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Ibsen's "A Doll's House"
In A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, the play's protagonist Nora Helmer has her character defined, in part, by the use of a dramatic foil for her -- her former schoolmate Christina, always addressed as "Mrs. Linde" because she is a widow. Ibsen uses Mrs. Linde's secondary subplot as a way of commenting or drawing attention to the primary storyline about Nora and her husband Torvald. But in each of the three acts of Ibsen's drama, the dramatist uses Mrs. Linde effectively as a foil, by advancing each element in her lesser storyline as a means of providing a constrast to (or perhaps at times a reflection of) Nora, the protagonist and the "little doll" of the play's title (Ibsen 84). I hope to demonstrate this by showing how Mrs. Linde is used as a foil in each of the three acts, and concluding...
Linde immediately after the introduction of the protagonists: she makes a social call upon Nora, although Nora does not recognize her. It is clear that the two women have not seen each other for some time, although they have remained apprised of each other's existence: Nora confesses a short way into their dialogue that she knew from a newspaper obituary that Mrs. Linde had been widowed three years ago, and had contemplated writing to her but ultimately did not. The reason Mrs. Linde provides such a stark foil upon her immediate entrance in Act One, though, is because she enters hard on the heels…
He feels that Nora's freedom is not a reality since she couldn't possibly just leave her house and establish her own identity without money. "Nora needs money -- to put it more elegantly, it is economics which matters in the end. Freedom is certainly not something that can be bought for money. But it can be lost through lack of money." (Found in Schwarez) In short, whatever were the reasons
Ibsen's a Doll's House as Modern Tragedy The most powerful and lasting contributions to the literature of a given era are invariably penned by bold thinkers struggling to comprehend the ever changing world in which they live. Spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, the European Modernist movement, which was propelled by the authorial brilliance of authors and playwrights such as like the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, was shaped and inspired by the
Doll's House Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's Housemade him the father of modern literature. His writing showed tragedy and drama in a new and rather modern way. Prior to an analysis of the story at hand, it is only relevant that the plot and main characters are discussed in detail. This story does not revolve around a whole bunch of characters and is based on only a few days. The story
Ibsen In Act I of Henrik's A Doll's House, the widow Mrs. Linde comes to see Nora and during their conversations patronizes and belittles her just as Torvald does. Mrs. Linde states, obnoxiously, "you know so little of the burdens and troubles of life," because all Nora knows is "small household cares and that sort of thing!" Mrs. Linde follows her claim with the brutal statement, "You are a child, Nora,"
Yet as Goldman notes, Nora "worships her husband, believes in him implicitly, and is sure that if ever her safety should be menaced, Torvald, her idol, her god, would perform the miracle" that would set her free. It turned out that Mrs. Linde would set in motion the miracle that would set Nora free. A woman was required to help another woman escape the dolls' house, an incredible affirmation
Instead of needing his help and protection, Torvald finds out that it was only Nora's role playing and really she was capable of working and doing deceptive things. Torvald's response to the letter shows that he has very little self-awareness and really thought that the "role-plays" were reality. 5. Torvald believes that marriage and family are important, and that the man or husband is in control. Torvald thinks that men