A Doll’s House

Ø Cultural Context : Male Characters

A Doll’s House is set in Norway in 1879, a time where people were more conservative, and male dominance in domestic and social life was prominent and unquestioned. Torvald Helmer, the main male character of the play, often shows a controlling personality towards Nora, belittling her by calling her pet-names like “songbird”. He (and Nora) has a fantasy where Torvald is the hero who saves his “innocent, little, mistress”, but after seeing how cowardly and aggressively Torvald handles the situation after he discovers Krogstad’s letter, Nora decides he is not the “hero” she had hoped he was. He is a capable and intelligent man; his high position in the bank proves so. Despite his ‘book smarts’, he is a man who values reputation over moral values. His pride is solely based upon what the higher class considers him, rather than the decisions he makes that seem morally correct. He was quick to anger once his reputation was close to being destroyed, ready to practically disown his own wife whom he “loves dearly” because of the choices she made. Once he felt he was “saved” from this humiliation, he did not once consider how his behaviour affected Nora, not apologizing to her once, and repeatedly told her “I forgive you!” even though the audience/reader know that it is not her who needs to apologize. His selfish thinking was unfortunately a common mind set for married men in the Victorian era, and to most modern readers his behaviour is shocking, especially when he says to Nora “Aren’t I your husband?” when she refuses intimacy with him. This whole idea of consent between couples should be unquestioned, but back then, it was normal for a wife to give herself like a toy to her husband even if she did not wish for it, as it was common belief that women had no sex drives and existed for the sole purpose of having children and pleasing their husbands. That is why once this play was released in that day and age, people were shocked to see this culturally normal yet deeply flawed mind set that was driven into people’s minds at a young age be questioned.