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The role of nora in a doll's house
The role of nora in a doll's house
The role of nora in a doll's house
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Synopsis
The play begins on Christmas Eve. Nora Torvald enters the living room carrying packages. Torvald Helmer, her husband, enters. He says that she shouldn’t have spent so much on Christmas gifts. He says that they have to be careful with money for now, but that he got a promotion at the bank that will increase their quality of life.
Helene, their maid, says that Dr. Rank has come to visit. Also, Nora’s school friend, Kristine Linde, comes. The two have not seen each other in years. Nora tells Linde about her life. She says that Torvald had heath problems earlier in the marriage, and they had to go to Italy so he could recover.
Mrs. Linde tells Nora that her husband died, leaving her with no money and no children. She wants Torvald to get her a job. Nora says she will speak to Torvald, and tells her that she illegally borrowed the money to pay for the trip to Italy. For years, she worked and saved in secret to repay the debt. Soon it will be fully repaid.
Krogstad, an employee at the bank, and Dr. Rank arrive. Rank says that Krogstad is “morally sick”. Nora is unnerved by Krogstad’s presence. Torvald says that he can probably get Mrs. Linde a job at the bank. Rank, Torvald, and Linde depart. The children arrive with Anne-Marie, their nanny. Nora plays with the children until she notices Krogstad. He is revealed to be the source of the illegal loan.
He says that Torvald wants to fire him. He asks Nora to try to talk Torvald out of it. Krogstad says that he will tell about the loan if he gets fired. Nora tries to get Torvald not to fire him, but he says Krogstad is immoral.
On Christmas, Nora is nervous. Nora again begs Torvald not to fire Krogstad. He refuses. Torvald sends the maid to deliver Krogstad’s letter of dismissal.
Rank arrives and tells Nora he is dying. She flirts with him. He says he is in love with her.
Krogstad demands an explanation for his being fired. He tells Nora that she must get him rehired to a higher position. He puts a letter in Torvald’s letterbox detailing the illegal loan. (Nora forged her father’s signature to get it.) Nora tells Mrs. Linde everything. Mrs. Linde says to distract Torvald from the letterbox until she talks to Krogstad.
Krogstad and Mrs.
When attending a masquerade, a person is expected to wear a mask. In fact, it’s looked down upon if a mask isn’t worn. But, what if for some people that mask never came off? In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, each character has constructed their own metaphorical mask that they set firmly in place every morning when exiting their bed. Each character: Nora, Torvald, Kristine and Krogstad all have masks that they put in place when speaking to each other. Throughout most of the play, it is clear that all of the aforementioned characters have multiple facades that they use when speaking to one another; often switching quickly as they begin speaking to someone else. Henrik Ibsen’s use of the masquerade serves as an extended metaphor to show the masks that the characters use in their everyday lives.
Nora hides the fact that she has done something illegal from Torvald. She is given the opportunity to tell Torvald and maybe get his support or advise on the situation, and she lies to him to hide the truth. She claims that the reason that she does not want Torvald to fire Krogstad is that "this fellow writes in the most scurrilous newspapers...he can do [Torvald] an unspeakable amount of harm"(Ibsen 519). Nora hides the truth and replaces it with lies. Torvald does not know that if he fires Krogstad that the consequences will affect his whole family. Nora could have told him, but instead she decided to hide the truth from her husband.
Krogstad is different from Torvald because he is not as well off economically and socially and this leads him to try an extremer form of manipulation. Krogstad is desperate to keep his job at the bank and tries to get Nora to secure the job with her husband through blackmail. Since he was once found to be forging documents, his reputation has been flaky, so in order to regain his reputation for his sons: "For their sake I must win back as much respect as I can in the town" (22), he needs to keep his job at the bank.
Nora is the pampered wife of an aspiring bank manager Torvald Halmer. In a desperate attempt to saves her husband's life Nora once asked for a loan so she and her family could move somewhere where her husband could recover from his sickness. Giving the circumstances she, as a woman of that period, by herself and behind her husband forged her dad signature to receive the loan. Now, Nora's lender (Mr. Krogstad), despite her paying punctually, uses that fault as a fraud to pressure her so she could help him to keep his job in the Bank where her husband is going to be the manager. Nora finds out that Torvald would fire Mr. Krogstad at any cost. At learning this, Nora trembles for she knows Mr. Krogstad will tell everything to Torvald. She remains confident; however that Torvald will stand by her no matter what outcome. His reaction though is not what she expected and therefore here is when she realizes that she "must stand quite alone" and leaves her husband.
This leads Nora into a frenzy of techniques to convince her husband into not firing Krogstad, however; Nora had been the one who recommended Mrs Linde to work for Helmer, who is now the one replacing Krogstad. After many attempts, Nora is unable to convince Helmer to keep Krogstad. The last day she seems hopeless and willing to assume the consequences, she has a final opportunity at getting away with it; by finding out Mrs Linde and Krogstad have unsolved romantic affairs and that he is deeply in love with her. This new development convinces Krogstad to be with Mrs linde, but unfortunately the previous letter telling everything about the debt and forgery was already in Helmer’s mail. When the night comes for Helmer to read his mail, he finds out about the note and Nora’s mistakes, he is quick to think of a way to come up clean, while at the same time dishonoring Nora for her actions. “ Oh, what an awful awakening! In all these eight years-she who was my pride and joy-a hypocrite, a liar-worse, worse-a criminal” (Doll Act 3). Nora’s attitude at this point is guilt and shame. Soon after another letter is received. Krogstad sends the note, implicitly liberating them from all guilt and also attaches a letter apologizing and explaining the events that recently took place in his life,
Although Krostad’s blackmail does not change Nora’s whimsical nature, it opens her eyes to her underappreciated potential. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald,” (Find a different quote perhaps?) she exclaims in her confrontation with Torvald. She realizes that she has been putting on a facade for him throughout their marriage. Acting like someone she is not in order to fill the role that her father, Torvald, and society expected her to have.
