Question

The play A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, is set in the Victorian era. The two main characters are Torvald Helmer, a bank manager, and his pretty, devoted wife, Nora. Torvald has many pet names for his wife, such as, “featherhead,” “spendthrift,” “little squirrel,” “doll-child,” and “frightened singing-bird.”

Question: Through the character of Torvald Helmer, what is the writer suggesting Victorian men thought of their wives?
Answer Choices
A.They considered them spoiled and unhelpful.
B.They considered them elegant and refined.
C.They considered them shallow and weak.
D.They considered them capable and important.

Answer 1

Through the character of Torvald Helmer, the writer is suggesting that Victorian men's thoughts of their wives show that They considered them shallow and weak.

Step-by-step explanation:

The use of all the pet names that take away any kind of importance or possibility to accept that these women are able to do more than their husbands is shown by the attitude of Torvald Helmer who is in fact a selfish man who sees his wife as an inferior person who has not enough intelligence, or at least as someone who is not as intelligent as him, reason why he has to tell her what to do and how to act.

Answer 2

Answer: C.They considered them shallow and weak.

Explanation: In the given excerpt from the play "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen, we can see how the main character, named Torvald Helmer, had many pet names for his wife Nora, he called her things like "featherhead" and "frightened singing-bird." With this characteristic of Torvald Helmer, we can see that the author is suggesting that Victorian men considered their wives as shallow and weak.