Question

Read the passage from A Doll’s House.

Helmer: Nora! [Goes up to her and takes her playfully by the ear.] The same little featherhead! Suppose, now, that I borrowed fifty pounds today, and you spent it all in the Christmas week, and then on New Year's Eve a slate fell on my head and killed me, and—

Nora: [putting her hands over his mouth]. Oh! don't say such horrid things.

Helmer: Still, suppose that happened, —what then?

Nora: If that were to happen, I don't suppose I should care whether I owed money or not.

Helmer: Yes, but what about the people who had lent it?

Nora: They? Who would bother about them? I should not know who they were.

Helmer: That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle.

Nora: [moving towards the stove]. As you please, Torvald.

Helmer: [following her]. Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper? [Taking out his purse.] Nora, what do you think I have got here?

Which lines support the inference that Torvald sometimes treats Nora like a child? Select three options.

A. “The same little featherhead!”
B. “Yes, but what about the people who had lent it?”
C. “That is like a woman!”
D. “We two have kept bravely on the straight road.”
E. “What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper?”

Answer 1

Choices A, C, and E are the best options.

Choices A and E both use childish nicknames and both describe Nora as being "Little", showing that he still thinks she is a child.

Choice E shows that in just that moment, he thought she acted as a real woman, implying that other time he does not see it as such or that she doesn't act that way often.

Answer 2

A. “The same little featherhead!”

C. “That is like a woman!”

E. “What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper?”

Step-by-step explanation:

These are the sentences that demonstrate that Torvald sometimes treats Nora like a child. In the options A and E, he uses childish names to minimize her opinions and her feelings. His statements imply that he believes these to be immature thoughts. Statement C, moreover, implies that he believes all women are the same, because the thinks that Nora is acting in this "silly" way because she is a woman.