A Doll's House Critical Quotations

Torvald and the Ending

"the implication that Torvald misunderstands Nora's desire to leave the marital home...suggests that this character is still trapped in self-deception" McNamara 2016

Modern Tragedy’s victim

“The true tragic victim of this Modern Tragedy could therefore be seen as Torvald, who is left, as the final curtain descends, aware of the abyss that has opened up between himself and Nora but powerless to do anything about it” Hathaway 2018

Nora playing into stereotypes

“She deliberately plays the role of helpless female in order to achieve her ends” Hathaway 2018

Irony of Nora’s views on Rank

"the final cruelty here becomes her failure to consider how that "everything" must have felt to Rank himself, how what was "so good" for her was, ironically, so bittersweet for him." Tufts 1986      

Kristine’s idealised relationship

"such a relationship is the only one she desires...not because she is inherently selfless, but because it allows her to maintain an idealized image of herself" Tufts (1986)

self understand and the "search" for...

"[the fancy dress scene] depicts the beginning of a search for authenticity" McNamara

Nora’s view of Kristine

"her failure to see Kristine as a separate person, a person whose pain is as real, as legitimate, as her own joy" Tufts (1986)

Nora’s true character

"Buried in Nora are an intelligence, a courage, and a pride in accomplishment that make her doll-identity absurd and demeaning" Templeton 1996

Nora the romantic hero

although Nora "now testifies to the need for facing reality...she is still supported by an image of herself as heroine, a dream of romantic defiance of society in all its power" Spacks 1968

Nora leaving her kids

"If Nora is seen as remaining as much the narcissist as she has always been, the troublesome issue of the relative ease with which she appears to leave her children can at last be resolved, for her first concern has always been herself" Tufts 1986

Nora’s views of Torvald

"Because she has over-idealised Torvald as he has over-idealised her, Nora, as her husband has done before her, utterly devaluates the eight years of marriage" Tufts 1986

marriage and economics

"The economical independence of woman is the first condition of free marriage. She ought not to be tempted to marry, or to remain married, for the sake of bread and butter." (Caird 1888)

male honour vs. female honour

"her honour has reference to some one other than herself" Caird 1888

women's rights

“she had no recognized claims whatever" Caird 1888

Torvald, Nora, and fragility

"Rather than celebrating Nora's sexuality and capability, Torvald is explicitly attracted to the opposite - her fragility and helplessness - and sees his own identity as predicated on this" Duncan 2018

gender equality

"he is unable to imagine any future for them where they are equal" Duncan 2018

possession and virginity

"the ultimate act of male possession[:] depriving a woman of her virginity" McNamara 2016

men and womens' relationship

"a relationship that is ultimately parasitic" McNamara 2016

Narcassitic Nora

"a self-absorption which borders on callousness" Tufts 1986

Nora's view of gender roles across the play

"Although it can seem that Nora's clear-sightedness only comes at the end of the play in Act Three, she actually has a very sophisticated understanding of gender roles" Duncan 2018

critique of masculinity

"Ibsen's presentation of masculinity is equally damaging and damning" Duncan 2018

Narcassistic Kristine

"her belief that her problems and her sacrifices have not only been greater than those of Nora, but that they are, by implication, unique in the world, that they make her somehow special, superior" Tufts 1986

Kristine: Narcassism & revenge

"it is possible to see Kristine's own narcissism as a subconscious force which compels her...to desire some revenge against the friend who has always been luckier and more privileged than she" Tufts 1986

Torvald strength

"Torvald's apparent 'strength' was wholly dependent on Nora's 'weakness' " McNamara 2016

Krogstads marriage

"marriage, founded as it seems to be on truth and equality between the partners, is meant to function as a foil to the marriage of the Helmers" Tufts 1986

claim to fame

“a play so famous for its provocative depiction of women” Duncan 2018

Nora’s character

"Besides being lovable, Nora is selfish, frivolous, seductive, unprincipled and deceitful. These qualities make her the remarkable dramatic character she is." Rosenberg (1989)

