A Doll's House Flashcards
(22 cards)
Quote: A woman who has sold herself for another’s sake doesn’t do it a second time
Analysis: Here Mrs. Linde is realizing that while she doesn’t regret her initial sacrifice, she realizes how important her own happiness is now
Quote: you needn’t ruin your dear eyes and your pretty little hands”
Analysis: Torvald says about Nora spending every evening for three weeks last Christmas making ornaments, like women are too delicate to do work, and there we go again with the patronizing nicknames
Quote: The law cares nothing about motives
Analysis: Between Krogstad and Nora, they both committed forgery but Krogstad for selfish reasons and Nora for selfless. In the end it is viewed the same, and in fact even worse for Nora because she is a woman and she forged her father’s signature.
Quote: It was a tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning money. It was like being a man”
Analysis: Clearly demonstrates how financial management was restricted to just men, and how Nora yearns to be like a man and have those freedoms. She did some “copying”.
Provides perspective to how oppressive and restrictive society was, that earning money was characterized something men do, not just people in general.
Charcterizes Nora as resourceful
The author intentionally used the setting, specifically the time period as a way to expose to the audience at the time (since it was written during the victorian era) to demonstrate the struggles that women went through. Biased written by a man but he had his friends perspective. For men, it would give them a chance to understand what women are going through and for women, it might give them an opportunity to relate but also serve as an inspiration for how they do not have to stay confined in a situation they do not feel happy or fulfilled about
Quote: Transformation of Nora’s outfit but also of her demeanor towards Torvald, “Sit down. I have a lot to talk over with you”
Analysis: Her dress parallels her internal charge and is an external representation of her internal feelings change. fancy dress to everyday
Also her tone completely changed and this is evidently with her firm and decisive language and syntax with the short sentences
This inspires women that they do not have to stay stuck in situations they are not happy in, they can take charge of their lives. Does not necessarily mean leaving their house but at least speaking up and fighting for equality
Quote: I find it impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it a woman has no right to spare her dying old father or to save her husband’s life. I can’t believe that (pg 69)
We find out that Nora also committed forgery, forging her father’s signature (pg 22). Even more significant that she is impersonating a man. She had to do something that even today would be considered drastic but justifiable within the circumstance
Analysis: Introduces theme, questioning societal norms and the consequences of them. Torvald would have died.
She overcomes limitation by changing her perspective, she had to do something that weighed heavily on her throughout the play but otherwise both torvald and her father may be dead instead of just her fathe
Nora questions society, something even men do not likely give much thought to
Suggests that restrictions on women’s rights are more important than people’s lives. Deception is necessary to do what is morally right
Quote: Torvald: From this moment happiness is not the question; all that concerns us is to save the remains, the fragments, the appearance- (pg 63)
Analysis: Anaphora stresses places emphasis, theme of the importance of reputation and appearance to Torvald
Nora is in the new vs Torvald is in the old and he doesn’t understand that Nora was married to him out of love and she thought it was teh same, but now she realizes it was all for appearances. She doesn’t want to be married anymore, but Torvald things she will obey like she always has and stay married to him even though she doesn’t love him
Quote: Mrs. Linde purpose was through helping others, and now without that she feels unspeakably empty. No one to live for anymore.
