The Characters of Nora and Mrs. Linde in a Dolls House - Essay Example

The characters of Nora and Mrs. Linde in “A Doll’s House” Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is notable for its unconventional portrayal of the female protagonist, Nora. She is a wife who, at the commencement of the play, appears to be a typical, submissive housewife but as the play continues, goes against the grain of Victorian tradition and dares to fight for her independence. As opposed to Nora, another female character in the play, Mrs. Linde, starts off as a woman alone who is an undesirable element from the perspective of the ideal Victorian woman, but at the end of the play, conforms to the traditional norm. These two characters are different from each other, both in their orientation as well as the final outcomes of their respective characters; yet each one serves to demonstrate the expectations of women in Victorian society. Two qualities the characters share in common Analysis: As the play commences, Nora appears to be a typical Victorian wife – a woman who does not think very deeply and relies totally on her husband to take care of everything for her. This is evident in the way her husband refers to her as his “little spendthrift” who has been “wasting money again” and as the “same little featherhead!” (Ibsen, 6,7). She is portrayed as a character who has little conception, if any, of the value of money and how it is to be used because this is a financial matter where only men have the required knowledge and ability required to deal with it. Torvald does not give her any money to spend despite her request for money to manage the household expenses, because he believes that she is not capable of effectively managing the expenses and savings money. Hence, Nora appears to fit the traditional mould of the brainless woman who is a light headed flibbertigibbet. Her character is portrayed as a woman who is timid in approaching her husband for any of the rights that are normally to be enjoyed only by men. The other female character in the play, Mrs Linde, is also timid and not assertive, as a proper Victorian woman was expected to be. She appears to be a woman who is not as fortunate as Nora is, because her husband died early in her marriage, leaving her penniless because his business was a rather precarious one. As a result, she had to struggle to find any kind of work that she could “first a small shop, then a small school and so on.” (Ibsen 18). She is therefore a woman who has been forced to confront issues that are normally not relevant for women, i.e., financial issues. It is evident however, that she has not enjoyed her experience; in her words “the worst of a position like mine is that it makes one so bitter.” (Ibsen 18). The two women are thus similar in their position as Victorian women, however the manner in which they appear to be responding to their respective life situations is different. Towards the end of the play, it becomes apparent that the outward facade of both these women is not quite true to their actual characters. For instance, at the beginning of the play, Mrs Line points out to Nora that the latter has not known much hardship or pain in her life. Mrs Linde, on the other hand, by virtue of having lost her husband, is quite lost and struggling to survive in Victorian society that is not friendly towards independent women. However, as the play progresses, the revelations about the characters show that the outwards facade is not true to the real picture. It is revealed that Nora had actually been the source of her husband’s strength, the one who had brought him through a difficult time by borrowing money from Nils Krogstad. She had not only borrowed the money without her husband’s knowledge, she had also been making payments on it, thereby demonstrating a financial savvy that her husband would never have dreamed her capable of, because he considers her his little sparrow, who certainly does not have the intelligence to deal with such matters. The positions of the two women are dramatically reversed as the end of the play draws close. While the beginning of the play suggests that Nora is well off and the apple of her husband’s eye, towards the end of the play, she is desperate to do anything to prevent him from finding out that she had borrowed money from Nils Krogstad in order to pay for Torvald’s expenses while he was ill. Nils Krogstad is blackmailing Nora; threatening to reveal everything to her husband, and Nora is now placed in a position of weakness. Mrs. Linde on the other hand, finds out that Nils Krogstad was the man she had been romantically involved with years ago; hence she is placed in the position where she is able to influence Krogstad and get him to drop his blackmail threat against Nora. While Nora helps Mrs Linde at the beginning of the play by getting her a job at her husband’s bank, it is Mrs Linde who has to help Nora at the end of the play, by restraining Krogstad in revealing information about the loan to Torvald. The significant aspect is that while the beginning of the play presents Nora as the typical, tradiitonal Victorian wife and Mrs Linde as the woman on the fringes of society, looking in and suffering because she does not have a husband, the end of the play reverses their positions. Mrs Linde gets involved with Krogstad again and looks set to gain respectability by virtue of her forthcoming marriage to him. Nora on the other hand, decides to do something very uncharacteristic in Victorian society; she decides to leave her husband. She is upset by her husband’s attitude; that rather than appreciating what she had done to help him through a difficult time in his life when he was critically ill and in need of money, he loses his temper with her. He is more angered by the thought that she had stepped out of her traditional role as a Victorian wife rather than looking at the love she had for him and the help she rendered to him. This makes Nora feel that she would rather live alone as an independent women rather than continuing to live with a husband who persists in treating her like an empty headed sparrow even after she has proved her mettle. Conclusions: The play presents the two female protagonists differently. They share some similar qualities in that both of them are able to acknowledge their inferior positions as women in Victorian society and the difficulties attendant with this position. At the beginning of the play, Nora appears to be the more fortunate one because she has a wealthy husband while Mrs Linde, being a widow is struggling to survive. Nora is in a superior position, she is able to get Mrs Linde a job. At the end of the play however, the shallow sparrow that Nora’s husband takes her to be is revealed to be a woman strong enough to leave her husband, preferring an independent life rather than living a life of subjugation to a man. It is Mrs Linde whose role is also reversed and she is placed in the position where she is able to help Nora by influencing Krogstad not to reveal Nora’s secret to her husband. The character of Mrs Linde starts out as an unconventional Victrian woman but is later revealed to be very traditional. The character of Nora on the other hand, starts off as a traditional Victorian wife, but shockingly prefers her independence at the end of the play and walks out on her husband in a most un-Victorian fashion. References: Ibsen. Henrik, 2006. “A Doll’s house”, retrieved November 14, 2009 from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jAg0pC4Nh_IC&dq=henrik+ibsen+a+dolls+house&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=lkwTMediBb&sig=7EWdewo7sjiENO_zjlFEwpFRKMI&hl=en&ei=3Cv_Sudc1PjgBu_Y5f0L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false Read More