Equality and the Future — Test Answers

Which statement best explains why the evidence provided in the text is a fallacy?

Read the passage from A Doll’s House . Nora: But it was absolutely necessary that he should not know! My goodness, can't you understand that? It was necessary he should have no idea what a dangerous condition he was in. It was to me that the doctors came and said that his life was in danger, and that the only thing to save him was to live in the south. Do you suppose I didn't try, first of all, to get what I wanted as if it were for myself? I told him how much I should love to travel abroad like other young wives; I tried tears and entreaties with him; I told him that he ought to remember the condition I was in, and that he ought to be kind and indulgent to me; I even hinted that he might raise a loan. That nearly made him angry, Christine. He said I was thoughtless, and that it was his duty as my husband not to indulge me in my whims and caprices—as I believe he called them. Very well, I thought, you must be saved—and that was how I came to devise a way out of the difficulty— Mrs. Linde: And did your husband never get to know from your father that the money had not come from him? Nora: No, never. Papa died just at that time. I had meant to let him into the secret and beg him never to reveal it. But he was so ill then—alas, there never was any need to tell him. Mrs. Linde: And since then have you never told your secret to your husband? Nora: Good Heavens, no! How could you think so? A man who has such strong opinions about these things! And besides, how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything! It would upset our mutual relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is now. Which evidence supports the inference that Nora is afraid of losing her relationship with her husband?

Read the excerpt from act 1 of A Doll’s House. Mrs. Linde: Yes, but your father gave you the necessary funds. Nora: [smiling] Yes, that is what Torvald and all the others think, but— Mrs. Linde: But— Nora: Papa didn't give us a shilling. It was I who procured the money. Mrs. Linde: You? All that large sum? Nora: Two hundred and fifty pounds. What do you think of that? Mrs. Linde: But, Nora, how could you possibly do it? Did you win a prize in the Lottery? Nora: [contemptuously] In the Lottery? There would have been no credit in that. Mrs. Linde: But where did you get it from, then? Nora: [humming and smiling with an air of mystery]. Hm, hm! Aha! Mrs. Linde: Because you couldn't have borrowed it. Nora: Couldn't I? Why not? Mrs. Linde: No, a wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent. Nora: [tossing her head] Oh, if it is a wife who has any head for business—a wife who has the wit to be a little bit clever— How does this excerpt best develop the theme that society places limits on the roles of women?

Read the passage from A Doll’s House . Helmer: Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil. Nora: [coming nearer him] Are you sure of that? Helmer: My dear, I have often seen it in the course of my life as a lawyer. Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother. Nora: Why do you only say—mother? Helmer: It seems most commonly to be the mother's influence, though naturally a bad father's would have the same result. Every lawyer is familiar with the fact. This Krogstad, now, has been persistently poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation; that is why I say he has lost all moral character. [Holds out his hands to her.] That is why my sweet little Nora must promise me not to plead his cause. Give me your hand on it. Come, come, what is this? Give me your hand. There now, that's settled. I assure you it would be quite impossible for me to work with him; I literally feel physically ill when I am in the company of such people. How does the author use the character of Helmer to develop the idea of gender inequality?