A Doll's House and Foils

Today in class we wrote a timed writing about foils in A Doll's House and i wrote about the relationship between Kristine Linde and Nora Helmer and how Ibsen uses this relationship to emphasize many of Nora's character traits.  There were also many other foils in this play including Krogstad and doctor Rank and Torvald and Nora's father even though you are never introduced to him in the book, as he died when Nora was young.  These foils serve to illuminate the major characters they are paired with and help to show their significance to Ibsen's purpose in writing this play.

Krogstad and doctor Rank at first seem like polar opposites however with a closer look you see that they serve as foils for each other accentuating their important traits and showing their importance in the play. Dr. Rank just oozes decay and even though he starts out in the beginning of the play as being rather lively and active in his relationship with the Helmers and Torvald in particular as he visits them every day he eventually fades into no relationship choosing instead to coop himself up in his house to die alone in peace slowly decaying until he is no more.  Krogstad on the other hand starts off as a gloomy, deceptive character who is generally disliked by the people in the play even though he shows that he has had a relationship of some kind in the past with Kristine.  He was the one who gave Nora the loan and was therefore the root of all of the Helmer family's problems.  As the play progresses your opinion of him gradually shifts until you sympathize with him and in the end you are happy for him as he ends up in a happy relationship with Kristine and lets Nora off with out having to pay the debt.

Dr. Rank also functions as a foil briefly to show how insensitive and selfish the Helmers are.  At the end of the play Rank leaves a note for Nora saying that he is going to die in his house and that he does not want to be disturbed anymore.  He says that this is for Torvalds own good because he thinks that Torvald cant handle seeing him in his decayed form.  Torvold however takes this almost unnaturally well seeing as his best friend has just told him that he is going to go die in his house without saying good bye and that he never wants to see him again.  He says that it is perfectly dreadful however he is glad to be rid of him and then just goes back talking to Nora and trying to persuade her not to leave him.

Ibsen did an excellent job using foils in this play as almost every major character has a minor character that helps to showcase their traits whether they be good or bad.  This use of foils also helps to show each character's significance to the overall purpose and theme of Ibsen's play.