Analysis: Shows how women were raised in that society to have someone to live for, not to be independent
Can talk about characterization
Quote: Krogstad was starting to get respect but now torvald is going to kick [him] downstairs again into the mud”. He is going to demote him I was guilty of an indiscretion. I must try and win back as much respect as I can in the town” (pg 21)
Metaphor
Krogstad desperate
Quote: She married her husband for the support he could give her not because she loved him. My mother…was bedridden and helpless, and I had to provide for my two younger brothers; so I did not think I was justified in refusing his offer”
Ñora: that makes sense, he had a lot of money
Analysis: Highlights theme of gender roles and how the financial restrictions placed on women affected more than what they can handle with money, it affected their marriage and ultimately their happiness
Quote: I should not be a man if this womanly helplessness did not just give you a double attractiveness in my eyes
First of all, helplessness is womanly, secondly a woman’s attractiveness is based on her depending on a man, third of all in this society all men act like this as it is viewed as the norm
Diction very effectively states his perspective and the way he structured his sentence says so much. Womanly being an adjective
Shows how problematic men view women. Since a woman’s attractiveness is based on their dependence on a man, this means that society aims to make women helpless so they can receive love
Quote: Torvald says But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora: It is a thing hundrends of thousands of women have done
Analysis: Epiphany, You can better understood why she left understanding the restrictions and lack of love she felt, the context of the time of how marraige was a social contract not necessarily done out of love
women are expected to do the same?? double unfair standards
Quote: Torvalnd wants to be a hero when he tells Nora “I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life’s blood and everything for your sake (pg 61)
Analysis: Ibsen intentionally put this quotation right before Torvald finds out about Nora’s letter so that it is fresh and impactful in reader’s minds
He wants to put her in danger for his ego, that is not love. There were hints that he didn’t love her throughout the story but she did not want to see them
Ironic because when she is threatened by society finding out what happened, Torvald does not want to take the blame
Quote: Torvald says “To desert your home, your husband, and your child! And you don’t consider what people will say” (pg 68)
Analysis: Very meaningful characterization because it demonstrates how the reason he is scared of losing her is not losing her as a person, it is losing the idea of having a wife and what other people will think of that
Quote: Whenever Torvald has given me money for new dresses and such things I have never spent more than half of it” (pg 13),
Analysis: Nora is the character foil to Torvald because here she does not care how she is perceived even by him. He thinks she is a “little spendthrift” but she is more strategic than he thought. Appearances can be deceiving and shows how undermining women was an incorrect assumption
Quote: Torvald is so mad at Nora that she did what she did because “he may be falsely suspected of having been a party to [her] criminal action” (pg 63) even though he would have been dead if she hadn’t. He’d rather die than face that shame
Nora similarly had contemplated suicide rather than facing the societal wrath from others and the shame she would have caused to Torvald
Analysis: clearly highlights the one way relationship expectations of marriage at the time. Reputation is a theme and is very important
Not a hyperbole/exaggeration
Quote: Torvald says “I am saved, Nora I am saved.” (pg 63)
Analysis: characterizes him as self centered, the intentional use of diction with the use of I and not we clearly highlights how he is only thinking about himself, not what would have happened to Nora
Quote: In Act II the christmas tree is stripped of its ornaments (pg 29)
Analysis: Pathetic fallacy, the environment mirrors the events happening
Becoming less lively and happy and more vulnerable. Usually on Christmas day the tree does not become more undecorated
Quote: after Nora explains some pretty sophisticated ideas about religion and morals that many people would not have thought of at the time that he calls her a child
Analysis: Ironic and shows how people fail to see what they cannot understand
Quote: I must try and educate myself-you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now
Analysis: Nora’s choice to leave reflects more so than the fact that she does not love Torvald anymore, but she sees the construct of marriage as wrong. That is why even though he promises he can change, she leaves because she knows even he stopped being oppressive, there will always be restrictions on her because of the societal restrictions placed on married women
Highlights the theme of gender roles
Plot twist since it becomes clear from all the previous foreshadowing that Nora is going through with leaving Torvald.
Unconvential, even divorce was rare and frowned upon and it likely would’ve been the man’s choice not the womans
Society is so broken women are forced to leave their families if they want freedom, left with no other choice to escape.
Quote: While talking about how Nora wants to surprise Torvald for the fancy ball, she cannot come up with ideas and says “everything I think of seems so silly and insignificant” and Torvald responds “does my ltitle Nora acknowledge that at least”
Analysis: Patronizing nicknames and this provides justification for Nora’s character having low self esteem because Torvald reinforces her self doubt, there is no one that lifts her up and encourages her
Quote: Nora asks the nurse Do you think [the children] would forget their mother if she went away altogether” (pg 30)
This is foreshadowing Nora’s eventual departure but also provides justification that her actions were not impulsive or entirely selfish because she was contemplating this option and its repercussions on those around her, whereas Torvald tends to make decisions thinking about how it affects HIM. Nora wanted to ensure her kids would be taken care of by the nurse.
