Characters Flashcards
Nora
Nora throughout the play is treated as a sexual object. Her husband constantly perceives her in a sexual light, like when he confides to her that he imagines her as his young, virginal bride, “that we are just leaving our wedding, that I am taking you to our new home for the first time…to be alone with you for the first time…quite alone with your young and trembling loveliness!” He desires to turn back time and make her a virgin again, fantasising about her virginity, erasing fact she is a sexually mature woman with three children, with him. The “trembling’ was especially relevant around the “suffer and be still” predicament of young women who were not told what to expect on their wedding night, kept in ignorance, only to be traumatised by painful initiation. Nora is a woman with a history, she is already a mother and a wife, she already has sexual experience. whilst most well-made plays focused on unmarried, inexperienced Ingenués and ended in marriage. Ibsen, instead, shows what happens after marriage and the struggles women face in post-marital life.
Dr Rank
Whilst often referred to as the play’s raisonneur, (well-made play stock character) he is often far from the voice of reason. He is cynical and lonely. He is a figure of death. He is a Doctor who can diagnose but not cure - as in many other Ibsen plays - they can only stand by helplessly as disease and death take control. In earlier versions, he is downright scary and far from reasonable, fanatically advocating eugenics in order to cleanse society of the unfit. In the final version, his presence is ghostly, a sickly foil to the vitality of Nora and her children.
Torvald
Whilst annoying, condescending, demeaning and infantilising Nora, Ibsen ultimately shows that he is just as much a victim of society’s upbringing as she is, and like her, he will have to unlearn everything he’s ever learned about being a man; especially his understanding of women. It’s moving to see him struggle throughout final discussion, always just a step behind Nora, desperate to fix their problems. He assumes the hysterical female role, while she the calm, collected and masterful man.
Krogstad
Whilst on the surface, K seems to be the stereotypical villain; a shady character, with a dark past. Time in prison for embezzlement and a loan shark. Shows little mercy to Nora’s pleas, seems to enjoy her discomfort. But he has been treated badly too. Torvald turned his back just when k needed him the most. What kind of models has he had to follow? What makes k even harder to dislike is his genuine soft spot for mrs L. Their union in the end humanises him.
MRS LINDE
Mrs L. acts as a foil for Nora, and a confidante, a tool for how the audience comes to understand the predicament. However, there is much more to her character than being a mere device. It is her who prompts Nora to tell her secret by calling her immature and a child. She also serves as a reminder to audience of how few alternatives there are for women to support themselves and still be “respectable.” She also has a fully developed character of her own. Her union with k is not just for convenience, but because she recognises him as her fellow “shipwrecked soul.” Furthermore, Ibsen uses her to show that there is not one path a woman might want to take, women dont have to desire independence, they can also desire marriage and interdependence. They might want to be a mother. Thus, Ibsen highlights that there are many complexities to gender roles, a woman’s happiness does not have to depend on complete independence.
Female heroism
The quiet female heroism is not only admirable; it also deftly casts Torvald’s many pronouncements in a foolish and melodramatic light. Especially his unwillingness to sacrifice his honour when “millions of women have done it.” This is ironically juxtaposed with his earlier statement that he wishes some terrible danger would threaten Nora so that he might save her, Nora, and the audience, know what this danger could be; what he imagines himself doing is what she quietly did all those years ago.
