A Dolls House: The directors portrayal of Torvald

After seeing the movie A Dolls house it did not change my opinion of either character, it portrayed Helmer as the man who takes control of the relationship and is feared by his wife. First you can see this where Nora brings the macaroons and eats one them. He then asks Nora later”hasn’t she paid a visit to the confectioners?” she then answers with a lie “no I assure you, torvald-“he is the man and the head of the house. He is dressed in black in the movie as men during the Victorian era dressed with a beard and seems very arrogant in his whole interaction with his wife.

He also controls the money with an iron fist. In one scene he is handing Nora the money very excitedly as though he is giving her a prize. It seemed strange for him because he was complaining about how to spend money saying “one would hardly believe how expensive little persons are!” I feel like he contradicts himself here. He wants to Christmas “extravagant” for the children but he doesn’t want his wife to spend the money on”foolish” things for Christmas. He asks her “has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?” implying they don’t have enough money to be spending so. The house is portrayed in the movie as one of richness.

The people who own the house obviously have money and shouldn’t be complaining about being in debt with all these lavish things. As Nora is the one who bought these pieces of furniture maybe the reason why they are in serious debt. In the video also, torvald is being fawned over showing she is groveling at his feet just to get his money because she can’t use her words to get what she wants. Also, in the olden days, owning a piano was a sign of being wealthy and they just happen to own one which also contributes to their not complaining of their money issues.

Also helmer is working in his office when Nora came home just as the man of the house should usually portrayed. He felt they as a couple shouldn’t be spending money but in yet Nora says “this is the first Christmas that we have not need to economies” showing in the past, they lacked the funds to have a sufficient holiday. It also becomes apparent when torvald says “then I merely have to pay up again” showing he mind doing this, but only to an extent. When paying his wife the money he hates it, in yet he does it which contradicts his character. He also says “it is a good that our hard times are over” according to torvald, his hard times are in the past and they are fine to money. He still says they shouldn’t spend their money foolishly and he said that they don’t have to worry which is contradicting.

The director portrays torvald as being very in love with his wife regardless of whether she is intimidated by him or not. He is seemingly willing to do anything for her in the movie. Everything she asks of him he does. Not once did I happen to see them arguing or fighting as they should be because of the Nora acts toward torvald. Also you can see that they are very happy together, but they do have underlying problems within their relationship. Torvalds’ mannerisms are also very touch-feely when he is with Nora so clearly they are in love. He often calls her “little”, “squirrel”, “skylark” which are all pet names only couples who are passionate toward each other speak of.

The tone of Torvald when he and Nora are speaking of the Christmas when he says “its delightful to think of, isn’t it?” sounds to me like he was being sarcastic to his wife even though he is trying to make his wife think he cared about the holiday to try and make her happy. The house is also very decorated and festive but there is still an underlying feeling of lies from Nora to torvald about money and tension of whether to spend it or not.

This film clip portrays torvald as a controlling man that is the head of his house and is very in love with his wife. The book was not portrayed all that differently in mind at all. What I envisioned of the setting, the characters, their costumes and the actual acting all worked very well and benefited the text.