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• (1) "i am man enough to bear the burden for us both"

  • highlights his desire to be the heroic saviour, which is in general what society expects of men
  • he pushes nora into the stereotypical female, who is helpless and 'needs' a man a help her
  • however nora feeds into this, resulting in both characters abiding by the roles society expects of them
• (2) "torvald's so hopelessly in love with me that he wants me all to himself"

  • here nora justifies his possessive behaviour by saying it's out of love
  • it also suggests she sees nothing wrong with him vewing her as his possession
• (3) "the mistress said i was to, she cant abide covers on the chairs she says"

  • From the beginning hedda is characterised as very demanding and direct, very difficult to satisfy
  • hedda's directness is completely ironic as she's direct with what she says in all situations with one large exception, her marriage with tesman, which she implicates her dislike in front of other characters
• (4) "no, for heaven's sake, hedda darling - dont touch those dangerous things! for my sake hedda"

  • the first time we see tesman asserting authority over hedda, which is expected from the man of the marriage in the society ibsen portrays
  • this also introduces tesman as a very selfish character, by switching from 'heaven's' to 'my', we see he only really cares about how the marriage benefits him