Love and marriage

• Nora realises in her anagnorisis that she has a disillusion of marriage because Torvald easily makes the decision to put his reputation before her and that their marriage is purely aesthetic based due to how marriage is practiced in society
• Although Nora and Torvald's marriage is not filled with love, the two side characters Mrs Linde and Krogstad marry for the purpose of love and doesn't conform to society norms. This suggests that society's purpose for marriage is for status and the practice itself rather than for true compassion
• "I would never dream of doing anything you didn't want me to" Nora's subservience
• "If it ever got around that the new manager had been talked over by his wife"
• Helmer suggests his reputation is more important than an equal committed relationship and doesn't listen to Nora's point of view when she wants Krogstad to not be fired
• "For a man... it's as though it made her his property in a double sense ... she becomes in a way both his wife and at the same time his child" about forgiveness
• A03: Linde observes to Nora that "a wife cannot borrow without her husbands consent" she sets up a key historical context for the play, legal rights of women in Europe in the 1800s had no control
• A03: "A doll house" is a more accurate translation of the original Norwegian, they feel it's more suggestive of the doll-like qualities of the characters and a women is seen as a pretty object used for a man's needs
• A03: The term new woman was coined in 1894 to define a self-sufficient woman. Mrs Linde is an example of the new woman
• Toxic marriage and Torvald's control of Nora
• "I passed from papa's hands into yours" Male ownership of women
• Torvald "No man can be expected to sacrifice his honour, even for the person he loves"
• Sexual double standards in relationships, when helmer wants sex she has to give it to him even if she doesn't want to and sex for women was seen purely to have children
• A03: marital rape didn't become illegal in the UK until 1992
• Women were expected to stay pure and protect their husbands reputation at the same time