Act 1, Torvald to Nora
'Is that my little skylark twittering out there?' and 'Is it my little squirrel bustling about?' — the defining linguistic pattern of their unequal marriage.
Read in Books4Free →Torvald's Infantilizing Pet Names
From A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Torvald habitually addresses Nora with diminutive animal names, reducing her to a charming pet and reinforcing the play's central metaphor of Nora as a doll in a doll's house.
Act 1, on money and spending
Torvald calls Nora a 'little spendthrift' and lectures her on borrowing, establishing his patronizing financial authority.
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