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D Henry Hanson Richard Niles Acting III 11 October 2017 A Doll’s House Research Paper Torvald Helmer is an incredibly complex man, who is in turn a product of an incredibly complex society. Said society is that of late eighteenth century Norway. Far from being the land of the Vikings, yet not quite considered in the upper echelons of European Society, the Norway of the 1870’s was a unique place, and if you were a man, it was a time of upward mobility in an otherwise fraught territory well on its way to independence. Torvald’s job at the bank put him right in the middle of a financial crisis, but also helped him reach a new echelon of society, which brought with it new rights and a new standard of living. The disruption caused by Nora’s act of forgery, as well as the social and physical repulsions caused by tuberculosis, threatened to bring the world Torvald had just been invited into crashing down around him. During the time period A Doll’s House was set and premiered, Norway was actually part of a merged nation with Sweden, after the latter the former early in the Nineteenth Century. After a relative period of peace, Nationalistic tendencies started to permeate around Norway, and by the 1870’s there was a full blown struggle over weather to remain part of Sweden, or to assert their independence, which they ultimately did in 1905. Despite the two countries being merged, Norway still had a very distinct cultural personality from Sweden. Nora and Torvald occupied the end of the time of a great resurgence of art that separated itself from the Swedish national identity. This period was called the Norwegian Romantic Nationalism Movement (Hanserud 12).
Picture One (Above): The full extent of the combined country of Sweden when it annexed Norway (Arnold Platon). As Scandinavia had not progressed as far industrially as other European nations, much of the working population were farmers. Though not a feudal system, for many farmers there was little ability to move up socially. For those who managed to get jobs in cities and in the young burgeoning manufacturing-based economy, “had a farmer as forefather three or four generations back” (UNESCO 2). Torvald himself came from at least two generations of men working in non- farming pursuits, but was still close enough to the poor past of his ancestors that his recent promotion to bank manager would have made him the richest man in his family line. For someone about to get a massive raise, Torvald seemed stuck in the space between the financial anxiety of the past, and the excitement for the future.
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Picture One: The Norges Bank branch in Skien, Ibsen’s hometown and the basis for the settings of many of his plays. This bank was built in 1849 and Toravld would have worked in a bankbuilding that was similar to this one. Norges Bank is the centralized bank of Norway, and is still the largest bank their today (Bitjungle). The stress of the banking job would definitely be mitigated by the annual salary. Analyzing yearly average wages from Norges Bank, the annual tariff wage for a Secretary I, the description which most closely matches that of bank manger, came out to 2000 Krone. In 2016, that would work out to 136,120.25 Krone a year, or $21,605.70 U.S. Dollars, which is a great deal considering the high interest rates and the lower cost of living at the time (Grytten 337). While certainly not the salary of the richest class in their town, the Helmer’s entered the play looking foreword to a very comfortable life with money for some more frivolities on top of the more reasonable and necessary purchases of the past. Certainly Nora’s “spend-thrifting” habits would weight less on Torvald’s mind than previously, though still a source of conflict, albeit one seen as a cute character trait of his wife. With the increase in income, Torvald would have adopted the fashions of the time. For men this meant imports from London, where the Victorian style influenced much of the clothing. A shorter frock coat, paired with a three-piece suit, known as a ditto suit , came into fashion around this time. Full-length trousers were worn on all occasions (Hanserud 22). Because A Doll’s House takes place on Christmas Eve, Torvald would have had his coat out. As Torvald was not yet rich enough for a fur lined overcoat, he would have a topcoat with contrasting velvet collars, a small symbol of luxury on a rather utilitarian coat. Bow ties were still the preferred neckwear, and were worn or shit collars than now were being pressed into wings, similar to the modern day collars of the tuxedo.
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Picture One (Left): A ditto suit inspired by late Victorian fashion trends in London (Public Domain). Note the three-piece suit, he shorter frock coat, and the bowtie. The man on the right is wearing a sensible (for his class) topcoat with a velvet-lined collar Picture Two (Right): similar to what Torvald would wear. The man on the right is wearing a fur-lined overcoat, an as of yet unattainable item of clothing for Torvald (The Gazette of Fashion, 1872). In the first scene, Nora says that “this is the first Christmas that we have not needed to economize” (Ibsen 6). Torvald’s slightly stressful reaction reveals that financial woes are not out
At this time, Torvald not only would have been socially moving up the ladder, but legally as well, unlocking a new set of rights. Men’s universal suffrage was not the law of the land until March 12, 1898. Before then, only the men of upper classes and those held in high regard both socially and financially were given the right to vote (New York Times 7). Torvald would have been granted new rights along with his new job. In his panic in the middle of Act III, when he cries, “Do you understand now what it is you have done for me” (Ibsen 102), he means that, along with being publically shamed, the subsequent arrest and/or financial ruin will cause his newfound rights to be revoked from him. For someone who had just attained such a status after generations of hard times, Nora’s act would feel like not only a betrayal, but an act of foolish self-sabotage. The biggest consequence of Nora’s actions, would be the possible imprisonment of herself or her husband. When Torvald makes no indication that he will suffer for his wife’s “insurrections,” he is complying with a historically accurate representation of what a Norwegian man would do in the same situation. In fact, Ibsen based A Doll’s House on a real life situation he witnessed, when family friend illegally borrowed money to save her husband’s life. When her husband found out, she was “treated like a criminal by her husband, who committed her to a lunatic asylum, taking her back only grudgingly” (Byatt 1). It was a completely normal reaction to publically blame one’s wife. Nobility came second to preserving what little dignity and social standing could be preserved post-scandal. While Nora may have walked out to an uncertain future at the end of A Doll’s House, in real life it is quite possible that Torvald would have taken drastic measures to keep her from leaving. Measure that she would have no way of fighting due to her limited legal status as a woman.
