Manipulation in a Doll's HouseThe mark of a mature person is the ability to make rational decisions for oneself. It’s complicated choices that make maturity so difficult. Sometimes even good intentions can lead to a bad decision. In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House, decision-making is clouded by the manipulation caused by certain characters. Blackmail, deception, and tyranny, each a form of manipulation, are all used to make seemingly positive decisions by the characters. These decisions lead to complicated situations for these characters where nothing is gained. Manipulation is a form of control over another person without their consent or knowledge. Looking at Torvald, Krogstad, and Nora, we can see that manipulating others leads to irrational decisions for them. Torvald is the typical husband of the play's era. He tries to control his wife and expects her to submit to him. He manipulates her in different ways. First, he calls her animal names such as "little lark" (3) and "squirrel" (4) and speaks to her in a condescending tone, as if she were a child. He then tries to control her habits so as not to let her eat sweets or spend too much money. In fact, all the money she gets comes from him. He demands that she be submissive and almost treats her like a dog later in the play. In the end, when Nora's secret is revealed, he turns on her and kicks her out of the house. When he wants her back after realizing that he won't get in trouble anymore for what she did, that she doesn't want to come back, he finally realizes that she doesn't love him anymore and that his manipulation of her is over. This leaves him in a pickle as he now has to take care of his children without Nora, which is not a good position for him to be in. Krogstad is different from Torvald because he is not as well off economically and socially and this leads him to try a more extreme form. handling. Krogstad desperately wants to keep his job at the bank and tries to get Nora to get her husband's job through blackmail. Since he was discovered falsifying documents, his reputation is fragile, also to regain his reputation with his sons: "For them, I must regain as much respect as possible in the city" (22), he must keep his job at the bank.