A Doll's House Quotes (Torvald)

"Is that my little lark twittering out there?"

-possessive pronouns - "my"

-his possession

-usually men older than their views - superiority over her

-trying to preserve her youth

-true love: affectionate

-sickly-sweet lang

-"twittering" - action verb

-she's not educated - naive - featherbrained

"Don't disturb me."

-man doing important work in his office

-women doing insig things

-gender roles

-upper class women left at home doing nothing - can be quite childish and easily excitable

"All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again."

-"all" - exemplifying how much she got - shopping addiction

-"little" - demeaning her

-childish - father-child dynamic

"[Goes up to her and takes her playfully by the ear]...and then on New Year's Eve a slate fell on my head and killed me and --"

-father-child relationship

-links to inherited dysfunctions & Nora revealing at the end T & her dad both treated her like their doll child

-patronizing

"That is like a woman!"

-patronizing - fem stereotypes

-exclamation - reinforcing it

-women wouldn't deal w/ or understand finances - link to Nora borrowing money - already dealt with it

-We have to agree with him though cause she is v naive

"Nora, what do you think I have got here?"

-pacifying her

-like a child

-knows how to lure her in and manipulate her

-doll imagery - playing around with her - not taking her srsly

-almost like a pet - subservient to him

"you extravagant little person"

-repetition of little - patronizing

-constantly making her more submissive/less human to him - first as a squirrel, then a petty woman and now just a person - no value to him just an object

-patriarchy

"It's a sweet little spendthrift, but she uses up a deal of money"

-referring to her in 2nd person

-not directly to her - superiority

-not on same level as him

-no respect for her

-not on the same wavelength - don't understand each other - link to N's comment at the end

"Very like your father...it is in the blood"

-key theme: inheriting personal traits

-inherited his obsession & inability to budget money

-let's her off since it's genetic

-widely believed at the time

-darwinism - degeneration - represents decline in religious belief at the time

"Still one must take you as you are"

-Knows what he got himself into

-true love? - on his side perhaps

-can forgive a genetic vice - shows his true morals and core values

-materialism - pretty woman on his arm

"[wagging his finger at her] Hasn't Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town day?...Not even take a bite at a macaroon or two?"

-knows her well (sees straight thru her)

-love each other a lot

-assertive - know she did it

-father telling off child

-v theatrical & exaggerative - fem view: miss sweet tooth - unsavoury, he is quite childish too - perhaps made her this way by acting childish

-to suit his liking

"you gave me your word"

-knows she's lying

-v perceptive

-he catches it before audience - knows she can't keep up her charade any longer - he will find out

-trying to make her feel guilty - promises btwn man & wife - gender roles

"you shut yourself up every evening...making ornaments...but there was precious little result Nora"

-not just making ornaments - other things to make money to pay off borrowed money

-teases her

-foreshadows her revealing her deceit to Christine later

-comment makes more sense later

"This time I needn't sit here and be dull all alone and you needn't ruin your dear eyes and your pretty little hands --"

-fragile & delicate woman

-not right for her to be doing labour

-v controlling - perfect just for him

-only cares about his own needs

-needs her to be the perfect person for him - complete disregard for her feelings

"I presume you are a widow, Mrs Linde?"

-married women couldn't work

-restrictions of women in society

-ingrained idealogy into patriarchal society

"Very sensible, Mrs Linde"

-in response to Nora saying Christine wanted to work under a clever man

-either applauding her for finding work or a compliment to himself - double-entendre

-a bit narcissistic - Nora encourages this part of him tho - conforms to societal expectations of women

"There is no need"

-doesn't need thanks from Christine

-selfless

-contrast to Nora

-relate more to him than Nora despite his offences in the prev scene

"Yes. Has anyone been here?"

-v perceptive

-already suspicious

-builds suspense w/ his comment

"Didn't you tell me no one had been here?"

