2

• (5) "when we first married, he got jealous if i so much as mentioned any of my old friends back home. so naturally i stopped talking about them"

  • this highlights nora's immaturity and how naive she is
  • it also portrays torvald's desire to trap her in the life he has created for her, emphasising his controlling demeanour
• (6) "but wasnt it nice of me to give in to you"

  • here we see nora trying to gain some form of control, in that society, its unheard of from women to go against their husbands. she is aware of her inferiority and is trying to gain some sense of agency and in some ways change the social structure
• (7) "torvald loves me - he'd never hesitate for an instant to lay his life down for me"

  • this shows that nora truly believes this. by saying 'torvald loves me', its almost like a statement, a fact, not something to be argued with
  • word choice of 'never' fruthers this idea, very strong use of language
• (8) "not even the specialist one happens to love?" "don't use that sickening word!"

  • here, we see brack purposely aggravate hedda by mentioning love, simply to get a reaction out of her. to which he succeeds.
  • the word choice of 'sickening' gives the impression that hedda is truly revolted by the concept of love, especially between herself and tesman
• (9) "no, no, i will keep it until you come back"

  • here we see again that hedda enjoys having control, tesman can see to be controlled as he says no word against her request
  • she is aware her plan will lead to problems and conflict, yet she continues because she's bored