A Doll's House: Christine Linde as Dramatic Foil Essay

In Henrik Ibsen's, A Doll's House, the character of Nora Helmer goes through the dramatic transformation of a kind and loving housewife, to a desperate and bewildered woman, whom will ultimately leave her husband and everything she has known. Ibsen uses both the characters of Torvald and Nora to represent the tones and beliefs of 19th century society. By doing this, Ibsen effectively creates a dramatic argument that continues to this day; that of feminism.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer is a traditional “angel in the house” she is a human being, but first and foremost a wife and a mother who is devoted to the care of her children, and the happiness of her husband. The play is influenced by the Victorian time period when the division of men and women was evident, and each gender had their own role to conform to. Ibsen’s views on these entrenched values is what lead to the A Doll’s House becoming so controversial as the main overarching theme of A Doll’s House is the fight for independence in an otherwise patriarchal society. This theme draws attention to how women are capable in their own rights, yet do not govern their own lives due to the lack of legal entitlement and

He says “Self—actualizing people are, involved in a cause outside their own skin” (Maslow 110) and their goal is to show others way toward self-actualization. In the play, Mrs. Linde only came in town three days and already knows everything that is corrupted in Torvald house. She is definitely a self-actualized person, who played a most important role in Nora’s ultimate transformation by helping her to realize that a woman can think, act and live independently for herself. She also helps Nora to realize that she is just living in a dream world and always depended upon others. Mrs. Linde then tries to makes Nora believes that there are more important things in life besides to worry about money. Mrs Linde also realizes, Torvald and Nora has “to come to a full understanding, all these lies and evasions can’t go on” (Ibsen 894) and tells Nora to confront her husband because “repression is not a good way of solving problems” (Maslow 114). Instead of waiting for any miracle she made Nora to face her ultimate reality by saying Krogsted not to take the forgery letter back. Thus, she is the one mainly responsible for Nora to realize the truth about her unbalanced relationship with

Mrs. Linde is the perfect foil for Nora as can be evidenced with the following excerpt from lines 297-301. Mrs. Linde's self sacrifice for her closest loved ones is atypical of those without the utmost maturity. Mrs. Linde married a man she did not love for the purpose of security:

In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, pointedly captures the reality of the Victorian Era within the play. Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the story, represents the typical women in society during that era. The audience’s first impression of Nora is a money obsessed, childish, obedient house wife to her husband, Torvald Helmer. However, as the play progresses one can see that Nora is far from being that typical ideal trophy wife, she is an impulsive liar who goes against society’s norm to be whom and what she wants. Her husband is illustrated as the stereotypical man during the 19th century, as he is the dominate breadwinner of the family, who too deserts his position as the play reaches its end. A key theme that is brought to light in A

Henrik Ibsen creates many interesting and complex characters in his play A Doll’s House. Both the Helmers and Christine and Krogstad have very fascinating relationships. Nora and Torvald have a very insubstantial relationship in which Nora has no say or independence and is completely under Torvald’s control. Christine and Krogstad have their share of issues but they are able to work them out like reasonable adults. Nora/Torvald and Christine/Krogstad are two fundamentally different sets of people.

In the beginning, Nora acts and speaks like a child saying things like “Pooh!”(Act 1). Ibsen showshow he thinks dependant and uneducated woman are naive and almost childlike. Nora and Torvald’s relationship is almost exactly how her and her father’s relationship had been, with the man completely controlling Nora, and Nora acting like an obedient child. Nora had not been independent with her father and when she marries Torvald she is also completely dependant on him for everything she wants or needs. Both Nora’s father and Torvald coddle Nora and treat her like a delicate doll so she is never fully is independent. At one point in the play Torvald even admits he finds Nora more attractive because of her dependence on him. Christine Linde is

Ibsen’s character Nora in A Doll’s House, shows gradual development throughout the play to support his theme that above all else, you are human; even in marriage both parties should be given the equal opportunities, rights and respect. While Nora may at first seem happy with her life inside her “doll house”, she begins to recognize that she must find herself, and stop being a toy in the lives of men.

Previous to the opening of the play, Nora makes the decision to get a loan without Torvald's knowledge so that he can go to Italy and improve his health, showing compassion and love for her husband. Nora's aquiring the loan with her father as a guarantor, shows that she cared enough not to worry her husband with money problems at a time that he needed to heal. Forging her

   In his play, A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen depicts a female protagonist, Nora Helmer, who dares to defy her husband and forsake her "duty" as a wife and mother to seek out her individuality. A Doll's House challenges the patriarchal view held by most people at the time that a woman's place was in the home. Many women could relate to Nora's situation. Like Nora, they felt trapped by their husbands and their fathers; however, they believed that the rules of society prevented them from stepping out of the shadows of men. Through this play, Ibsen stresses the importance of women's individuality. A Doll's House combines realistic characters, fascinating imagery, explicit stage directions, and

In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen focuses on the importance of women's roles and freedom in society. Widely regarded as a feminist paean, the play features two major female characters; the most prominent of whom, Nora Helmer, shatters her position as a subservient, doll-like female when she walks out on her husband and children with a flagrant "door slam heard round the world." Nora’s evolution, though inspiring, should not overshadow another crucial woman in the play: Mrs. Kristine Linde. Both women attain freedom in a society dominated by the adherence to conservative marital roles, but do it in different ways. While Nora reaches her consciousness and slams the door on her shackling domicile, Mrs.

As Mrs. Linde and Nora continue with their conversation, Nora begins to question whether Torvald does love her. Nora begins to tell her story of how she was the one to raise the money for the trip to Italy and not Torvald. She reveals how she went to Krogstad and asked for a loan to help pay for the trip. When Mrs. Linde asked if Torvald knew any of this information Nora replied, "He's so strict on that subject ... with all his masculine pride how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me" (1194). Nora did not feel comfortable telling Torvald about the predicament because she did not want to offend him. Torvald is set on complying by his morals and the fact that Nora disobeyed them would dishonor her

In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen presents us with the drama of Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have been married for eight years and whose lives are controlled by the society in which they live. Their relationship, although seemingly happy, is marred by the constraints of social attitudes around them and their perceived gender roles. Creating even more conflict is the thin veil of deceit between them, which inevitably breaks them apart.

Once read a Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, myself was really impressed how Ibsen embraces women equality and power in society, conveying in a general theme of freedom in social life. This play was written in 1879 furthermore it aroused great controversy at that time. Many analysis about this book, locates the spotlight on to Mrs. Nora, which her main role concludes on her leaving his husband and kids completely defying the rules of society in that time. However people and critics reduce the importance of other characters in the play, in this case Mrs. Kristine Linde. While Mrs. Linde appears like a minor character and with a slight role in Nora’s transformation, she may have a fundamental part in Nora’s conversion in the play. Nora and Mrs. Linde move in opposite paths throughout the play. Mrs. Linde or Christine, starts as being a independent women not having any family obligations; On the other hand Nora has a devoted husband and several children. Whereas Mrs. Linde had a very problematic past, Nora has had it relatively easy. So, how did Mrs. Linde affected Nora’s transformation.

Nora Helmer’s choice to leave her family behind, at the end of  “A Dollhouse” by Henrik Ibsen, is completely justified in her actions with the other characters throughout the play. Nora demonstrated many vastly different characteristics during the conversations between Christine Linde, Krogstad, Dr, Rank, and her husband, Torvald, which led to the inevitable departure from the life she had grown to loathe. Without a thorough analysis of the complexity of Nora’s character in the play, it would be difficult to understand the true reason for why she made the decision to divorce Torvald and abandon her kids.