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Karina Vedder

Professor Tensen

English 1102

May 27, 2011

Major Contrasts in A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen uses many contrasting ideas and characters in his A Doll's House. Amongst these

are five which I will expand upon: Helmer and Krogstad, Nora and Kristine Linde, Appearance and

Reality, Morality and Legality, and last, Men's and Women's Roles. Contrasting characters in the play

are much like the use of contrasting colors in art, it makes the characters stand out more against one

another. The contrasting ideas serve to make you think about how you feel on a topic and of which side

you agree with. To start with I will discuss four of the contrasting characters.

Helmer and Krogstad

Torvald Helmer is the husband of the main character, Nora Helmer. Nils Krogstad is the initial

antagonist of Nora. We can assume that Helmer and Krogsad are both about the same age because they

went to high school together as said by Krogstad, “Oh, I've known your husband since our school days”

(Ibsen 1573). They both became lawyers, married and then got jobs at a bank instead of following a

legal career. This is where their immediate similarities end. Helmer is being promoted to manager at

the bank they work at, while Krogstad is going to be fired by Helmer. Helmer considers himself very

honorable and has no criminal background that is made known. Krogstad on the other hand forged

some documents, never served his time and is involved with questionable business trade. This image of

Krogstad helps to keep Helmer in a soft light. Although Krogstad appears to be a bad person, he is

more concerned for his children than Helmer is, making the reader question how good of a person

Helmer really is. As noted by Paul Rosefeldt, “[Helmer] has little to do with his children. When the

children come in, he states that the place is only fit for a mother. When Nora's crime is revealed, he
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gives in to Krogstad's demands, making him even more hypocritical than Krogstad. He too becomes a

father of lies and disguise, polluting his own children” (85). Initially portayed as a perfect husband,

things change when he finds out about Nora forging the loan and you realize that he is the real

antagonist of the story. He doesn't want to save his wife, unlike Krogstad who broke the law trying to

save his wife. Also, Krogstad starts out as scheming to keep his job by blackmailing Nora, but when

Kristine talks to him he realizes there is no point to it and does the right thing by returning the note to

the Helmer's mailbox.

Nora and Kristine Linde

Kristine Linde is introduced as an old friend of Nora's, and it is noted that they haven't seen

each other in about ten years. Nora may be a little younger than Kristine, but since they were friends

when they were younger, they couldn't be too far apart in age. Nora is married with children, while

Linde is a widow with no children. Nora appears to be youthful, beautiful, somewhat flighty and acts

like a child. Linde comes in tired, bitter and looking old. This helps to exaggerate Nora's childlike

features and make her seem more innocent. Ibsen chooses to name all the main characters by their last

names except for Nora, adding to the idea that Nora is not an adult like the others. In light of all this, it

is easy to feel sorry for Nora about forging the document, because it doesn't seem she could have

known the real implications of this act. Lou Salomé declares that “Nora is a child. Her childishness

creates her charm, her danger, and her destiny” (226). Helmer falls for her charm, she innocently forges

the loan causing herself danger, and needing to grow up she leaves her family as part of her destiny.

Another major contrast between the two women is their relationship with Krogstad. Nora hates

Krogstad because he represents so many years of hard work to pay back the money she borrowed and

the lie she is hiding from Helmer. Kristine is interested in him because he represents a reason to keep

working and someone to care for. He has children she can care for since she has none of her own. She

is trying to become a mom & wife, while Nora is separating herself from this role because she isn't
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happy and doesn't feel fit to be a mom. Even Kristine says Nora has no experience in real life and calls

her a child (Ibsen 1565). In the end, Nora leaves her family for these reasons and Kristine joins a new

family.

Appearance and Reality

The entire play is work of appearance versus reality. The Helmer's lives appear to be a happy

marriage of two happy individuals, but it hides lies and discourages growth. Nora appears so sweet,

like a songbird, but in reality is guilty of forgery and lying to her husband for many years. Helmer

seems to be a loving husband, but when his reputation is on the line he turns against Nora. Mrs. Linde

acts like a bitter old woman, but helps Nora and wants to help Krogstad. Krogstad could be the evil

villain, but he really just wants to take care of his family and keep his job. Dr. Rank would be Helmer's

best friend, but in reality is in love with Nora. In Erik Østerud'sarticle he notes that the life of Nora and

Helmer is more of an act, but suggests there are other contrasts of appearance and reality throughout

the play, such as the masquerade party and the Tarantella dance (147). A masquerade represents being

able to act out a different role and Nora and Helmer are very excited about the opportunity. When they

finally go to the party, “[i]t is the exit afterthe performance [Helmer] singles out and emphasizes. He

transforms it into a 'flash'. The effect of this visual flash is conditioned by an equally rapid and sudden

disappearing act” (Østerud -50). This is important, because later Nora does the same thing when she

ends their marriage's masquerade by a disappearing act of her own out the front door. The Tarantella

dance may have appeared to be just a dance, but historically is a dance to rid oneself of hysteria from a

tarantula bite and Nora was certainly hysterical as depicted in her wild dancing. As Helmer declares,

“My dear darling Nora, you're dancing as if your life depended on it” (Ibsen 1593). Since she was

trying to buy time before her husband checked the mail, her life did actually depend on keeping his

attentions. Another example of appearance and reality is Nora and Helmer's relationship with Dr. Rank.

Carol Tufts observes Nora and Dr. Ranks “sexually charged” relationship “in which Nora can be
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seductive and Rank seduced, but only so long as neither admits that this is really happening” (304).