-catches her out

-clever

-v naive

-does the same thing as krogstad

-we feel ourselves rooting for nora but facepalm at these scenes

"My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird must have a clean beak to chirp with -- no false notes"

-sickly sweet symbol of patriarchal society

-pause - no false notes - exemplifying the effect her deciet is having on her relationship

-knows everything that's happened

-audience wondering how she can keep rest of her secret

-v perceptive

"Does my little Nora acknowledge that at last?"

-v demeaning

-when Nora realises her silliness and insignificance

-he praises her for realising that rather than helping her improve

-treating her like a child

"He forged someone's name. Have you any idea what that means?"

-dramatic irony

-she's done exactly that

-now realising how serious it is

-turning point

-importance of torvald in this scene

-makes nora take this srsly

"he got himself out of it by a cunning trick and that is why he has gone under altogether"

-his whole life has become a trick

-has to wear a mask

-what rlly affects torvald - krogstad's deception - why he can't forgive him

-irony - exactly what nora has done - links to his outburst at the end

"how he has to wear a mask in the presence of those near and dear to him, even before his own wife and children. And about the children - that is the most terrible part of it all, Nora."

-dangerous for children

-degeneration

-will grow up to be like parents - sim to view of Nora and inherited features from dad

-extended metaphor of house of evil - nora's house

-fam facade

-nora will worry she'll do the same

"almost everyone who has gone to bad early in life has had a deceitful mother"

-nora reflects on this

-targets her specifically

-was devoted mother now thinks she's infected them

-unfair blame put on mothers - does it can be dad but is "most commonly to be the mother's influence" - gender imbalances

-men aren't that involved with children

-nora as upper class woman isn't either - devoted but doesn't know them as well as the maids

"I literally feel physically ill when I am in the company of such people"

-dramatic irony - in the company of one right now

-already made up his mind

-def not giving job back to K

-irony that he's holding her close but she would make him feel ill

-[holds out his hands to her]

"Nice? -- because you do as your husband wishes."

-sarcasm almost

-sycophantic

-obsequiousness

-compliant to someone to the letter

-harsh standards on women - telling her off

-sucking up to someone

-Nora's tactic for getting what she wants out of him

-doesn't work in his favour

-v obedient - ridiculous expectations on women - like animals

"This is some incredible obstinacy!...a thoughtless promise that you would speak for him I am expected to..."

-exclamation - an insolence

-ironic - severity is much worse

-doesn't understand yet - builds suspense even more

-sort of oxymoronic

"My little Nora...Mine is and I hope it will continue to be so long as I hold my office

-cares so much about his own social sanding

-link to end where he ensures he's saved first - then Nora

-assures her she is subordinate to him

-has a clean slate unlike Nora - her dad's influence

-wants to retain good reputation

"And it is just interceding for him that you make it impossible for me to keep him"

-further evidence to sack him

-brings up children - forgets what he said before

-made it worse

-support for nora lessening

"at his wife's bidding"

-power of patriarchal society

-for his pos in society he cannot do this just cause his wife asks him to

-fragility of the ego of men

-exposes fragility of patriarchy - alt interpretation

"But I knew him when we were boys...he thinks it gives him the right to adopt a familiar tone with me...I assure you it is extremely painful for me. He would make my pos in the bank intolerable"

-someone breaking boundary between friendly persona & business person - awkward & challenges his reputation

-real reason he's sacking him

-work insecurity

-too familiar: knows he can't use anything against him

-insistent

-importance of appearances - K challenges that

-embedded ideology - can't blame him cause he's been taught to believe and act a certain way - same with nora - indoctrinated

"You say my point of view is narrow-minded, so I must be so too...Very well -- I must put an end to this."

-she tried to take control away from him - patriarchy, becoming rebellious

-takes power back from her

-made sitch worse

-Nora's secret going to be revealed imminently

-N's rebellion finally gets the better of her

"Krogstad's dismissal"

"I should be afraid of a starving quill driver's vengeance?"

-insulting his low status

-doesn't want someone of lower status to be more powerful than him - getting one over on him

-insecurity

-sensitiveness of men's ego

"Well, we will share it, Nora, as man and wife should. That is how it shall be."

