A Doll's House Character Analysis - Torvold

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The play A Doll’s House is filled with unique and very distinctive characters. One in particular being Torvald, Nora’s husband, best friend to Mr. Rank, and a father to three children. Automatically, once we were introduced to Torvald’s character we knew he was always the power in his relationships, especially in his relationship with Nora. Our initial reaction of Torvald was that he was a seemingly nice man who cared for his family, and their betterment. While this is true, we soon began to see the negative connotations in his speech, which at times contradicted our views on how kind he was. For example, his pet names for Nora like “my little skylark”, “my little squirrel”, or “my pretty little pet” showed the undesirable and judgmental connotations in his speech. While with many characters it is difficult to figure out aspects of their personality, we easily based Torvald’s personality on how domineering he was. In addition, our character map included is stubborn, frugal, hypocrisy, and conservative traits. We decided on these traits based on the connotation in Torvald’s speech as well. While speaking with Nora once he learns about her secret he states that “I should not allow you to bring up the children… I shouldn’t dare trust you with them”(page 222). In just this one short line, one can already see his domineering and conservative traits. After reading A Doll’s House, many students began to change their perspective on our world, and the array of relationships in it, us being included. There was anew found appreciation for today’s society, and the idea of living in the Victorian era began to be something not very appealing to us. Torvald’s character made us realize as well, how different our lives are to the lives of people in the Victorian era and how much times have changed. Torvald is very typical of Victorian-style values and beliefs, and he has
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