Helmer is clueless to this and even of the fact that Dr. Rank is dying. Helmer says of Dr. Rank, “he was

like a cloudy background to our sunlit happiness” (Ibsen 1602). To Helmer and Nora, Dr. Rank was a

convenient friend that made them feel better about themselves. Without him there to hold them

together, Nora has even more reason to leave.

Morality and Legality

The major moral theme of A Doll's Housewas that both Nora and Krogstad had forged

documents, an illegal act, for the reason of possibly saving their spouses lives. Can it be morally right

and yet illegal? Humans have often questioned whether a law should hold when personal morality is at

stake. Nora saved her husband's life by knowingly forging a legal document. She felt it was her moral

obligation to save his life, she was not concerned about the money or the legality of it. Helmer does not

hold the same beliefs that Nora does, in that he feels the law must be upheld first. Helmer does not even

see Nora as being able to make decisions on her own as interpreted by Joel Feinberg when he asserts

that “Helmer lacks all respect for his little pet, not only in the sense of esteem, but also in the sense of

recognition of the other as a potential maker of moral claims … When [Nora] does finally make a claim

against him, it is as if a mechanical doll had suddenly spoken. He just cannot take her seriously as a

claimant” (198). Nora's moral reasoning does not matter in Helmer's law abiding mind. Another

contrast in legality and morality is that of the job that Mrs. Linde will get at the bank, if Krogstad is

fired. Helmer is going to hire Mrs. Linde for moral reasons, he asks her “I expect that you're a widow,

Mrs. Linde?” (Ibsen 1571). He is happy to hire her since she is his wife's friend and since she is a

window she has no other obligations. On the other side, it might be illegal in our current day to fire

Krogstad on the basis that Krogstad has done nothing wrong except make Helmer feel uncomfortable.

The blackmailing that Krogstad is controlling against Nora is illegal in current times, but he is

apparently doing it for the moral reason of keeping his job so he can raise his sons. Eventually,
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Krogstad gives back the deed because Mrs. Linde convinces him that it is the right moral thing to do,

even though it is an illegal document since it was forged by Nora. It could be considered the socially

moral thing to turn her into the authorities instead.

Men's and Women's Roles

The men and women seemed to have traditional roles in A Doll's House;the men work

professional jobs and the women stay at home, take care of the children and are homemakers. Helmer

was a lawyer and is going to be a manger at a bank. He is in charge of the money in their household.

Krogstad was also a lawyer previously and now works at the bank that Helmer works at. On the side

Krogstad lends money. Nora likes to shop and spend too much money, borrowed money in the past and

enjoys decorating. The nursemaid, Anne Marie takes care of the children. Mrs. Linde knits and sews,

and was looking for clerical work, which is a typical lower position in the bank. Although the play

seems to focus on Nora and the concept of a woman walking out on her husband and children, Paul

Rosefeldt asserts that “Critics and audiences often miss what the play says about fatherhood. In A

Doll's House, fatherhood, ordinarily associated with the authority and stability of patriarchy, is

associated with abandonment, illness, absence and corruption” (84). All of the male character's in the

play are faulted by one or more of these defects. The women are casualties of these defects. Helmer is

absent in his childrens' lives, yet he states that “an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life

of a home... Almost everyone who's gone wrong at a young age had a dishonest mother” (Ibsen 1578).

He feels it is the mother's role to raise the children appropriately. Nora starts to behave different toward

her children in fear of poisoning them because of her secret. Nora might never have forged the

document in the first place if she had the right as a woman to sign the loan onher own without a co-

signer. Dr. Rank's father's lavish lifestyle is what caused Dr. Rank's illness, another example of a man

acting inappropriately. Mrs. Linde first had to raise her brothers because her father was not in the

picture, and her mother was too ill to take care of them. She married her husband so that he could
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provide for them, yet when he died he left her nothing. So she had to “turn [her] hand to anything [she]

could find” (Ibsen 1565). She didn't have an education or career she could fall back on, being a woman.

As Rosefeldt points out, even the nursemaid becomes a maid because of a man, “When Anne Marie,

Nora's nursemaid … gives birth to an illegitimate child, she is forced to take a position with Nora's

family and to leave her children” (84). The woman in A Doll's Houseall have lower positions in their

society than the men, and it would seem that the men play a big part in making this so.

A Doll's House is full of interesting contrasts. The contrasting characters and ideas create

excitement and intrigue. If all the characters were similar, it would be quite boring to read, or watch on

stage. Ibsen's contrasting ideas of appearance and reality, and legality and morality were no doubt hot

topics of his time as they are today.

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Works Cited

Feinberg, Joel. “The Social Importance of Moral Rights.” Philosophical Perspectives6. (1992): 175-

198. JSTOR. Web. 27 May 2011

Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll's House.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.

Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11thed. New York: Longman, 2010. 1558-1609. Print.

Østerud, Erik. “Nora's Watch: Time, Space and Image in Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's

House'.” Ibsen Studies4.2 (2004): 147-75. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.

20 May 2011.

Rosefeldt, Paul. “Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'.” Explicator61.2 (2003): 84. Literary Reference Center Plus.

Web. 20 May 2011.

Salomé, Lou. Ibsen’s Heroines.Black Swan Books, 1985. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.

Ed. Paula Kepos. Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. 226-231. Literature Criticism Online.

Web. 20 May 2011.

Tufts, Carol Strongin. “Recasting 'A Doll's House': Narcissism as Character Motivation in Ibsen's

Play.” Comparative Drama20.2 (1986): 140-59. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J.

Trudeau. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 300-307. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 20

May 2011.