-if everything goes wrong I'll stand up for my fam as the man

-ironic cause he doesn't - challenges his role as a typical vic man

-nora have more courage than him

"I shall go into the inner office and shut the door...And when Rank comes tell him where he will find me."

-shutting her off

-going back to his private man duties

-leaves her to continue facade - women relied upon keeping up facade for sake of man's reputation & honour - man doesn't have many expectations on him - wife does most of it

-her doll's performance will continue despite everything

-physically shutting door behind him - putting barrier between - structural placement of office as this looming force over Nora - controlling & pacifying her

"But, my dear Nora, you look so worn out. Have you been practising too much?"

-acting like nothing has just happened - a fight has erupted

-affectionate terms

-ease of upper classes in maintaining appearances

-facade

-all playing roles and characters in nora's doll's house - ends when she leaves

"Slower, slower!...Not so violently, Nora!"

-exclamations

-repetitions

-nora's violent dancing acting as a means of distraction - can't let her dance like that at party - maintaining appearances & reputation

-knows him v well - don't understand each other but know how to manipulate each other

"you are dancing as if your life depended on it."

-ironic bc it does

-contextual link - dance used to save ppl's lives

-dramatic irony

"You have forgotten everything I taught you"

-rebellious doll-child

-forgotten everything about rules of marriage

-link to denouement

-finds this out when he reads letter

-ironic

"Far from it, my dear fellow; it is simply nothing more than this childish nervousness I was telling you of."

-tells others about Nora's behaviour

-like how a parent gossips about their child

-embarrassing for Nora

-doesn't care how she's viewed - women were expected to be childish anyway

-doesn't reflect on him

-demeans her even more

-pushing her over the edge - all of this builds up to her exit in the denouement (act 3)

"[taking off Nora's shawl] Yes, take a good look at her. I think she is worth looking at. Isn't she charming, Mrs Linde?"

-becomes a showman

-unveiling his masterpiece

-objectifying her

-materialistic

"the beautiful apparition disappeared."

-metaphor - biblical imagery - apparatition of virgin mary - usually come to deliver an important msg - like she does in the end about equality and women's rights

-supernatural imagery

-ironic - she's not real person

-he's made her - figment of his imagination

-will disappear soon like an apparition

-becomes more real than he thought

-dreams are temporary

"Do you know, you ought to embroider...yes it's far more becoming."

-importance he places on what woman looks like

-appearances

-down even to her seemingly menial tasks

-embroidery far more elegant than knitting

-man lecturing women on being more pretty to please them - patriarchy

"I should be very happy to...Ah! -- at last we have got rid of her. She is a frightful bore, that woman"

-contrast

-quick change in mood -facades

-rude

-good manners go out of the window

-ironic: be she's been helping him out

-on his side the entire time

-links to his downfall - inability to realise the efforts of those around - absent-minded

-sim to N in that sense

"Listen -- the guests are beginning to go now...Nora -- soon the whole house will be quiet."

-real reason why he's brought her home

-adult things

-sexual power over him -v provocative dance

-treating her as sexual object rather than a person

"you have still got the tarantella in your blood"

-provocative dance

-irony - kinda weird - that he's entranced by a dance that's keeping her alive - titillated by her looking vulnerable so he can save her

-affirms his masc role - masc fragility shown throughout story - noticed by modern audience/critics than contemporary audience

-link to next comment

"It is because I make believe to myself that we are secretly in love and you are my secretly promised bride and that no one suspects there is anything between us."

-playing out a sexual fantasy

-gross

-wants to do anything to inc her vulnerability - preserve her innocence

-all a charade/fantasy behind it

-can't see truth behind things - rank's comment - helmer won't be able to deal with his dead - disgusted by it

-in his own fantasy land he created - nora is at the centre of it

"You're joking, my little Nora!...Am I not your husband?"

