A Doll's House critic quotes (AO5)

Baser (2013)

Nora is ‘meant for [the] enjoyment and pleasure of her husband Torvald’

Dean (2011)

Nora’s Tarantella ‘ironically underscores an independent woman’s voluntary return to a patriarchal institution’

Wright (2011)

Dr Rank’s syphilis acts as ‘a brutal and physical reminder of the consequences of sin’

1. Soloski (2013)

‘the play manifests the frequent anxieties about parental legacies’

2. Soloski (2013)

‘though Syphilis is depicted as a terrible malady, restrictive social norms are, for Ibsen, the worse disease

Garland (2008)

‘Conversations are the battlefields where characters fight for authority and strive for understanding’

Garland (2008)

He describes Nora and Torvald’s relationship as ‘an unresolved battle for power’

1. Duncan (2018)

‘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’

2. Duncan (2028) on Torvald

‘He is unable to imagine any future where they are equal’

McNamara (2016) on Nora and Torvald

‘a relationship that is ultimately parasitic’

Moi (2006)

The tarantella represents ‘a woman’s struggle to make her existence heard’