Mrs. Linde as a Foil for Nora in in Ibsen's A Doll's House Essay

When the audience first meets Mrs. Linde, she seems to be quite a contrast to the childish Nora. Nora is immature 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

Quote #1 from Nora: At first, when Nora and Torvald are having a conversation about Nora spending, she says, “Oh, yes, Torvald, do let us squander a little - just the least little bit, won't you? You know you'll soon be earning heaps of money” (page 3).

Linde also gets to witness some of Nora’s falling apart in the process. During Nora’s mental breakdown, Nora mentions that “a wonderful thing is going to happen”, “but it musn’t happen, not for all of the world” (1383), referring to Torvald’s discovering the letter. Initially not knowing what Nora was talking about but concerned for Nora’s wellbeing, Linde decides to visit Krogstad and ultimately convinces him to not take back the letter he sent to Torvald regarding Nora. Linde’s reasoning behind this is that she noticed that Nora cannot handle keeping her forgery a secret from Torvald, and that keeping the letter from him is crushing her, and Linde has witness “incredible thins in [Nora and Torvald’s] house” (1389) because of it. Unlike Nora, Linde is mature enough to see that Nora is better off telling her secret to Torvald and thus getting it off her chest, which would allow for “a complete understanding between [Nora and Torvard]” (1389), which would’ve been impossible if Nora had kept her

Another thing that these female characters sacrifice in this society, is job availability. Nora has to find little work to help her pay off her debt, but nothing really serious. Mrs. Linde really needs to support herself, but she has no other way to get a decent job. This compels her to ask her old friend Nora to help her acquire a job.

Character foils are common among great works of literature. Writers use foils as a way of highlighting specific qualities within other character, as seen in works such as Pride and Prejudice and Julius Caesar. In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen makes use of character foil to accentuate qualities within its main characters. An important character who acts as a foil is Christine Linde. As the play progresses, Christine Linde acts as a foil to Nora’s character through her development from an object of pity to Nora’s ideal for herself. Through the foil, insight can be gained into the inner workings of the main character and also to foreshadow the actions of other characters; thus making the minor character more complex than the protagonist. By comparing two characters, which are seemingly very dissimilar and opposites, we are able to see multiple outcomes to a societal problem. An examination of Christine Linde as a foil to Nora’s Character demonstrates that while Nora’s actions at the end of the play are justified, they are not the only

(Ibsen, 1879, p. 1110). By asking this I believe Mrs. Linde is implying that Nora can be independent, she just needs to overcome the idea that the male is superior or discover who she really is as a person rather than just a

It seems Nora is like a modern day “gold digger”, always asking Torvald for money instead of earing her own living like Mrs. Linde. Mrs. Linde says, “Yes, so I had to scrape up a living with a little shop and a little teaching and whatever else I could find. The last three years have been like an endless workday without a rest for me.” (Ibsen 895). This clearly shows how Mrs. Linde doesn’t fall under the typical stereotypes of a women in that time period.

In Act 1, Nora appears to flourish with the pride she gets from obtaining the cash. I assume that she is feeling helpful for a change. It appears to be additionally, that Mrs. Linde appears to be better than Nora on the grounds that she feels that Nora has never done diligent work in her life. Mrs. Linde is alluding to the penance she has made. She makes a comment about Nora

At the end of their first reconnection, Nora reveals that her transformation from obedient doll to liberated woman had already begun. She now admires Mrs. Linde for her long years of work and independence and uses it as inspiration for her own. In Mrs. Linde’s trust, Nora exposes her personal act of sovereignty: a few years ago, she had secretly borrowed money to save her husband’s life, incriminating herself. Even though she did the morally correct thing, Nora’s actions are condemnable and

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

Nora is the protagonist, and “doll-wife” to Torvald Helmer, who is the new manager of a bank making much more money, which supports Nora’s needs. Being the “singing lark,” “little squirrel,” and “little spendthrift” Torvald says she is, she performs in a childish manner that “her husband seems to expect” (“Overview: A Doll’s House” 1). Torvald treats her as a doll and yet Nora is completely content with her marital status and life taking care of her three children. However, Mrs. Linde is a widow who had married her husband for money instead of settling with Nils Krogstad whom she actually loved. She has no children and married into money to take care of her sick mother and two little brothers, but when he husband passed, she ended up having

Nora would continuously put aside Helmer’s remarks: “My poor little Nora”, “My little skylark”; however, with Torvald’s increasing ego; mostly caused by his promotion in the bank, Nora comes to realize that the man she married, is nothing more than a blatant hypocrite. Torvald states, “Oh, my darling wife, I can’t hold you close enough. You know, Nora…many’s the time I wish you were threatened by some terrible danger so I could risk everything, body and soul, for your sake”. This seems like a very considerate gesture for a husband to makes, Torvald yearns to be by Nora’s side.

     Mrs. Kristine Linde is a longtime confidante of Nora, and until the beginning of the play, has not seen her for nine or ten years. Since then, her husband has died and she was left with

     Ibsen’s purpose for writing this piece is to entertain while pointing out an injustice. Through the events of the play, Nora becomes increasingly aware of the confines in which Torvald has placed her. He has made her a doll in her own house, one that is expected to keep happy and