A Doll’s House
by
Henrik Ibsen
(Character
of Krogstad)
Krogstad is the antagonist in the play,
A Doll’s House, but he is not a villain. Though his willingness to allow Nora’s
torment to continue is cruel, Krogstad is not without sympathy for her. As he says,
“Even money-lenders, hacks, well, a man like me, can have a little of what you
call feeling, you know.” He visits Nora to check on her, and he discourages her
from committing suicide. Moreover, Krogstad has reasonable motives for behaving
as he does: he wants to keep his job at the bank in order to spare his children
from the hardships that come with a spoiled reputation. Unlike Torvald, who
seems to desire respect for selfish reasons, Krogstad desires it for his
family’s sake.
Like Nora, Krogstad is a man who has
been wronged by society, and both Nora and Krogstad have committed the same
crime: forgery of signatures. Although he broke the law, Krogstad's crime was
relatively minor, but society grieved him with the stigma of being a criminal
and kept him from moving on from his past. Additionally, Krogstad claims that
his unethical behavior began when Mrs Linde left him for the man with the money
to provide for her family, makes it possible for us to consider Krogstad as a
victim of circumstances. One could argue that society drove Mrs. Linde away
from Krogstad and thus motivated his crime. Though society’s unfair treatment
of Krogstad does not justify his actions, it does align him more closely with
Nora and therefore tempers our perception of him as a vile character.
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