Torvald
In Henrik Ibsen's novel A Doll's House, Torvald Helmer, husband of the main character Nora Helmer, is portrayed as one who has been "more sinned against than sinning." The source of this sinning against him is due to his wife Nora. Torvald is a person who gives great importance to his role in society and to how he is seen by others as a result of his acts, as well as those of his wife and children. He believes that in order to fulfill society's expectations of a man and be considered the head of his household, he needs to be completely in control, he believes this to the point of considering his dominance as the source of his manhood. Torvald despises the mere tought of financial and moral dependence on anyone, including the financial dependence of any family member, like his father in law.Torvald Helmer lets society dictate the way he and his wife have to behave in order to be considered part of it. He sees himself as the financial provider for the family, and as the head of the house; he thinks he is the only one capable of making decisions that affect the entire family. While the role of Nora, his wife, is to be a proper wife an
He now saw his wife as a thoughtless and careless woman, and believed she was responsible for possibly destroying society's image of him, the one that he had worked all his life for. We perceived this because his wife lied to him, she borrowed money behind his back, and was earning money which seemed insulting to a man because it meant that he could not support his family; all this actions plus the feeling of guilt that Nora expresses throughout the whole play makes the reader believe that she has done something wrong, and that her actions were driven by carelessness and selfishness. She realized that she did not even knew who she was as a person and in order to find herself, she went away, leaving all behind. Although Torvald appears to be more sinned against, it is really Nora who is the victim. d mother, who takes good care of the children, and who is responsible for their upbringings, and of keeping the house in order, able to fit society's standards. Since the beginning of the novel Nora carries a sense of guilt for borrowing the money from Krogstad without her husband's consent. Nora's feeling of guilt is the reason why Torvald is the sinner, and not the one who is sinned against, as it is portrayed throughout the play. When he was sick they needed money to go to Italy in order for him to recover, but at the moment they did not posses enough money to pay for the trip; so Nora asked Nils Krogstad to lend her the money by forging her father's signature, she then told Torvald that she had borrowed that money from her father. At the end we finally understand that she was being oppressed and controlled. Torvald reacted this way because he felt that he was sinned against by his wife and believed that his future and happiness were destroyed since he was now under the control of Krogstad. When Torvald finds out about this incident he gets furious; Nora realized that her feelings for him were not reciprocated, she also realized that she was never treated as a person, she was only Torvald's puppet and acted as he wanted her to act. Torvald Helmer's feeling of being sinned against are the result of his wife acting in a way different from those standards dictated to her. In reality, the only thing that Nora did was save his life. By the end of the play the readers realize that Nora was the one who was actually being sinned against, not only by her husband but also by society; both of them wanted to control her feelings, actions, and thoughts, they wanted to be the pupeteer.
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