Question

helmer: what sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?
nora undisturbed: i mean that i was simply transferred from papa’s hands into yours. you arranged everything according to your own taste, and so i got the same tastes as you—or else i pretended to, i am really not quite sure which—i think sometimes the one and sometimes the other. when i look back on it, it seems to me as if i had been living here like a poor woman—just from hand to mouth. i have existed merely to perform tricks for you, torvald. but you would have it so. you and papa have committed a great sin against me. it is your fault that i have made nothing of my life.
helmer: how unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, nora!
—a doll’s house, henrik ibsen
what evidence from the text best supports the theme that the oppressed live unsatisfying lives? check all that apply.
□ “i was simply transferred from papa’s hands into yours.”
□ “i had been living here like a poor woman.”
□ “i have existed merely to perform tricks for you.”
□ “it is your fault that i have made nothing of my life.”
□ “how unreasonable and how ungrateful you are.”

Explanation:

• "I was simply transferred from papa's hands into yours.": Shows Nora was passed between male figures with no autonomy, a core part of her oppression and unfulfillment.
• "I had been living here like a poor woman.": Reveals Nora felt trapped in an unfulfilling, dependent existence under oppression.
• "I have existed merely to perform tricks for you.": Illustrates Nora saw her life as empty, only performing for others, reflecting her unsatisfying oppressed life.
• "It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.": Explicitly links her unfulfilled, wasted life to the oppression from Helmer and her father.
• "How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are.": This is Helmer's criticism of Nora, not evidence of Nora's unsatisfying oppressed life.

Answer:

• "I was simply transferred from papa's hands into yours."
• "I had been living here like a poor woman."
• "I have existed merely to perform tricks for you."
• "It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life."