Torvald explained to Nora that keeping Krogstad on at the bank would appear to others that he is easily swayed by his wife. Torvald has also complained about Krogstad’s use of his first name at the bank. Of course, Torvald’s true feelings about his appearance come out explicitly during his fit of rage in the end. Torvald is excessively consumed with how others view him and has no moral objections to having his wife perform sultry dances in front of other men.
Both Krogstad and Nora have proven themselves double-dealing, disregarding morality in some cases and the culture of their households. Krogstad reveals that he has malicious intentions threatening the image of the Helmer family. No one is so far gone as to being unable to find their morality. The only time that one is incapable of being able to be morally upright is when they simply disregard the wrong of their actions. Krogstad shows that he is “dangerous” when he threatens to blackmail Nora. He displays his character and its flaws with his bad intent. He shows himself to be a self-serving individual be simply caring for himself and not the lively hood of Nora and her husband. Nora in her own right has shown us, the reader, her double dealing and secretive nature. Her reputation and appearance in her home to her husband are endangered by the constant fact that she disregarded Torvald’s disdain for debt. She therefore, must struggle to keep her head above water in upholding her unique relationships to the other
an example of the individual’s struggle against society” (Mitchell 136). She was punished severely for something that could be considered a petty crime and the crime ultimately led to her and Torvald’s separation and her leaving the house. In addition, “Christine Linde and Nils Krogstad’s subplot ending in marriage happens at the same time as Nora’s break with Torvald.” (Davies 51) The sharp contrast between the two creates conflict within the audience members because Krogstad is being rewarded for blackmail as Nora is being punished for saving her husband’s life.
The first hint came when Nora told Kristina that Torvald had given up his government post because there was no prospect of advancement. It may be that there was no opportunity for getting ahead because promotion was slow in the bureau, but it may have been because his most intimate co-workers (those who would have used the familiar Du with him) were aware of what he had done. While the management did not prosecute him (just as Krogstad was not prosecuted), those acquainted with the incident could prevent his advancement into an office where his larcenous tendencies could do real harm. A second hint is that Helmer saw Krogstad as a threat to his new post in the savings bank: "he seems to think he has a right to be familiar with me." Did he suspect that Krogstad knew the one awful secret that could destroy him? The third hint follows that trail: Krogstad expected that Nora had sufficient influence to persuade her husband not to dismiss him. Why did he believe this unless he had some suspicion of her past influence? A further hint comes when Helmer remarks: "I pretend we're secretly in love--engaged in secret--and that no one dreams that there's anything between us." Why does he want that? Is this not a reference to the conflict of interest regarding her father? Lastly, after reading Krogstad's letter, almost immediately Nora's father comes to mind; he exclaims, "So this is what I get for condoning his fault! I did it for your sake, and t...
Nora tells about her secret of incurring debt but she doesn’t tell her from whom she borrowed money. Then comes the antagonist character of the story, Krogstad. Krogstad is a person who works in a bank who is managed by Torvald. Torvald hates him so much that he wants to fire him. He doesn’t like Krogstad’s presence as it gives him bad vibes. Actually, Torvald decides to assign his job to Mrs Linde who is searching for a job to make her living. Krogstad goes inside the study room of Torvald when Nora and Mrs Linde are sitting with Dr Rank, a family friend of Helmer’s. Nora pretends to be knowing Krogstad but she doesn’t act to be knowing him. When Dr Rank, Mrs Linde and Torvald go from house, Krogstad meets Nora. Actually, Nora has taken debt from him under the name of her father even if he died before she took loan. So Krogstad begins to blackmail her. He tells her that if she would not convince Torvald not to fire him, he would tell Torvald Nora’s whole secret and their wedding life would be at danger. She tries her best to convince Torvald not to fire Krogstad but Torvald sends letter of firing Krogstad in middle of their conversation about this subject. To cover her secret and be saved from facing storm of anger from Torvald, she flirts with Dr Rank and demands some money to pay debt to Krogstad. But this plan goes all wrong when Dr Rank tells her that he was suffering from Tuberculosis is dying. He also tells
Torvald is the only one in the family who works and provides for his family who needs to survive in their lifestyle. Because of this, Nora must always go and ask for money from Torvald, hoping for his acceptance of her using his income. Nora also had no possessions to her name because when a woman got married, all her possessions were considered under the control of her new husband.... ... middle of paper ...
...r had a serious conversation. Nora explains her own pains as she has never been understood by any man. Nora leaves as she explains her own life. She shuts the door and there is no certainty that she will return as Torvald realizes. Torvald gains hope as he realizes that if he transforms into a better man he may have a hope of getting Nora back.
Nora loves her husband very much, even to the point of idolizing him. As she first enters the home with the Christmas packag...
As the play goes on, Nora seems to transform from her delicate little character into something much more. At the end of act one, Krogstad goes to Nora for the recollection of the money she had borrowed from him. "You don?t mean that you will tell my husband that I owe you money?" (21). Since Nora was wrong in doing so socially, she could not tell Torvald or anyone else about her problem. Not only would that affect their social standard but also Torvald's ego, which inevitably would happen anyway. After Krogstad threatens to expose Nora for forging her father's signature, she realizes that no matter what she does Torvald was going to know the truth. The flaw with...