Quotes and analysis: Act 1 – A Doll’s House

People Quote Theme / context Analysis

Torvald There’s always Love and marriage, money and work  Dramatic irony – Torvald is
to Nora something  Reprimands Nora for spending too unaware that his household is
inhibited, much on Christmas presents built on the borrowed money, he
unpleasant about  Dismisses her playful suggestion to owes his life to Nora borrowing
a home built on borrow money and spend it money for his treatment and trip
credit and to Italy.
borrowed  Foreshadowing of his future
money. reaction to the truth

Nora to I would never Love and marriage, gender, deceit  Ibsen addresses the roles of
Torvald dream of doing  Plays into Nora’s role as the archetypal women in patriarchal households
anything you wife in the Victorian era where they had little to no power
didn’t want me  Nora accepts the gender norms and were expected to follow the
to do. imposed on her without questioning orders of the men
 Deceiving Torvald – who bans her  Eating macaroons – sign of quiet
from eating sweets rebellion, even she is unaware of
it
 Diction – “would never dream”
sound sarcastic, however
compared to the rest of Nora’s
dialogues it might be humorous
as she’s speaking directly with
the audience

Torvald Oh what a Money and work, individuals and society  Reflection of the attitudes of the
to Nora glorious feeling  Reflects on Christmas festivities and upwardly-mobile middle class,
it is, knowing their social status as a family the ‘bourgeoisie’ – for whom
you’ve got a  Context – previous Christmas when money is key determinant for
nice, safe job they had financial difficulties social hierarchy, power
and a good fat  ‘Glorious’ along with ‘amazing’
income. and ‘wonderful’ – magical,
extraordinary lexical field,
correlates with their outsized
expectations of each other and
their married life
 Trilogy, listing – emphasizes the
presence of all three boons

Nora to But it was Gender, money and work  As a parallel to the reasons why
Christine tremendous fun  Explains to Christine why she deserves Christine says that she should be
all the same, to be proud of herself for supporting proud of herself for “making the
sitting there her family end of [her] mother’s life almost
working and  Reveals that she engaged in copywork free from care”
earning money last Christmas to contribute to paying  Starts to reveal that she is more
like that. Almost back the loan she took than the archetypal middle-class
like being a  ‘Locked [herself] in until late at night’ woman (women weren’t allowed
man.  She has a sharp business acumen to work since it would be
shameful to their husbands) – she
is smart enough to handle
business, (“there is something
called in business…”)
 Commentary on gender –
freedom to work and earn money
 was only enjoyed by women
 In contrast only women who
work are a part of the working
class: Anne Marie (nurse), Helen
(maid) and Christophine – away
from family, shunned or
widowed

Torvald A fog of lies that

to Nora in a household,
about and it spreads
Krogstad disease and
infection to
every part