Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Rebecca Lyons

Power, money and materialism

Ibsen
Coleridge

- Ibsen presents money as symbolic of power in his
- C - Sir Leoline is ironically symbolic of the traits

portrayal of both Krogstad and Torvald’s control
which his character lacks; namely, the courage and

over Nora, Torvald through his limitations on her
conviction of a Lion
...


him
...
– ‘The huge, broad breasted, old
earn sufficient wages
...
’
- Power is presented as attractive by Ibsen; Nora

C – Wealth and materialism represent stature;
seems to enjoy Torvald’s masculine dominancy –

Geraldine’s introductory description as ‘richly clad’
‘Torvald has so much power over so many
with ‘gems entangled in her hair’ creates an

people’
impressionistic effect of opulence, which

- For Nora, deception is power; this notion is
encourages Christabel’s consideration of her as

introduced in the first theme when she spends
being an honourable individual
...

- C – Geraldine claims that she was born from a

- Despite Torvald’s efforts to control ‘my little
‘noble line’ without identifying her family or
spendthrift’, Nora is able to assert her power

parents; there is a societal obsession with
through slight acts of deception, such as her

materialism, revealed by the embedded institution
nibbling of macaroons
...

she uses to exert influence over Dr Rank and

- C – The castle stands an undisputed symbol of
further deceive Torvald
...
Geraldine

fears a loss of power ‘when I am no longer
seems to possess many of the female stereotypes,


attractive
...

and take control
...
Nora herself plans to

snake’
...
’

cunning of a snake
...
Torvald perceived a successful
dome ‘by decree’, a consistency with his dominion

partnership as one built on the provision of
of the sacred river Alph
...
’
- KK – Coleridge took a dose of laudanum, a

- The entirety of Torvald’s moral code is based on
preparation of opium used as a medicine in the

money and the material, as evident by his harsh
19th century, to dull a pain
...

‘criminal’
...


man
...
There is a material

adornment
...




sense to this inspiration, an obsession over the
material overriding the beauty of the natural
...
Her bragging that Torvald’s new
job provides ‘heaps of money’ echoes to her
description as a ‘spendthrift’ in her youth,
suggesting that both her relationship with
Torvald and her father are built on
materialism
...
Ultimately, he realises that
materialism is futile and ‘There is no pleasure
in working only for yourself’
...

AH – The Harp can only be played through the use
of the wind, a reminder of the Romantics’
dependency on the power of nature
...
Despite the guests being ‘next of Kin’, he
soon become entranced by the Mariner’s moral
tale; this reveals the superficiality of material
pleasure, and the far deeper truths to be found in
moral thought and discussion

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