Maud + A Doll's House (connections)

• Change of location- Torvald became 'frightfully ill' so the Helmers move to 'a warmer climate', a marvellous trip'. The speaker flees to find respite in Brittany: 'Back from the Breton coast'. Both trips are an attempt to save themselves from themselves. ADH- to prevent a tragedy and Maud because of one.
• Guilt and responsibility- Nora is expecting Torvald to take responsibility for her illegal loan to shield her as he previously mentioned: 'I wish some terrible danger might threaten you, so that I could offer my life and my blood'. The speaker is convinced that Maud's brother accepted responsibility for initiating the duel and his subsequent death: 'The fault was mine, the fault was mine'. Neither party wants to take responsibility for their actions. Nora does have to take responsibility, while the speaker doesn't
• Confrontations- During the confrontation in Act 3, Nora remains silent and passive- (Nora is silent and stares unblinkingly at him) - while Torvald is aggressive and verbally abusive: 'Wretched woman!'. Maud remains passive, crying incessantly, while her brother insults and assaults the speaker: 'For she, sweet soul, had hardly spoken a word' Both Nora and Maud are passive during confrontations, men are aggressive and abusive.
• Human hopelessness- Krogstad likens himself to a shipwrecked man desperate for support: 'Now I'm a shipwrecked man, clinging to a spar'. While in exile in Brittany, the speaker feels like a castaway: 'Like a shipwrecked man on a coast'. Both characters are hopeless and stranded (literally and metaphorically)
• Forgiveness- Torvald forgives Nora after his outburst once the IOU is destroyed: 'There is something indescribably wonderful and satisfying for a husband in knowing that he has forgiven his wife ... she has become his property in a double sense'. The speaker expects Maud to forgive him after the duel with her speaker: 'but she would love me still'. The speaker killed someone, whereas Nora committed forgery and took out an illegal loan.
• Returning home- After eight years, Nora decides to go back to her hometown: 'Tomorrow I shall go home - I mean to where I was born.' After his exile, the speaker returns to society by travelling back to an urban environment, presumable London: 'At the shouts, the leagues of lights, and the roaring of wheels'. Nora after eight years needs to go home whereas the speaker goes a few months and needs to go back.
• Death wish/ suicidal thoughts and the desire to die- During the confrontation with Krogstad, Nora is considering suicide: 'Under the ice?' 'Down in the cold black water?'. While in the asylum, the speaker wants to be dead and free of pain: 'To bury me, bury me deeper, ever so little deeper'. Both want to die, but Nora suicide, the speaker by someone else's hand. Both want to escape situations caused by their partners.
• Madness- While practising the tarantella, Nora is accused of madness and hysteria: 'I mean, she isn't - er - expecting?'. The speaker experiences psychotic episodes while in the asylum: 'Who told him we were there?' 'Arsenic, arsenic sure would do it'. Nora has times when she is 'mad' whereas the speaker is mad, Nora acts like it to get her way.
• Initial attitude to society- In Act 1, Nora shows no interest in society: 'What do I care about society? I think it's a bore.' While the speaker is quite interested in society, especially it's flaws. Both Nora and the speaker are reluctant to acknowledge society, but when they do it is negative. The Speaker: 'We are puppets'
• Change in attitude to society- In Act 3, Torvald states: 'You don't know how society works', to which Nora responds with: 'No, I don't. But now I intend to learn.' The Speaker turns to the army as a new source of brotherhood: 'I have felt with my native land'. Both Nora and the speaker feel passionate about their society.
• Change of identity- Nora takes off her Neapolitan fisher girl costume and observes, 'I've changed'. The Speaker claims his madness has subsided, and he is now normal, 'my mood has changed'. Both Nora and the speaker seem to transform as the respective texts develop in plot.
• Attitude to religion- Nora admits that her understanding of religion was shaped by Pastor Hansen, 'Oh, Torvald, I don't really know what religion means.' The Speaker's attitude to religion has changed dramatically: 'I embrace the purpose of God'.
• Embarkment on a journey into the unknown. Nora leaves the stability of the Halmer household: 'Tomorrow I shall go home - I mean to where I was born. It'll be easier for me to find some kind of job there.' The Speaker's journey to Crimea: 'and myself have awakened as it seem to the better mind'. It is a mental and physical journey: 'my mood is changed'
• Burden of secrets. Nora, just like Krogstad, broke the law, 'I committed a forgery.' The speaker kills the brother: 'For I never whispered a private affair'. Both break the law but murder is far more severe. The speaker will never be rid of the burden of his murder and his causing of Maud's death.
• One-sided physical attraction. During the 'silk stockings' scene, Dr Rank admits, 'I have loves you as deeply as anyone else has.' Torvald makes sexual advances that are not reciprocated by Nora, 'I pretend to myself that you're my secret mistress.' Both force themselves on female characters (imposition of male feelings and taking away the female voice). Maud is unaware and uninterested, Nora and Torvald have a materialistic relationship. 'took the kiss sedately' ... 'long loving kiss'.
• Parental legacy: following in the footsteps of parents. Nora follows in her mother's footsteps by 'abandoning' her children; 'Poor little Miss Nora, you never had any mother but me'. Nora's children will be raised by their nanny and 'papa' only. Like Nora following her mother's footsteps, this is similar to the speaker's father - the speaker essentially kills himself: 'I embrace the purpose of God and the doom assign'd'. The speaker is haunted by inherited patrilineal traits: 'What! am I raging alone as my father raged in his mood'
• New purpose in life. Nora gives up on her past life, 'My duty towards myself.' The completely reverses his previous mental state: 'My mood has changed'.
• Women are reified and owned by men. Nora was her father's 'doll' and after Torvald's forgiveness, she became 'his property in a double sense.' Maud is dehumanised before she is even born: 'if it prove a girl, my boy will have plenty, so let it be'