Nora is the central character in the book "A Doll's House" and it is through her that Ibsen develops many of his themes

Authors Avatar

Page 1/3

ENGLISH COURSEWORK

A Dolls Houses        

The Cherry Orchard        

To what extent is loyalty shown by the lead female characters characters? What are the consequences of this?

Within these two books loyalty is a minor theme and one that is easily missed, indeed it is narrow. However, it is still one which weaves a thread through both of the books encompassing major and minor characters, the material and the abstract. In commencing this discussion one must first refer to the definition of the word “loyalty”; the quality of being loyal. As defined in the Cambridge dictionary, loyal: firm and not changing in your friendship with or support for a person or an organization, or in your belief in your principles. And in the Collins dictionary, loyalty: faithful; a feeling of friendship or duty towards someone or something.

Nora is the central character in the book “A Doll’s House” and it is through her that Ibsen develops many of his themes, one of these being the difficulty of maintaining an individual personality within the confines of a social role/stereotype. Initially Nora seems devoted to her marriage and her husband, “I would never dream of doing anything you didn’t want me to”. We see the sacrifices she’s made to keep what she has intact and her beloved alive. To all intents and purposes she is the model of loyalty. She appears to be utterly in love with Torvald, she “looks incredulously” at Mrs.Linde, “But, Kristine, is that possible?”, when faced with the prospect that someone could be or ever have been in a loveless marriage. She’s proud of her husband, “My husband has just been made Bank Manager!”, and queen to please him, “Oh, thank you, thank you, Torvald”, note the time she spent the previous year trying to create the perfect holiday, “Three whole weeks beforehand you shut yourself up…making flowers for the Christmas tree and all the other splendid things you wanted to surprise us with.”. She has complete confidence in the character of Torvald, “And so he shall, Kristine. Just leave things to me.”  Then we go onto discover the extent of her faithfulness to her husband, securing, and dealing with the subsequent paying off, a loan completely on her own; no mean feat for a women who has been sheltered for all of her life; “…I passed out of daddy’s hand into yours.”. She didn’t give up but strived to save her husband’s life. Yet even at this point she is showing some sign of not completely fitting into the mould. She shows perceptiveness “..it would be…humiliating for him if he thought he owed anything to me”, “…when Torvald isn’t quite so much in love with me as he is now… then it might be good to

Join now!

Heather Quelch

The Anglo European School

No. 0078

May 2002

Page 2/3

have something in reserve..” However, Nora’s safe little world is on the verge of collapse as Krogstag challenges her with her crime and the sure consequences she will face if he is not obeyed. And yet, even in the face of unpleasant blackmail Nora is sure in her stoic loyalty “… My husband will see for himself what a bad man you are, and then certainly won’t be able to keep your job.” Torvald’s role as the manly moraliser is still very much alive in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay