588 Ibsen, Henrik
in their eventual removal from the World State by
Mustafa Mond.
Mond is the only character in the novel who not
only is acutely aware of his individuality but who
also has the opportunity to act as an individual. A
highly intelligent and ambitious scientist, Mond is
given the choice of banishment or becoming one of
the Top World Controllers. Mond also is the one
single character who has freedom of choice in the
Brave New World: As the person who is in charge,
he can decide which rules to obey and which ones to
bend. However, his case shows the dark side of this
freedom. Following his scientific curiosity, Mond
misjudges John’s mental fragility. He denies John the
chance to join Watson and Marx on an island and
thus becomes ultimately responsible for the young
man’s death.
All of these characters serve as constant remind-
ers that the perfect stability the World State thinks
to have achieved is only an illusion. Huxley’s satiric
novel illustrates that even in the most rigidly con-
trolled environment it is impossible to suppress the
need to be, act, and express oneself as an individual.
It is this outlook on a world dominated by technol-
ogy and dehumanized by it, that makes Huxley’s
work relevant to this day.
Elke Brown
ibSEn, HEnrik A Doll’s House (1879)
Nora Helmer is the central character in Henrik
Ibsen’s play, A Doll ’s House. She is considered child-
ish and dim-witted and is treated as if she were a
doll—an object of beauty lacking substance—by
both her husband and her father. As the play opens,
Nora’s husband, Torvald, has been promoted to bank
manager. Nora is elated, for this means a higher
income and less frugality. As the play unfolds,
we learn that Nora previously entered into a loan
agreement in secret with Nils Krogstad, a morally
reprehensible man (according to Torvald) who now
works under him at the bank. Nora believes that in
taking out this loan and paying it back without her
husband’s knowledge or assistance, she can prove
that she is able to provide financially for her family
and should no longer be considered little more than
a human doll. Krogstad, however, fears he will lose
his position once Torvald begins his official duties
as manager, so he blackmails Nora with the loan
documents, threatening to reveal all to her husband,
including the fact that she forged her father’s signa-
ture as co-signer of the loan, unless Nora uses her
womanly influence on her husband to ensure that he
keeps his job at the bank. Nora fails in her attempts,
and after her husband discovers her criminal act
and subsequently debases her position as wife and
mother, she sees that she has been wronged by his
treatment of her throughout their marriage and that
she has led an insignificant existence. Nora leaves
Torvald to seek a true identity in a life of her own.
Elizabeth K. HallerethicS in A Doll ’s House
The ethics of Henrik Ibsen’s central male character
perpetuate the chain of events pivotal to the plot
of A Doll ’s House. Torvald Helmer passes judgment
freely, and he expects his strict moral principles to
be upheld by his wife, his friends, and his employees.
Torvald’s primary concern is with appearances and
remaining above suspicion; therefore, it becomes
clear to all who know him that deviating from Tor-
vald’s rules of conduct would certainly lead him to
discontinue any semblance of an acquaintance. This
is illustrated most clearly in his relationship with
Nora but also in his relationship with Krogstad.
Torvald worries that others will declare him
unethical if he continues to retain Krogstad as an
employee at the bank once he has taken his post
as manager. That they knew each other as children
causes Krogstad to take a familiar tone with Tor-
vald, who fears that this familiarity in his new and
high-ranking position at the bank will be a cause for
ridicule by others in his employ. Anything or any-
one that deviates from Torvald’s maintaining of the
most respectable of appearances is quickly expelled.
Additionally, rather than consider the circumstances
behind Krogstad’s illegal actions, Torvald looks upon
Krogstad’s forgery as an act of treachery signifying
a lack of moral character. He passes judgment on
Krogstad’s home, stating that he is poisoning his
children by his mere presence, instilling in his home
an atmosphere of lies and evildoing. A firm believer
that a parent’s indiscretions are passed down to the
children, Torvald criticizes Krogstad for failing to