Mrs. Linde as Nora's foil in A Doll's HouseRandom House Webster's Dictionary defines a foil as "a person or thing that makes another appear better by contrast." This essay will focus on the use of foil to contrast another character. The characters of Nora and Mrs. Linde provide an excellent example of this literary device. Ms. Linde's older, experienced personality is the perfect reflection of Nora's childlike nature. Mrs. Linde's difficult life is used to contrast with the frivolity and sheltered aspects of Nora's life. Nora's optimism and belief in improbable things are the opposite of Mrs. Linde's rationality and down-to-earth mentality. Finally, the renewed flame between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad contrasts directly with the burning of Nora and Torvald's "doll's house". While one can see Mrs. Linde as mature and world-weary, one can easily read the character Nora as immature and childish; one of the first examples of this immaturity and childishness is found in the opening pages. Nora returns from a day of shopping and in these excerpts we can see her childish ways while interacting with her husband, Torvald: Nora: Oh yes, Torvald, we can waste a little now. Can't we? Just a little bit. Now you have a big salary and you're going to make lots and lots of money. (Ibsen Ibsen 27-29) With this excerpt we see a childish attitude not only in Nora's manner of speaking with the statement "Just a little bit", but also in her attitude towards money and unrealistic expectations of earn money. “Loads and piles of money.” The following example also shows Nora's childish attitude in her personal interactions with her husband. Her mannerisms are more like those of a favorite daughter, according to...... middle of paper ......77. Ibsen. New York: Macmillan. Davies, H. Neville. 1982. "Not Just a Sound and a Whine: The Inconclusiveness of Ibsen's A Doll's House." » Critique Quarterly 24:33-34. Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Heiberg, Hans. Ibsen. A portrait of the artist. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami. 1967.Ibsen, Henrik. A doll's house. Dover Thrift Edition, 1992 Northam, John. 1965. “Ibsen’s Search for the Hero.” Ibsen. A collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Solomon, Barbara H., ed. Rediscoveries: American women's stories, 1832-1916. New York: Penguin Group, 1994. Templeton, Joan. “Is A Doll’s House a feminist text? » (1989). Rep. At Meyer's. 1635-36. Templeton, Jeanne. "The Doll's House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism and Ibsen." PMLA (January 1989): 28-40.