Christine And Torvald example essay topic

A Doll's House After reading A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and examining the roles of the three main characters, Nora, Christine, and Torvald, the differences between them and their roles in society and the way the handle and deal with those roles are completely different. Christine, throughout the play, plays the role of a typical woman in society of that time period. She appears to be just a normal, ordinary woman. Christine tries to also fill the role of mother and caretaker, this is shown when Christine makes the decision for Krogstad to leave his letter to Torvald in the letterbox, in an attempt to bring out all of the lies that have been haunting their marriage, show Torvald who Nora really is, she wanted to bring out complete understanding (52) and wanted their secret (52) to be disclosed and see if they could actually work things out as man and wife.

It is also fairly obvious that Christine likes her role in society and actively pursues ways that she could be a mother or a caretaker to someone, and if she is unable to fulfill that role than she pity's herself and tries desperately to get others to pity her and feel sorry for her. This idea is shown several times in the play. First when Christine complains about how she is unable to climb up the stairs in front of the Helmer's household, then again when she talks about how her mother and her children don t need her (10). Throughout the play, Christine's character doesn t change and is used more as a foil to help reveal the characteristics of other characters than anything else. Torvald relates closely to Christine in the ways that they both mold their lives to fit society, and like the roles they play. Torvald plays the role of a typical male in society, driven by social expectations, and extremely focused on and worried about social status.

This is obvious when after he opens the letter from Krogstad he is so worried when he said just a little before that if anything went wrong they would handle it as man and wife. The way Torvald is driven by society shows that he is a weak character and doesn t maintain his individuality. The one point in the play where Torvald comes out and shows individuality is after the party where he talks with Christine about knitting and embroidery, he criticizes Nora's dancing, displays his knowledge of fine wines, and for the first time shows that he is passionate for his wife by flirting with her. This is the only time in the play where Torvald is shown as a person as opposed to a product of society. Then, quickly following that he changes back to the same character that he always was and shows the reader that there was in fact no way to change him but only give little insights into who Torvald actually was. Nora is an extremely dynamic character and is very two-sided.

There is the side of her that is seen at the beginning parts of the play where she, like the other characters, plays the role of a typical wife and acts the way that Torvald would want her to act. It appeared as though Nora was a model wife this is clear the way that Torvald treats her with his little pet names calling her skylark, squirrel, spendthrift, and songbird. However, early on, the reader learns that Nora is extremely independent. This is clear when we see how quickly and easily Nora comes out with lies. For instance, when Christine, Rank, and Nora were in the room eating macaroons and Rank asked if she was allowed to eat them and she said without hesitation that Christine brought them over and that she didn t know any better. Also when she talks about the time where she was in the room for two weeks working on Christmas ornaments when in fact she was actually working on bonds.

And perhaps, the most drastic lie performed by Nora in the play, when she forged her father's signature in order to get money to help Torvald which started the whole mess with Krogstad and Christine. Then one of the few times that Nora slipped up on a lie was when Krogstad came looking for her to get him his job back and she was saying that she had influence over Torvald then began saying that she didn t have any influence over him. Also, Nora is a very Courageous character, she does whatever is needed to get what she wants and believes that the ends justify the means. She also shows courage and depth in her character when she leaves Torvald at the end, because in that time it wasn t common practice for a wife just to pack up and leave her husband. This scene really got husbands of that time thinking about the way they treated their wives in fear of the same thing happening to them.