Read the passage from A Doll’s House. Krogstad: I had left the date blank; that is to say, your father should himself have inser
ted the date on which he signed the paper. Do you remember that? Nora: Yes, I think I remember— Krogstad: Then I gave you the bond to send by post to your father. Is that not so? Nora: Yes. Krogstad: And you naturally did so at once, because five or six days afterwards you brought me the bond with your father's signature. And then I gave you the money. Nora: Well, haven't I been paying it off regularly? Krogstad: Fairly so, yes. But—to come back to the matter in hand—that must have been a very trying time for you, Mrs. Helmer? Nora: It was, indeed. Krogstad: Your father was very ill, wasn't he? Nora: He was very near his end. Krogstad: And died soon afterwards? Nora: Yes. Krogstad: Tell me, Mrs. Helmer, can you by any chance remember what day your father died? —on what day of the month, I mean. Nora: Papa died on the 29th of September. Krogstad: That is correct; I have ascertained it for myself. And, as that is so, there is a discrepancy [taking a paper from his pocket] which I cannot account for. Nora: What discrepancy? I don't know— Krogstad: The discrepancy consists, Mrs. Helmer, in the fact that your father signed this bond three days after his death. How does the conflict in this passage develop the social issue of gender inequality?
The author highlights a woman’s duty of always financially helping her husband. The author highlights a woman’s use of blackmail to obtain her husband’s money. The author highlights a woman’s inability to borrow money without a man’s signature.
The author highlights the fact that crime is more widespread among women than men.
The answer is: The author highlights a woman’s inability to borrow money without a man’s signature.
To be able to borrow some money from the bank, the character Nora needed a man to sign the papers for her. Since she couldn't let her husband know about it, she seems to have forged her father's signature to receive the loan.
Context:
The conversation in this excerpt reveals a plot complication in the story. Nora borrowed money from the bank without her husband's knowledge of the fact. She had needed the money to take her husband to Italy when he was sick. Nora lied to him, telling him she had gotten the money from her father.
Krogstad works at the bank with Nora's husband and is about to be fired. He blackmails Nora, as we can read in the excerpt, so that she will help him keep his job.
A central idea is a main point that the author is making aka a main idea or a key idea. In other words, a central idea is what the article is mostly about. You can think of a central idea as a thesis statement: one sentence that states what the article is about. A text could have more than one central idea.
