Within the
beginning of Act 1 of “A Doll’s House”, Ibsen presents three characters to the
audience: Nora, Torvald Helmer, and Mrs. Kristine Linde. Nora is the main
protagonist of the play, portrayed as a typical, frivolous housewife that prioritizes
family above all else, in the first few pages. She is the wife of Torvald, the
patriarchal figure of the Helmer family, who holds a stable job and income and
emphasizes the importance of money. Kristine Linde is a recent widow and much
older than Nora, of whom she is a long-time acquaintance of.
Ibsen presents Nora as a
stereotypical homemaker in the intro of the play as she stays in the household,
“shuts the door…comes into the room…”. At this early part of the play, the
scene seems like a perfectly normal situation with a generic woman figure doing
her household duties (nothing is out of the norm). Nora “happily hum(s) to
herself…laughs quietly” as if she has no significant problems to worry about.
And this carefree attitude is supported by the frivolity that Ibsen portrays
Nora as being, using stage directions and diction to present this
characteristic. Nora’s stage directions are usually abrupt, as if the character
did not think before “shrieking…putting her hand over (Torvald’s) mouth”. These
frivolous actions suggest that Nora does not seem to control her mind and therefore,
the audience may not take Nora seriously. Some of her direct responses (“Pooh!”)
to Torvald’s refusals (“We can’t afford to be…”) are immature and without any
intellectual depth, suggesting that Nora may not be able to consider more
serious issues. However, this idea is challenged when, a few pages later, Nora
shares her main priorities and the sacrifices she made to assure the safety of
Torvald. Nora “couldn’t even go and look after (Torvald)” when he was seriously
ill, claiming that the inability to visit her husband and the event of her
father’s death was “the saddest thing that has ever happened to (her) in all
(her) married life”, suggesting that Nora values family highly, categorizing
family losses to be the “worst”. The fact that Ibsen directed Nora to tell this
to Kristine Linde and not to her husband shows how considerate she is to save
the embarrassment to her husband of making him look weak in front of her (him being
sick), and also avoiding the shame of Torvald would experience of learning that
Nora borrowed money to save his health, even though the act of borrowing
finances was forbidden to Torvald’s rules. Therefore, while Nora’s speech seems
transparent and superficial, her intentions are deeper.
Torvald is portrayed by Ibsen as
a dominant, patronizing male figure to Nora. Torvald constantly calls Nora his “little
sky-lark…little squirrel…little singing bird…”, using diminutive phrases to
treat Nora as though she were his child rather than his wife. That and the use
of the word “little” shows Torvald’s desire for control over Nora, and to not
allow her free-will to make her own choices. This is shown by Torvald’s
constant pestering over Nora’s supposedly suspicious actions throughout the
day, asking if she “forg(o)t herself in town today…(if) she didn’t just pop
into the confectioner’s…didn’t try sampling the preserves…” and keeps going
with the questions, to assure that Nora did not go against his wishes, because
Nora looked “rather guilty today”. These exaggerated questions suggest that
Torvald is very presumptuous and believes he is always correct. Torvald fails
to understand his wife any deeper than the superficial amount, justifying her
actions to be “just like a woman”, rather than making an effort to understand
her intentions, because Torvald does not believe Nora is not able to possess
more complex implications to her words. Simply, Torvald classifies Nora as a “pet”.
Furthermore, Torvald emphasizes
the importance of money as the main priority of his life, expressing joy in the
“glorious feeling … knowing you’ve got a nice, safe job and a good fat income…”
This contrasts with Nora’s main priority of family, and when comparing the two
character’s priorities to their mental complexities, it is possible that
perhaps Nora is the one that can consider more profound issues, than Torvald,
who values a superficial lifestyle.
Finally, Mrs. Kristine Linde is
portrayed by Ibsen to be a quiet, direct woman who differs greatly from Nora.
The conversation structure by Ibsen, between the two characters can show the
contrast between the two personalities. Kristine speaks in short, curt dialogue
(“Yes, it’s me.” “That I can well imagine.” “No. What is it?”), while Nora’s
dialogue is much longer. Therefore, Kristine may be seen as less frivolous than
Nora, only speaking when necessary, and only to ask or answer a question,
rather than adding onto a story. Perhaps this feature makes the character more
serious to the audience, but less extravagant in personality (not memorable). The
character, as a foil to Nora, can also be interpreted as wiser, as she may
choose to say little as she is wise enough to know that, in the current
Victorian society, it is not of custom to share the details of one’s personal
life (“And much, much older, Nora…No. I want to hear more about you.”)
No comments:
Post a Comment