Torvald’s Fascination

Torvald fascinates beauty and appearances to bring his own character up or to give himself a higher status. Furthermore, his attitudes do not change throughout the story line. Torvald is a follower of the society and he just can’t understand the other side of life. Doing into more depth Torvald just can’t understand what Nora means by ‘something glorious’. Torvald is a person, who only understands one side of life, and he never changes his opinions. The main points that never changes are: prejudges, the way he looks at Nora, selfishness, and his understanding of society. Then on the other hand there happens a huge change in Torvald, which he understands when Nora lives him.

Torvald is a character, which is the exact opposite of Nora. This opposite is the key or the door to Nora’s act in the end of the play. On page 97 Nora says, “You do not understand me.” Furthermore Nora says on page 99 the following thing, “I picked up the same taste as you. Or I just pretended to.” These two quotes really show or explain that Torvald and Nora are two different people. Doing into more depth, Torvald is a character, which has many different sides to himself. These different or new sides open up or became known every suddenly and on very unexpected scenes. The usual character side, which is known the most, is when Torvald is very polite, nice and caring. On page 3 Torvald says, “Who’s hanging her head, is it my little skylark?” This quote shows or gives an impression that Torvald really cares about Nora and other people.

Furthermore the use of little names, such as, skylark or squirrel cause Nora’s character to seem or became more dependent on Torvald. On page 5 Torvald says, “There little birds that like to fritter money.” This is another vivid example when Torvald brings his character up by lowering others or making them dependent on him. The other side of Torvald is the man of the house, he is the one to earn the money, and at the society function at that time, he is the main figure of the house. “You know very well we can’t spend a fortune.” Says Torvald on page 2, this quote in addition shows that Torvald is a very responsible person. After that, there is another side to Torvald’s character, which is not as pleasant as the other. This side comes up on page 84-95. In these pages Torvald only cares about him, and because everything is not going as he planed, he gets mad, at other people. “On page 84 he says, “…we’ve got rid of her at last…Extraordinarily boring.” This quote clearly shows the other side of Torvald

Torvald’s fascination with beauty and appearance is very closely linked to his character traits. Torvald is a person who wants other people to looks good to bring himself up, or to get a higher status. For example, on page 85 Torvald says, you’re my prize possession, why can’t I…” this dramatic example clearly shows that Torvald wants Nora to look good only to make him feel good about owning her. Torvald needs Nora to look beautiful, in order to emphasize himself. Torvald doesn’t understand that Nora is a person and that she doesn’t like the way Torvald treats her, in his opinion she is just a woman. Torvald is a person, which very strictly follows the rules of the society and understands no other way but prejudges. He believes that women, and especially Nora, are not able of performing things which men are able to perform. He thinks that women should be mothers and wives before anything else. Furthermore Torvald believes that women should entertain their husbands before all. On page 95 Torvald says the following thing, ” a wife should love her husband.” This quote is a clear example of his point of view.

Torvald’s opinion towards beauty and appearance do not change in the course of the story. Torvald never changes his opinion about women or prejudges. And never gets to understand why Nora felt him or what, this something glorious is. Torvald is a person, which believes that he is the most important, or the main character. On page 95 Torvald says a long speech, “A wife…I’ve forgiven you.” This speech contains many important elements to Torvald’s character, for example that use of the word ‘I’, this shows that Torvald believes that he is very important, and that Nora is dependent on him. Furthermore Torvald is a character, which cares about others when he doesn’t need to sacrifice anything of his own. On page 94, when Torvald reads Krogstad’s letter he stops caring about Nora and just cares about saving his reputation, and himself. He doesn’t understand what Nora had done was done to help Torvald. Going into more depth, as soon as Torvald is save again, he starts calling Nora with the small, pretty names, as if anything was wrong.

As a conclusion, Torvald is a person which judges people by appearances, and fascinates beauty and appearances to only bring his own character up, and to give himself a higher status. The fact that Torvald is a follower of the society, courses or gives the finial touch, which makes Nora leave. Even by the end of the play, when Torvald realizes that he is dependent on Nora he still doesn’t understand what ‘something glorious’ is. His understanding of prejudges never changes.