Discussion Topic
Nora and Torvald's Relationship and Characterization in A Doll's House
Summary:
In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Nora and Torvald's relationship is depicted as a patriarchal dynamic where Torvald dominates both financially and emotionally. He infantilizes Nora with patronizing nicknames and enforces strict rules, such as forbidding sweets, showcasing his control. Nora, maintaining a facade of contentment, secretly manages a loan to save Torvald's life, highlighting her independence and deceit. Torvald's love for Nora is superficial, focusing on her beauty and perceived devotion, ultimately leading Nora to seek independence when she realizes his selfishness.
How is Nora and Torvald’s relationship portrayed in act 1 of A Doll’s House?
In act 1 of A Doll's House, the dynamic of Nora and Torvald's relationship reflects overbearing patriarchal power.
The pet names which Torvald uses for his wife reflect his lack of respect towards her: "Little lark," "my squirrel," "little featherhead," and "Miss Sweet Tooth." He has established "rules" which Nora must follow, which includes forbidding her from eating sweets. When confronted about her snacking habits that day, Nora repeatedly lies to Torvald about the macaroons she has eaten. While this is a seemingly trivial detail of their day, the fact that Nora refuses to admit the truth demonstrates her need to avoid conflict with Torvald.
It also becomes clear that Nora relies on secrecy to maintain their marriage. She shares with Mrs. Linde that she has broken the law via forgery in order to obtain money which Torvald needed for medical treatment. She has managed to hide this...
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truth from her husband, using part of the allowance he gives her to steadily repay the secret loan.
Regardless of the deceit, Nora and Helmer live a seemingly content married life in act 1. They are busily preparing for Christmas, and Nora seems content to play the role of a dutiful wife. She lovingly takes Torvald's arm, claps her hands in excitement regarding his plans, and graciously accepts the rather belittling pet names he uses for her. In short, Torvald expects that Nora will obey him and represent him well in society, and Nora is content to do so.
Can you detail the characterization of Nora and Torvald in A Doll's House?
In A Doll's House, Nora is the main character. Nora is a house wife with three young children. She is married to Torvald Helmer. Torvald treats Nora as a child. He does not value Nora's intellect. He thinks she is merely his prized possession.
Nora plays along with Torvald's game. She pretends to be his doll who lives in Torvald's dollhouse. Nora keeps up a facade. She is pretending to be happy with the way Torvald acts toward her. Nora sings and dances and puts on a show for Torvald. She really tries hard to please him, even at the expense of her own self worth.
In the beginning of the story, Nora is stressed about a loan she has taken out behind Torvald's back. Seven years ago, Torvald was very sick. The doctors confided in Nora that he needed to move South to a warmer climate. Behind Torvald's back, Nora borrowed money from a man named Krogstad. In the 1800s, women could not borrow money without their husband's approval. Privately, Nora had borrowed a loan to save her sick husband's life. Behind his back, she had been saving and skimping in order to pay the loan back without Torvald learning the truth.
Out of love, Nora borrowed money to save her husband's life. All these years, she has been keeping the loan a secret from Torvald. Torvald is the type of man who would divorce Nora for compromising his reputation.
When Krogstad reveals to Torvald the truth about the loan, Torvald is furious. He screams at Nora and commands her to go to her room. He yells at her, expressing that she has ruined his reputation for when people find out what Nora has done, he will be a laughing stock. Instead of being grateful for saving his life, Torvald tells Nora she is not fit to raise his children.
Nora finally gets the courage to stand up to Torvald. After she tells torvald that she is not happy, she walks out the door. She leaves Torvald with the intentions of divorcing him. Finally, Nora gains her independence. After being controlled for so long by a husband who did not respect her as his equal, Nora finds the courage to strike out on her own to find her own identity. Nora is no longer satisfied just being Torvald's play house doll. Nora had proved that she was a competent business woman by borrowing the loan and paying it back on her own, without her husband's approval or help. Instead of honoring his wife with appreciation for her honorable yet stressful sacrifice, Torvald scolded her as if she were a child. He was concerned only with his precious reputation. He only worried about what other people would think of him. His concern was that his trophy wife had committed an illegal act. She had borrowed money without her husband's approval.
When Nora realized that Torvald did not appreciate her help in saving his life, she realized he did not truly love her as much as he loved himself. For this reason, she left her unhappy marriage. At a time when woman were only house wives who were dependent upon men for survival, Nora bravely stepped out to find her own identity, leaving behind her home, her husband and her children. She was tired of playing house, and she no longer desired to be Torvald's doll. Bravo Nora!
What does Torvald love most about Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House?
Torvald never explicitly says what he loves best about Nora. However, her
certainly does imply certain things about his affection for her, particularly
her beauty.
One thing we see him imply is that he loves her because he knows she loves him
a great deal. We especially see this in Act 2 after Nora asks him for the
second time not to dismiss Krogstad. Nora argues that it is narrow minded of
Torvald to dismiss Krogstad simply because of a past indiscretion. She further
argues that since Krogstrad writes for the newspaper, he may write something to
slander Torvald, just like her father was slandered by the newspapers. While
Torvald understands her worry about him being slandered, he is very angered at
the thought of being called narrow minded. Nevertheless, he decides to forgive
her because her anxiety proves how much she loves him, as we see in his speech
to her:
My dear Nora, I can forgive the anxiety you are in, although really it is an insult to me ... It is an insult to think that I should be afraid of a starving quill-driver's vengeance? But I forgive you nevertheless, because it is such eloquent witness to your great love for me. (II)
Therefore, we can see from this speech that, even though he thinks she is
very silly, he loves her because he sees how much she loves him.
However, his greatest expressed reason for loving her is her physical
attraction. We especially see him praising her beauty in the final Act,
particularly in his line, "Why shouldn't I not look at my dearest?--at all the
beauty that is mine, all my very own?" (III). We especially see his passion for
her in his speech describing his fantasies of her when they are out together at
parties and further still in the feelings he describes he had as he watched her
dance the Tarantella:
All this evening I have longed for nothing but you. When I watched the seductive figures of the Tarantella, my blood was on fire; I could endure it no longer, and that was why I brought you down so early--. (III)
Hence, we see that the real reason why Torvald loves Nora is because of his physical attraction for her, and the one thing he loves best is her beauty.
How does Ibsen portray the unequal relationship between Nora and Torvald in A Doll's House?
In keeping with the prevailing standards of the time, Torvald is the undisputed head of the household. He is the sole breadwinner for his family and has complete control over the household finances. The respective roles of husband and wife in this relationship are completely conventional, just what would be expected in a respectable, middle-class marriage. While he goes out to work each day at the bank, his wife, Nora, is expected to stay at home and look after the children.
Ibsen skillfully uses language to heighten this enormous disparity in power between Torvald and Nora. Torvald infantilizes his wife by giving her childish, patronizing nicknames, such as "my little skylark" and "my squirrel." Torvald is only able to get away with using such condescending language because he is the undisputed head of the house.
His position of power gives him the authority to define who Nora is, and Torvald has chosen to use his authority as husband to define Nora as little more than a child. Language plays a very important part in this process. Describing Nora in such infantilized terms allows Torvald to keep her in a state of subjection; his own children may one day grow up, but Torvald is determined that Nora never will. Torvald may think he's protecting Nora by treating her this way, but in actual fact, he's stunting her moral and intellectual growth, with potentially damaging consequences.