The Red Candle Short Story

“Yes, so terribly frightened. Let me practice right now; there’s still time before dinner. Oh, sit down and play for me Torvald. Direct me. Teach me, the way you always have.” (Ibsen. 416) Nora does manipulate Helmer to get what she wants. She uses her power over her husband subtly, as women had to do in throughout time. Only recently have women been able to overtly vocalize what they want out of a relationship or marriage, or chose to marry for themselves.

The Helmer marriage is very deceptive. They appear to be happy, but it’s all an illusion. Marriage is like a flower; It needs sunlight, water and soil to grow. For a marriage to work, there must be love. Torvald does not respect Nora as a man would if he considered his partner as equal. He talks down to her, considering her inferior by using terms of endearment. This is exemplified by the names he calls her such as, ‘my little skylark’, ‘ my little squirrel’, ‘my little singing bird’ and ‘sweet-tooth’. Nora does not know any better from early childhood. She has been pampered for the greater part of her life through first, her father and then her husband. This mentality makes their relationship much like that of a father and a child. “Your squirrel would run about and do all her tricks if you would be nice and do what she asks.” Torvald asks her to speak plainly. “Your skylark would chirp, chirp about in every room, with her song rising and falling----”. Torvald answers, “Well, my skylark does that anyhow.”(34) The communication between the Helmer’s displays no signs of a love between a man and a woman, but rather that of a doll’s house. Nora is a doll living in a doll’s house controlled

All stories begin with a problem; these three flash fictions share the problem of these characters being unable to move on. The flash fiction story, “Promise Kept by Candle Flame,” tells the tale of a desperate woman who loves another woman and has the problem of moving on from her death. The flash fiction piece “Like Father, Like Daughter” conveys the bitterness that the father had endured until that day, causing him to be unable to move on and realize there are others who love and need him to move on. “<3 Quest,” another Flash fiction, creates an embarrassingly shy kid who is unable able to move on. This universal theme is seen in It by Stephen King, where Stuttering Bill, many years later, has not moved on from his dead brother, Georgie.

In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in

A lone candle burns into the senseless night. Its wax trickling down its side. I stare at the clock and it is barely half past nine, yet time seems to stand still. I stare at the window and investigate the nasty mesmerizing blizzard falling outside my window. I could not grasp anything other than the snow. All I can do is moan as each passing second this bloody snow lingers and destroys my vision of a perfect Christmas, in which Santa would come and visit me in my sleep. At the time I was only four but I treasured Christmas and the snow surrounding it. Little did I know the damage that it would entail into my life.

Nora and Helmer are introduced as a middle class couple from the time of the industrial revolution in Norway. Helmer uses many affectionate terms when referring to which indicates a dehumanizing aspect of his thoughts. It seems as if Nora is only a showpiece for his home and that Helmer has no sense of gender equality. Nora is introduced as a innocent wife, who only listens to her husband.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Through their everyday conversation, Nora and Torvald reveal that they have a relationship full of meaningless talk and games. “Is that my little squirrel rummaging around”, Torvald questions Nora. “Yes!” (1569) she answers, running up to Torvald like a puppy. Because of her childish attitude, Torvald must have assumed that Nora was always happy and carefree. What reason would there be for meaningful conversation if she never obliged? Their relationship consisted of nothing truly real. Everything they talked about or enjoyed together was fun, games, and for show. Often times Torvald would even scold Nora like he would a child and wave his finger in disapproval. “Surely my sweet tooth hasn’t been running riot in town today, has she?”(1571) Then, Nora would respond as a young child would face punishment, “You know I could never think of going against you.” Then Torvald responded, “No, I understand that; and you have given me your word” (1571). I believe much of their marriage was ruined by their childish behaviors and antics; never telling each other the truth, living lies, and playing foolish games with each other.

Lindo Jong was two years old when she was forced into a marriage that she had no idea of. "Instead, the village matchmaker came to my family when I was just two years old."(Tan 23). Furthermore, the matchmaker and Huang Taitai; the groom’s mother would spy on her. After Lindo’s house got destroyed by the flood she was left behind, causing her to live with her new husband. When she arrived at her new home Huang Taitai came to get her and pushed her into the kitchen where cooks and servants. " Huang Taitai and Tyan-yu were not there to greet me. Instead, Huang Taitai hurried me upstairs to the second floor and into the kitchen… this was a place for cooks and servants."(Tan 26). Whenever Lindo and her husband ate a meal he would try to make her

In the beginning of the book one could tell that Nora has a frivolous personality and likes to have fun and that Torvald takes everything very seriously and doesn't want to do anything that would be a “waste” of his time. Since the two have bipolar personalities, it is quite obvious that they do not have a typical nor traditional marriage. Because of Nora’s youthful personality it makes it harder on Torvald to treat her as an equal. “You always find some new way of wheedling money out of me, and, as soon as you have got it, it seems to melt in your hands ‘Torvald’” (Ibsen 14). In that line spoken by Torvald it is taken notice how he feels about Nora and that he only trusts her with the little and simple tasks.

Torvald, Nora’s, is a bank manager and he is not respectful to his wife in general. Mrs. Kristine Linde is a good friend of Nora. She is in a tough time and ask Nora for help. The first important event is that Krogstad asked Nora to persuade Torvald to maintain Krogstad’s job. Nora used to borrow amount of money from Krogstad and forged her dad’s signature.

Torvald has the same ownership over Nora that her father had. “Marriage was described as 'legalised prostitution' or slavery”(Forward). Nora was similar to a slave to torvald, he told her what to do, what to wear, and even how to dance. Nora loved her husband even though he treated her more like his pet than a wife. He called her many pet names like: squirrel, songbird, and wastrel.

Torvald’s wife Nora is the center of several of the traits that classify him as a morally ambiguous character. Nora is more like a possession to Torvald than a soul mate or wife. She is like a doll to him, something that he can control and shape into what he wants. Nora is treated like a child and as if she can not function a second without him to be there to tell her what to do. Her dependency on him is extremely important to him because that is

Nora’s unexpected decision to leave Helmer shows the confidence she has within herself and the strong ability that she posses. This result occurs when Helmer finds out that Nora had borrowed money from Krogstad to finance the trip to Italy. The two get into an argument, but it quickly dies down once Helmer receives another letter from Krogstad saying how he will not blackmail Nora anymore. Helmer tries to console her but at this point it was too late. She explains how she feels like his trophy by exclaiming, “…But our home’s been nothing but a playroom. I’ve been your doll-wife, the same way that I was Papa’s doll-child. And the children have been my dolls. I thought it was great fun when you played with me, the way they thought it was when I played with them. That’s what our marriage has been, Torvald” (Ibsen 935). She realizes that she has been nothing but a “plaything” for Torvald. Torvald liked the idea of having someone to love him and do what he says but not

Later in the play things start getting complicated for Nora. Her husband Torvald had become Mr. Krogstad boss at work, and Torvald wanted to fire Mr. Krogstad. This is when Mr. Krogstad starts to blackmail Nora. He wants Nora to stop Torvald from firing him. If she does not, Mr. Krogstad was going to tell Torvald her secret. This should have been the perfect time for Nora to tell the truth to her husband, but she believed that telling Torvald the truth will ruin their relationship. Nora says to her friend Mrs. Linde “Torvald, with all his masculine pride – how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would ruin our relationship. Our beautiful, happy home would never be the same” (Iben 802)

Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.