In Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's
House, Torvald's in-admirable behavior is brought up several
times.
Though no one speaks of it, Ibsen points out
Torvald's impatience when Rank stops by after the masquerade party. Nora knows that Rank
has been looking into an illness his father had (a wayward, wild-livng man) that seems
to have been passed on to the innocent Rank. When Rank comes by, Torvald is less than a
gracious friend:
RANK:
(outside)
It's me. May I come in a
moment?
HELMER:
(with quiet irritation)
Oh, what does
he want now? (Aloud.) Hold on...Oh, how nice that you didn't just
pass us by?
One might wonder
if there isn't the slightest bit of sarcasm in Torvald's comment. Then when Nora asks
about the doctor's scientific research, Torvald pompously belittles her capacity to
understand anything serious, treating her like an idiot, when (ironically) she knows so
much more about Rank's illness that Rank's best friend,
Torvald.
HELMER:
Come
now—little Nora talking about scientific
research!
Another incident is
when Nora and Torvald are "notified" by Rank's card in the mailbox with an black "cross"
on it, that he has left them for good, to lock himself in his rooms to die. Torvald
hardly seems to care.
HELMER:
You've
heard something? Something he told
you?
NORA:
Yes.
That when those cards came, he'd be taking his leave of us. He'll shut himself in now
and
die.
HELMER:
Ah,
my poor friend! Of course I knew he wouldn't ve here much longer. But so soon—And then
to hide himself away like a wounded animal...I simply can't imagine him gone...He with
his suffering and loneliness–like a dark cloud setting off our sunlit happiness. [It's
all about Torvald: what a gross
comparison.]
NORA:
Now
you must read your mail,
Torvald.
HELMER:
...I
want to stay with you
dearest.
NORA:
With
a dying friend on your
mind?
TORVALD:
You're
right...there's ugliness between
us.
Nora has to redirect
Torvald's attention. Returning from the party and Nora's dance of the tarantella,
Torvald has become passionate, eager to be with his wife. Even after learning of his
friend's imminent death, Nora has to remind him that other things are more important in
face of this new development. (I find it strange that he does not offer to go to Rank,
even though Rank told Nora he did not want it.)
Finally,
Torvald's reason for disliking Krogstad is not (as one would expect from a "pillar of
moral virtue" like Helmer) Krogstad's fall from grace—morally and socially—but the fact
that he calls Torvald by his first name:
HELMER:
There's
something that rules Krogstad right out at the bank as long as I'm the
manager.
NORA:
What's
that?
HELMER:
His
moral failings I could maybe overlook if I had
to—
NORA:
Yes
Torvald, why
not?
HELMER:
...he
was a crony of mine back in my teens—one of those rash friendships that crop up again
and again to embarrass you later in life...we're on a first name basis...[he] makes no
effort at all to hide it in front of the
others.
Torvald's concern is
how Krogstad's sense of familiarity will look to his friends and associates at the
job.
Torvald displays
behaviors throughout the play that show how shallow a person he is: he gives no thought
to the plight of others, he is not at all tolerant or compassionate of other's failings,
he is a poor friend, he treats his wife like a brainless...doll, and he cares more about
what others think than anything else. By the time the play comes to an end, it is hard
to have any sympathy for the man.
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