Mrs. Linde as a complement for Nora in A Doll's HouseRandom House Webster's dictionary defines a complement as "a person or thing that by contrast makes another seem better." This essay will focus on using foil to counter another character. The characters of Nora and Mrs. Linde provide an excellent example of this literary device. Mrs. Linde's aged and experienced personality is the perfect foil to Nora's childlike nature. Mrs. Linde's hard life is used to contrast the frivolity and sheltered aspects of Nora's life. Nora's optimism and faith in unlikely things are opposed to Mrs. Linde's rationality and no-nonsense mentality. Finally, the rekindling of the flame between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad is in direct contrast to the burning of Nora and Torvald's "dollhouse." 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 first pages. Nora has returned from a day of shopping and in these excerpts we can see her childish ways as she interacts with her husband, Torvald: Nora: Oh yes, Torvald, we can waste a little now. Can't we? Just a little, a little. Now that you have a big salary and you will make a lot of money. (Ibsen Ibsen 27-29) In this passage we see a childish attitude not only in Nora's way of speaking with the statement "Just a little", but also in her attitude towards money and unrealistic expectations of earning "piles and piles of money." The following example also shows Nora's childish ways in her personal interactions with her husband. Her manner seems more like that of a favorite daughter, according to...... middle of paper ......77. Ibsen. New York: Macmillan.Davies, H. Neville. 1982. "Not Just a Bang and a Moan: The Inconclusiveness of Ibsen's A Doll's House." Critical 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, 1992Northam, John. 1965. "Ibsen's Hero's Quest." Ibsen. A collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Solomon, Barbara H., ed. Rediscovered: American Women's Stories, 1832-1916. New York: Penguin Group, 1994. Templeton, Joan. “Is A Doll's House a Feminist Text?” (1989). Rpt. To Meyer. 1635-36.Templeton, Joan. “The Dollhouse Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen.” PMLA (January 1989): 28-40.