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¶ … Henrik Ibsen's a Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen's characters are not the people they appear to be. On the surface and at the beginning of the play audiences see typical people, pursuing typical lives with typical problems. Not until the play progresses, and in retrospect, do audiences realize that society negatively or positively stimulates the characters motives and actions. This paper looks at three such characters in Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House -- Torvald, the protagonist Nora and the antagonist Krogstad.

Though not the antagonist or the protagonist, Torvald plays a central role in A Doll's House. He is not the character that he appears to be. In the beginning of the play Emma Goldstein notes,

He is an admirable man, rigidly honest, of high moral ideals, and passionately devoted to his wife and children. In short, a good man and an enviable husband. Almost every mother would be proud of such a match for her daughter, and the latter would consider herself fortunate to become the wife of such a man.

While Torvald is a model man, underneath his facade audiences see that his upstanding place in society and his passionate treatment of his wife and children are motivated, not by love and affection, but by an interest to maintain his status in society. Later, when his wife Nora pleads with him not to dismiss Krogstad, his true nature is revealed. He does not care in the least for the feelings of his wife. What he does care about is how society will look upon his continued association with the fallen Krogstad. The following passage in Act II reveals his real motives for dismissing Krogstad:

And I hear he is a good worker, too. But I knew him when we were boys. It was one of those rash friendships that so often prove an incubus in afterlife. I may as well tell you plainly, we were once on very intimate terms with one another. But this tactless fellow lays no restraint on himself when other people are present. On the contrary, he thinks it gives him the right to adopt a familiar tone with me, and every minute it is "I say, Helmer, old fellow!" And that sort of thing. I assure you it is extremely painful for me. He would make my position in the Bank intolerable.

Krogstad plays the role of the antagonist in A Doll's House. His actions mirror the traditional role of an antagonist. He is the source of the play's conflict and causes Nora to worry about resolving the seemingly irresolvable problem. He is the character that creates the tension in the play. Nora's husband, Torvald Helmer, wants to fire Krogstad and Krogstad is desperate (Johnston). This is one clue to the Krogstad's predicament and that he is not an antagonist in the formal sense of the word. When he hears of his impending job loss, he blackmails Nora. The two have forged Torvald's signature to a bank note and now he threatens to tell Torvald. Despite this, Krogstad has valid motivations for his desperation. He wants to build up his reputation so that he can provide for his family. Unlike most antagonists, he does not act out of egotism; he acts out of love for his family.

Like Torvald, Nora, the protagonist, appears to be the perfect spouse. She fits the role and does everything in her power to keep her and Torvald's home happy. At the beginning of the play, Nora is childlike in her actions. She has made the transition from living with her father to living with her husband without a chance to grow up. In comparison to Torvald and Krogstad, she is also a victim of society. Society has dictated that she stifle her own desires in order to cater to her husband and help him present the illusion of the perfect family. For example, in Act I she explains to Christine why she did not tell Torvald how she got the money to go to Italy to save his life.

Good Heavens, no! How could you think so? A man who has such strong opinions about these things! And besides, how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything! It would upset our mutual relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is now.

She is as the title suggests, simply a doll in a doll house, ready to be manipulated at her husband's pleasure and she will manipulate others to keep her husband healthy and happy. At the same time, she is a character that is fledged out. For example, she experiences extremes. She can be giddily happy or suicidal. She can be satisfied with the way things are or she can be desperate. She is naive or is wise. In writing for Barron's Booknotes, Sharon Linnea notes that the audience can relate to Nora's extremes because it shows the pretend Nora and the Nora that she will become.

Nora's pretend self and her enlightened self is the difference between her and Torvald and Krogstad. All three of these characters are victims of society. Nora finds herself, realizes that she is a doll in a dollhouse and is able to grow in spite of society. In the end she finds the strength to stand up for herself and walk out. In today's world, people might applaud her actions, but in late 19th century Norway, what she does is out of the ordinary and completely unacceptable.