Why does Mrs. Linde move to Nora’s neighborhood? 

Mrs. Linde moves after her mother’s death in order to find work and someone to care for. Mrs. Linde spent most of her life sacrificing for others so that they could live more comfortably. Rather than marrying for love, she married her husband for his money, so that she could aid her ailing mother and provide care for her younger brothers. Now that her husband and her mother have died and her brothers have grown up, Mrs. Linde feels that her life is “unspeakably empty” because there is “no one to live for any more.” She moves to look for office work and hopes Nora will help her find employment. We later learn that she also hoped to rekindle a romance with her long-lost love, Krogstad, and become a new mother for his children.  

Why does Krogstad want to blackmail Nora? 

Krogstad knows that Nora forged her father’s signature on the loan that he gave her, and he uses this information to blackmail Nora. He demands that she convince Torvald to keep him on as an employee at the bank. Now that Torvald is the bank manager, Krogstad knows Torvald can make or break his career, and when he learns that Mrs. Linde is looking for office work, he correctly guesses that Torvald will fire him in order to hire Mrs. Linde. Krogstad threatens to tell Torvald about the forgery in order to scare Nora into influencing Torvald. When Nora is unable to change Torvald’s mind, Krogstad writes a letter detailing Nora’s actions and threatening to make them public. 

What is the “wonderful thing” that Nora believes will happen? 

Nora believes that once Torvald finds out about the loan and the forgery, he will sacrifice his own reputation in order to save hers. Nora made many sacrifices to save Torvald’s life, and she assumes that her husband will see the love and devotion in her actions and show his love in return by “[taking] everything upon [himself] and [saying]: ‘I am the guilty one.’” Torvald’s willingness to take the blame would have been the ultimate proof of his love for Nora, and she both longed for and feared it, for it would mean the downfall of Torvald’s good reputation. However, the “wonderful thing” doesn’t happen, because Torvald is more in love with his reputation than he is with Nora, and is unwilling to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her. 

How are Krogstad and Nora similar? 

Krogstad and Nora, though opposing forces at the beginning of the play, both committed the crime of forgery for what they saw as justified reasons, and have been living with the guilt of their crimes ever since. With Krogstad, we see what happens when a crime becomes public knowledge; his reputation is destroyed, and he must try to raise his children as an outcast from society. Both Nora and Krogstad have rebelled against what could be seen as an unjust law, and, as Torvald points out, they have both had to “wear a mask in the presence of those near and dear to [them].”  

How do dolls represent Nora as a character? 

Nora believes herself to be a doll because the men in her life see her more as a toy than a human being. They view her as a pretty object without any thoughts of her own that they can use as they want. Nora’s father used to call her his “doll child,” and he “played” with her “as [she] used to play with [her] dolls.” Nora believes that her role in Torvald’s life is “merely to perform tricks” for him, such as dressing a certain way for the ball. Dolls represent the delicate, pretty objects that housewives of Nora’s time were supposed to emulate, remaining quiet about serious matters. 

Popular pages: A Doll's House

Take a Study Break