-highlighting what men perceived to be their rights here

-messed up

-dark reality

-what many playwriters didn't reveal about reality of women's inequality w/ men

-touchy subject

-naturalist/modernist play/interpretation

"That's a good joke!"

-doesn't understand

-doesn't pay attention to others - doesn't notice Rank's sick health

-childish

-sexual energy of prev scene clouded his mind - masc stereotypes

"Then you must get them out of those ways."

-women expected to teach children & deal with them & teach them what to do and what not to do

-men too busy with work - trivial to them

-simplicity of jobs for women that are actually the most important in the end

"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"

-going to have to do that imminently

-constantly repeats this notion - start to believe him - sad when he doesn't live up to it

-his reaction is paramount now - when he says this

"all your father's want of principle has come out in you. No religion, no morality, no sense of duty --"

-revealing his regrets marrying N knowing what her dad was like

-theme of inheritance of immorality of parents

"How am I being punished for having winked at what he did!"

-link btwn T & N's dad

-him and T corrupted Nora in the end - they should be blamed not her - radical fem perspective

"You will still remain in my house...I shall not allow you to bring up the children;"

-stream of imperative commands

-as a married woman, she doesn't own anything

-lang highlights point

-either way she's losing her kids - no easy way out

"save the remains, the fragments, the appearance --"

-triplets

-has to maintain facade of happy married life

-her running away will look bad

-first thing he's concerned about - only escape for the upper classes

"Yes, it is true! I am saved! Nora, I am saved!"

-krogstad becomes good person - sends IOU

-K has repented

-could ruin reputation but gave it to them

-T thinks w/ that it's all fine - can go back to happy marriage - horrible outburst

-N knows they can't

"No, first I must destroy these hateful things."

-makes initial reaction more awful - deluded

-only after consequences of forgiving her are not so dire for him

-still only cares about himself

-pretentiousness

"I should not be a man if this womanly helplessness did not just give you a double attractiveness in my eyes."

-highlights warped effect ideas abt gender had on marriage & relationships

-materialistic

-think this will make her feel better

-repeating point: doesn't understand her

"How warm and cosy our home is, Nora...here I will protect you like a hunted dove that I have saved from a hawk's claws."

-N now doubly his property & child

-believes she's not an autonomous adult

-proper way to behave in marriage acc to him

-goes back to sickly sweet affection - thinks he can act like nothing's happened

-even more ridiculous sounding now

"There is some truth in what you say -- exaggerated and strained as your view of it is...playtime is over shall be over and lesson time shall begin...both your's and the children's, my darling Nora."

-sig that T doesn't argue w/ her

-agrees & sees nothing wrong w/ it

-reveals extent to which such relationships were accepted

-encouraged by society as norm & healthy

-puts her on same level as children - still demeaning her despite this - underlying comment

"Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your hubby and your children?"

-for T women's duties to hubby & children & reputation within society are clearly interlinked

"Before all else you are a wife and a mother."

-clearly considers women to be wives and mothers before they're ppl

-only after much struggle that N able to refute this belief

-historical context - struggle of women's suffrage

"But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves."

-highlights disparity btwn genders

-men expected to put reputation 1st

-T raised with these ideals - can't blame him entirely - ingrained beliefs

-took N a while to break out of her own stereotypical "gender norms"

-women often forced to disregard honour for sake of others

"I have it in me to become a different man."

-turning point in T's attitude to N

-takes what she says srsly now

-even offering to change for her

-genuinely loves her perhaps - suggests this

"That too?...Here it is."

-T doesn't want to go but gives ring

-finally respects her wishes + ability to make decisions for herself

"[sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands] Nora! Nora!...[a hope flashes across his mind] The most wonderful thing of all --"

-devastated T has one final moment of hope at v end of play

-cliffhanger

-maybe there's something else?

-slamming door abruptly shatters that illusion of hope

-even at the end of destructive marriage, one party still has hope - highlights the true intensity of their downfall & how much it took to get to this point - benefits them in the long-run - prevents further damage from occurring

-mature decision made by N - poss fem view