Mrs. Linde

Mrs. Linde is portrayed in the first act as a woman who has gotten through a lot of hardships but has become an independent, mature and strong-willed woman. However, what is more important than Ibsen’s portrayal of her is Nora’s portrayal of her and how we are able to explore Nora using the character of Mrs. Linde. Her matureness and independence mean that she has become Nora’s idol and her interaction with Nora is essential for us to understand Nora’s dreams and ambitions.

Firstly, although Nora treats her with a good amount of respect, for example she catches herself when she begins to speak too much, she speaks to Mrs. Linde in a very childish and informal manner. She uses phrases like ‘Pooh!’ and she playfully built up the drama before she told Mrs. Linde that she borrowed money for Torvald’s life-saving trip to Italy. This is in clear contrast to Mrs. Linde’s more sober phrases like ‘I haven’t a father to pay my fare’. Thus Nora is portrayed as a lot more childish and immature than Mrs. Linde, a fact which can easily be deduced by their contrasting histories.

By itself this fact doesn’t highlight Nora’s aspiration to achieve Mrs. Linde’s degree of independence. But this can be shown by how Nora has heroized her one act of independence: borrowing the money from Krogstad. She also gets very reproachful when Mrs. Linde calls her a baby. This shows that Nora doesn’t want to be dependent on her husband. She says that Mrs. Linde looks down on her even though Mrs. Linde says she doesn’t. This shows that in Nora’s eyes that the impression she made on Mrs. Linde; that of a dependent immature woman who’s never experienced hardship, is something that Mrs. Linde has the right to look down upon. Therefore Nora already believes that a woman who has to rely on the constraints of male-dominated society is inferior to a woman independent of those constraints.

This would explain why Nora gets very dramatic and triumphant when she describes how she borrowed money to send Torvald on his life saving holiday. But there is no doubt that Nora must’ve felt that her sense of independence has been challenged by this visit. For example before she describes how she borrowed the money Nora suddenly starts getting very aggressive, saying phrases like ‘Don’t be so superior’ and, as mentioned before, when she accused Mrs. Linde of looking down on her. That means that the reason she describes her secret is in response to Mrs. Linde’s passive challenge to her independence. Although Mrs. Linde appears satisfied at this proof of Nora’s independence, it’s highly unlikely that Nora will.

In conclusion, the importance of Mrs. Linde in A Doll’s House is not as a character but as a way for Nora to reflect on her independence in a male-dominated household and to serve as a personal goal which Nora strives to reach.