Nora’s two sides

"She [is] a complex of cunning and naivete" Rosenberg (1989)

a woman’s place

"the home, the woman's place, is a make-believe world fit for dolls" Templeton 1996

gender roles in torvald and nora

"the sheltered, feeble wife proves to be a resourceful "masculine" life-provider...and the protective, strong husband...turns out to be a fainthearted, "feminine" weakling" Templeton 1996

the women’s consciousness debate

"By making Nora aware of the role her father...[has] played in shaping her life, the play addressed the contemporary debate around women's consciousness and whether femininity was instinctive or a social construct" Shepherd-Barr (2015)

divide between humanity and feminininty

"the play can thus be seen as representing an individual's attempt to challenge society as a whole, demonstrating that there is no opposition between 'humanity' and 'femininity'" Moi (2006)

The tarentella dance

"A graphic representation of a women's struggle to make her existence heard, to make it count" Moi (2006)

parodying bourgeois couples

"the couple in the doll house, is a parodic, bourgeois version of the...ideal of marriage as a relation...in which the wife is a creature of little intellectual and moral capacity whose right and proper station is subordination to her husband" Templeton 1996

narcassistic marriage

"it is her knowledge that her "beautiful, happy home" is built on that "appeal", the perfect complement to Torvald's "masculine pride" that suggests the mutually narcissistic terms of their marriage" Tufts 1986

shaping Nora

"She blames her father and her husband for making her a simple doll when in fact [Ibsen] ...has made her a shrewd, subtle, manipulative woman" Rosenberg (1989)

female sex in society

"Marginalised by society because of her sex, Nora cannot participate in it" Templeton 1996

Nora’s exit in comparison to other novels/plays

“Nora exits in her own flesh and blood through a very literal door. Perhaps in 1879 only a man could imagine such freedom" Templeton 1996

Nora’s expenses

"Female consumption is coded socially as an unnecessary luxury" Westerstahl Stenport (2006)

Nora’s sacrifice

"In sacrificing herself to save her husband, Nora could have remained forever the perfect object of his love" Tufts 1986

Torvald as “victim”

"Not only will this false protector not "save" Nora in the moment of truth, but he will declare himself to be her victim and her his persecutor" Templeton 1996

Rank’s role

"Rank serves to emphasise Torvald's limitations, his shallowness, and his lack of courage and compassion" Tufts 1986

Nora and Krogstad and Torvald

"In dealing with Krogstad, [Nora] placed her husband in the power of the one person who refuses to validate his sense of self-importance" Tufts 1986

Doll Torvald

"Torvald has been, in one of Ibsen's ultimate ironies, almost as much as Nora's 'doll' as she has been his" Ganz 1979

true feminist point

"Perhaps the real feminist point of the play is that when Nora deserted her house she was only demonstrating a final time how the male society had corrupted her values" Rosenberg (1989)

revealing and hiding

“this play of revelations leaves questions unanswered” Duncan 2020

$$$

“Money and sex are intertwined” Duncan 2020

sluts

“the play is elementally about prostitution, about the wilful selling of oneself to gain some advantage” Otten 1998

crazy new women

“the woman of the new Ibsenite neuropathic school is not only mad but does her best to drive others mad too” Stutfield 1891

building blocks of relationships

“a play that asks what it will take for two modern individuals to build a relationship based on freedom, equality and love” Moi 2008

start and end of the play

“Torvald’s accusations that Nora inherits her father’s faults bookend the play” Duncan 2020

fatherhood

“Ibsen presentation of fatherhood is… damning” Duncan 2020

who am I?

“Its theme is the need of every individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is and to strive to become that person” Meyer 20161

universality

“Underlying this idea of Nora as ‘everyman’ is the idea that Nora cannot be universal because she is a woman” Duncan 2020