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A Mere Product of His Society
Torvald Helmer’s behavior towards his wife, Nora, thoroughly demonstrates how
men of his era treat women as nothing more than insignificant items to be possessed and
shown off. In other words, he is a stereotypical nineteenth century bourgeois male who
Order Custom A Mere Product of His Society/Torvald in a Doll House paper
lives his life according to society’s norms. He is smug, pompous, self-righteous,
hypocritical, selfish, and a bit thick-headed. He has worked so hard to provide for his
family and to rise to his present comfortable place in the social hierarchy. Therefore,
since his greatest fear is losing that place, he is inordinately concerned with appearances
and with maintaining a spotless reputation and a great deal of respectability. He thinks he
loves his wife, but what he loves is an idea of his wife, an idea of her as a pretty doll that
he can play with or a child whom he can manage and protect. The more Nora depends on
him, the more important he feels. The more fragile, silly, and childlike she behaves, the
stronger and wiser he thinks he must be.
Since Torvald is so wrapped up with appearances and is so concerned with this
status in the home and in the community, his sole motivation in life is to be in control.
He enjoys being in control and takes great delight in his position of authority as a
husband. This is evident in the language he uses to speak to and describe Nora.
Throughout the play, Nora is any number of varied pets-“squirrel”, “song-bird”, “sky-
lark”-to Torvald. This shows us the way Torvald sees and treats his wife. For him Nora
is the little animal. She is the weak, young, and innocent little girl who will perform
exactly the way he wants her to. He treats her like this to prove that he is the man of the
house, and has the power while Nora is the weak and helpless wife. This also proves
how demeaning Torvald is to women and how he sees himself as superior to them.
The most obvious example of Torvald’s physical control over Nora can be seen in
his teaching of the tarantella. In this scene, Nora pretends that she needs Torvald to teach
her every move in order to relearn the dance. “Direct me”, she says, “Teach me the way
you always have.”(Ibsen, Act , page 1). Although this is an act, it still shows how
much control Torvald has over her and how completely submissive she is to him. After
he watches her dance the tarantella, Torvald proclaims, “When I saw you turn and sway
in the tarantella my blood was pounding till I couldn’t stand it-that’s why I brought you
down here so early.”(Ibsen, Act , page 101). Nora’s negative response to his approach
causes him to become somewhat bewildered and he reacts by saying “What do you
mean? Nora, you’re teasing me. You will, won’t you? Aren’t I your husband?”(Ibsen,
Act , page 101). This reaction, along with many others, shows how Torvald is more
interested in Nora physically than emotionally. The way she feels internally does not
matter to him, it is her external appearance that matters. It is obvious that he feels that it
is one of Nora’s main duties as his wife to physically please him at his command.
The belief that a man’s role in marriage is to guide his wife and the idea that Nora
desperately needs his guidance, are two of the things that Torvald clearly embraces. This
is evident in the way he is constantly instructing her with trite, moralistic sayings such as,
“Something of freedom’s lost-and something of beauty too-from a home that’s founded
on borrowing and debt.”(Ibsen, Act 1, page 44). This not only shows how smug, self-
righteous, and demanding Torvald is, but it also shows how he enjoys treating Nora as if
she was his child instead of his wife. He does not trust her with money and feels that she
is incapable and too immature to handle a matter of such importance. On the rare
occasion that he does give her some money, he worries that she will waste it on candy,
pastry or something else of childish and useless value.
Although Torvald seizes the power in his relationship with Nora and always refers
to her as a child, it seems that he is actually the weaker and more childlike character. Dr.
Rank’s explanation for not wanting Torvald to enter his sickroom-“Helmer with his
sensitivity has such a sharp distaste for anything ugly.”(Ibsen, Act , page 81)-not only
suggests that Torvald must be sheltered like a child from the realities of the world, but it
also suggests that Torvald is a hypocrite. By this I mean, here you have a man who
thinks his main duty as a husband is to guide and protect his wife, meanwhile it is he who
needs guidance and protection.
Furthermore, Torvald reveals himself to be childishly petty and selfish at
times. His real objection to not working with Krogstad is not deficiencies in Krogstad’s
moral character but rather his overly friendly and familiar behavior. His decision to fire
Krogstad stems from the fact that he feels threatened and offended by Krogstad’s failure
to pay him the proper respect. The explanation that he gives to Nora’s request that
Krogstad be kept on at the office � “I should go and make myself ridiculous in front of
the whole office and give people the idea that I can be swayed by all kinds of outside
pressure”- shows that he prioritizes his reputation over his wife’s desires and does not
care in the least bit what happens to the lives of others (in this case Krogstad).
Torvald further demonstrates his need for society’s respect in his reaction to
Nora’s deception. Instead of taking her blame upon himself, something he probably
would have done if he truly loved her, he immediately begins to worry about what others
are going to think of him. The fact that he insisted that they act as if nothing has
happened � “…as for you and me, it’s got to seem that everything between us is just as it
was, to the outside world, that is”, he says (Ibsen, Act , page106) � shows how
conscious Torvald is of other people’s perception of him and how his chief concern is
saving the appearance of their household.
In general, Torvald does not view Nora as an equal because he allows his
emotions to be swayed heavily by the prospect of society’s respect and the fear of
society’s scorn. In other words, the problem in “A Doll House” does not lie with Torvald
alone. Though he does not help the situation, he is merely nothing more than a product
of his society.
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