Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

  • Submitted By: britam
  • Date Submitted: 11/13/2013 9:03 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1040
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 122

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
The story “A Doll House” (Isben 1189) shows that a person should never judge a book by the cover. At the beginning of the story it would appear that Torvald and Nora Helmer have the picture perfect marriage. Torvald seems to be a doting, loving husband who has a high moral standard to go with his prominent social standing. On the flip side there is Nils Krogstad, once a childhood friend of Torvalds now his co-worker at the bank. He appears as a shady man with criminal tendencies and the ability to skirt around the law in order to obtain a profit. As the story unfolds reveals the true nature of the two characters. The reader must pay attention to the entire story to really see the heart of these two men.
Torvald originally worked as a lawyer until he realizes that the work is unsteady and his high morals won’t allow for him to dirty his hands with cases that are unclean. He accepts a position as manager the bank, which the Helmers are quite excited about. At first glance, Torvald Helmer is the ideal loving, doting, hard working husband. He provides well for his family, has an upstanding reputation and is highly regarded by society. Torvald rarely calls his wife by her first name, instead he has a variety of pet names for Nora such as “little twittering lark” and “squirrel” (Isben 1191). On the surface these pet names appear as affectionate, a way of expressing his love and as well as a desire for her to always be happy. After seeing more of

his character it becomes clear that he is more in love with the idea of what she represents to him instead of her as a person. He sees her as a doll on his trophy shelf, to bring down and control her much like a puppeteer pulls the strings for the puppet as he see fit. Torvald performs a shady transaction for Nora’s father in order to gain leverage for her hand in marriage. This gives him the idea that Nora is indebted to him for rescuing her, never feeling that being shady...

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