Picture One (Left): A view of the Norwegian city of Skien in the south of the country. Skien was Ibsen’s childhood home, and was the inspiration for the settings of most of his plays,including A Doll’s House (Library of Congress). Picture Two (Right): Laura Kieler, the real life inspiration for Nora in Ibsen’s play, as well as a close friend of the playwright, whose husband’s reaction to her crime mirrored the attitudes towards nobility and gender roles of the time.(Nordic Women’s Literature)
was a great equalizer that harmed or stuck down even the wealthiest Scandinavian men. This wasThough new wealth created a distinct divide between the men of Victorian Norway, there tuberculosis, which at the time of the play’s publishing, was the cause for twenty-five percent ofall deaths in the Kingdom of Sweden, which then contained Norway (Wallstedt 179). This disease is caused by harmful bacteria that attack the lungs, and can be spread through the air by a cough from an infected individual. Symptoms were often more aggressive forms of the effectsof the flu such as, “feelings of sickness or weakness, weight loss, fever, and night sweats. The symptoms of TB disease of the lungs also include coughing, chest pain, and the coughing up ofblood” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Coughing up blood has become the hallmark of Tuberculosis, and was a telltale sign of infection in the Norway ofThe disease was often a death sentence, but for a very select few with enough money, proper A Doll’s House. treatment, and a bit of luck, Tuberculosis could be treated back into a dormant state, still technically in the body, but no longer causing illness, and no longer able to infect those aroundthem.
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to a life of poverty. When speaking of Torvald’s illness, no one ever actually uses the word “tuberculosis.” Even still, the fact that he went down to the Mediterranean for a year would have alerted enough suspicion that he would most certainly be facing at least some social stigma, even as his disease became dormant.
Picture One: like many other Southern European cities, welcomed many Central and Northern European The Cinque Terre in Riomaggiore, Italy, a preserved Italian seaside town that once, travelers trying to recover from diseases like tuberculosis (Wandering Ligurua). Nora’s departure at the end of the play leaves Torvald blindsided because during the time period of the play, women had so few prospects, and the law made it almost impossible for a woman to live on her won without a husband, excepting widows. Women could not inherit from their fathers, own land or property, vote, or borrow money. And at the time, men did not believe that women would have wanted any of these rights. Men like Torvald believed that after a woman was married, her interests would “become privatized and outside interests…channeled into idealistic activities of either a religious or social welfare nature” (UNESCO 4). Norway had a culture that taught women that they would be fulfilled most spiritually by being a faithful wife and mother. The men who taught this worldview also prevented women from going to university, and holding jobs after marriage. Torvald fully believed that Nora was happy with her life as a homemaker, because he was told this about every woman. Nora is also unsure of her future when
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she leaves Torvald, but both are equally unprepared for how they will exist separately in a country and culture designed to only work when they are together. When Torvald Helmer is left at the end of A Doll’s House, he tells Nora that she doesn’t know anything about the world they were a part of. While Nora did need to go on an uncertain journey of self-discovery, ultimately because Torvald and Nora lived in such separate worlds, of course Nora would know nothing of his world, just as Torvald would know nothing of hers. The shaky ground on which the Helmer’s newfound status has been built upon created a man paranoid about image and focused on self-preservation. When the ability to vote and other now- considered basic rights on the line, his reaction to Nora’s deed made sense for the time. The shock of Nora’s departure leaves Torvald in a state of shock, though this state is just as fragile as the status obsessed state he was in only minutes beforehand. The Norway of 1879 was a very different place than the socialistic near-utopia many see it as today. It was a place of nationalistic resurgences against the combined government controlled by Sweden. It was incredibly conservative in its attitudes towards women, and incredibly insular regarding who was allowed to be an active participant in society. The country had just emerged from a financial crisis, but continued to deal in credit, while trying to maintain an uneven distribution of wealth. Like Torvald, Norway was still new to their higher status, Torvald as a business man, and Norway as a modern and industrialized nation, and both Torvald and Norway made rash decisions because of their paranoia that everything could go awry at any second. The character of Torvald Helmer and the Culture of 1879 Norway are intrinsically linked, as Norway shaped the man Torvald would become, and Torvald worked to uphold that shaping process. A Doll’s House is almost an anti-Torvald in a way, as it rejects the culture of the country that created it, and Ibsen instead worked to change the audience’s cyclical melding.
