Doll’s House: Act 1

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Doll’s House: Act 1

Question 1

According to Torvald Helmer’s words and actions, a man should be in control of the house while the woman’s role should be to follow the will of the man/husband. The man should be able to put down the rules of the house and of living which he expects to be followed. For example, Nora was not allowed to spend excessively. Helmer believed that people should be free from borrowing and that they should be able to live within their means. Borrowing made people live in bondage and unhappy. He states “There can be no freedom or beauty about a home that depends on borrowing or debt” (Act 1). Helmer felt that a woman was carefree about the future and only lived for the moment. He states, “That is like a woman!” (Act 1) when Nora gives a carefree attitude concerning the people they owed money if Helmer was to die on New Year’s eve after borrowing the money they would spend on Christmas.

Although he tries to lead by action, Helmer’s actions fail him at times. For example, he tries to please his wife by offering her money as a gift for Christmas. This is after she is disappointed by him refusing to use extra money on that Christmas so that they would avoid living on debt. This shows that men have their share of weaknesses even though they try to show that the women are the weaker ones.

Question 2

Through his actions and his words, Helmer shows that he is not as principled as he sounds. He gives Nora a couple of reasons of why they will not spend extra money on Christmas and acts contrary almost immediately when he is asked by Nora to give her money as a Christmas present. He also portrays to be stereotypical as most of the men during that period. When Nora asks him what he thinks his sacred duties are, he strongly answers that “Are they not your duties to your husband and your children?” (Act 1) This shows that he feels that a woman has no will of her own and she was only made because of the man and the children. This is contrary to what he shows to her when he uses playful words when calling her as though she were very important to him.

Question 3

Although he seems to be in control of his family, he does not have an accurate view of his family’s situation. He takes his wife as a spendthrift and one who cannot make any independent decisions. This is proven wrong when Nora reveals to Christine, her old friend, that she had borrowed some money in the past in order to save her husband’s life. This was a secret kept from Helmer. He had no knowledge that Nora was locked up in her room for three weeks the previous summer because she had taken up a copying job and not because she was making the Christmas decorations.

Question 4 & 5

According to Helmer, little people are spendthrifts. Nora lives up to this definition when she confirms to Christine that she likes spending and wearing nicely although it had started becoming a challenge due to her debt. Christine also confirms that she was a spendthrift even when they were in school. She even reveals that she always wanted to travel like all the other young women. However, Nora’s character takes a new turn when she reveals that she had borrowed the money they used in Italy without her husband’s consent or knowledge. It becomes more intriguing when she changes her attitude once Krogstad asked to see Mr. Helmer. It turns out that the money she had borrowed came from Krogstad and that she had faked her father’s signature in order to get Krogstad to lend her the money. This scenario keeps the audience interested in Nora’s character as one expects more than meets the eye.