Characters Significance

Nora Helmer:
Nora Helmer is the main antagonist within this play, at the beginning of the play she appears happy in her home life showing naivety and childlike behaviour especially when her husband, Torvald teases her, she appears to play along with the idea that she is a little pet to be played with and looked after - a lot like a doll. She shows great excitement when discussing money that her husband earns and provides for the family which helps reflect her immaturity Ibsen attempts to portray, through out the play she is pampered and patronized and appears to be shown to be incapable of looking after herself, so other characters think. I believe that Nora is the typical stereotype of women within the time period as men believed they were weak and incapable, the extreme and exaggeration Ibsen has created Nora to be would help develop the audiences understanding about how ridiculous this stereotype is. Furthermore as the play progresses Nora reveals that she is capable than more than her husband thinks as she claimed a loan under her fathers name committing forgery in order to save her husbands life which shows that she is intelligent enough and has other skills beyond being a wife and mother as she could not take out a loan in her own name as women in that time needed a male in order to support the decision, the fact she has broken the law for her husband shows courage and bravery as she will be aware of the consequences that she must be faced with however determination is shown on Christmas day when she does not want her day to be ruined by Krogstad which shows how loving she is towards her family. I believe that the purpose of Nora is to both make the audience reflect on their views about women and their rights and roles within society and to progress the narrative as the binary opposition theory by Strauss suggests that good vs bad develops the plot further as the antagonist and protagonist create a base for the narrative to build on.


Torvald Helmer:

Torvald Helmer is a wealthy husband of Nora Helmer, he has a strong stereotypical male role of working hard and bringing home the money in order to support his family. He appears to enjoy the idea that Nora is dependant on him and is reliant on him to look after her a lot like an animal which he commonly refers to her as. Furthermore he is very keen on keeping his appearance and the family, he appears a marxist as he wants to maintain at the top which is reflected as he is concerned about what people think of him and his family, this is reflected when he rejects Nora's request of keeping Krogstad. Moreover the male role he portrays also supports the idea that he enjoys to possibly objectify Nora as he is so very determined to teach her the dance for the party for everybody to see, he appears to adore the idea that Nora belongs to him and nobody else showing that he believes that she solely revolves around him as he is now the only male figure within her life. I believe that the purpose of Torvald within this play is to show re-emphasis the roles within the family home and to also possibly show that the difference between men and women is not that different, this is because Torvald appears even more childish than Nora, as Nora plays along with the idea that she is a doll to gain what she wants she is actually being rather tactical and smart about the situation where as Torvald shows child-like behaviour as he shows by other characters that he needs to be protected for example Dr.Rank confides in Nora that he must not visit him when he is dying, he tells Nora as though she is responsible for Torvald where as typically the male has dominance, Dr.Rank says that he mustn't see him as it would upset and distress him too much and be too ugly for him to see showing that he needs to be protected from realities of the world around him.

Krogstad:
Krogstad within this play is the protagonist, he must battle with the beliefs of Nora (the antagonist) in order to develop the plot further, the purpose of Krogstad is that he creates the disequilibrium within the narrative leaving a disruption Nora must fix. However, I believe that Krogstad is also their to make the audience reflect on gender roles further as comparing Krogstad and Nora they appear to have a lot in common although they are persevered differently. I believe that because Nora is typically a female and they're stereotyped as being vulnerable and weak that Krogstad appears to be more powerful and meaner as he is almost taking advantage on the power he has despite the fact that he is in more of a vulnerable position by losing his job and then letting down his family, they are both in the same position yet we appear Krogstad to be evil and the "bad guy" purely down to the fact he stereotypically is the more dominant gender.