A Doll's House

            
             Explain how a playwright employs minor characters to establish the dominant values of a society in which the central character is marginalised.
             In "A Doll's House" Ibsen's bourgeois character Nora is suppressed by the nineteenth century patriarchy by which her husband Torvald and money lender Krogstad exercise against her to their advantages. Torvald states explicitly that he is primarily attracted to Nora for her beauty and is obsessed with appearing with dignity even at the expense of his wife. Her confidant Dr. Rank is too shown to marginalise Nora in more subtle ways. Likewise Mrs Linde suggests that there is an option to outright conformity. Her resistance of these gender values and social configuration make the contrast between her and Nora's subsidiary role more apparent and finally enabled Nora to discover the fallacies of her relationships both with Torvald and Dr. Rank. Nora becomes aware, through the events and relationships which shape her that she must change her life to find true freedom.
             At the beginning of A Doll's House, Nora seems completely happy. She responds affectionately to Torvald's teasing. She does not seem to mind her doll-like existence, in which she is coddled, pampered, and patronized. As the play progresses, Nora reveals that she is not just a "silly girl," as Torvald calls her. Her understanding of the business details related to the loan she took out to save Torvald's health indicates that she is intelligent and possesses capacities beyond mere wifehood. She was willing to break the law in order to ensure Torvald's health shows her devotion to her husband. Her most important obligation is to please Torvald. He too considers himself superior to her. Torvald and Nora have a relationship where there is no equality. Hence, she plays the submissive role in a society. At the end of scene three Nora expresses the truth she"d learned about her marriage, Torvald's character and her life in general.