a partner. He orders her to "be silent!" and refuses to let her speak. He accuses her of all manner of terrible things—lacking principles, morality, duty, and so on—giving her no opportunity to explain herself.