New Britain herald., 1916-05-16
Since Nora Slammed the Dcor.
(New York Tribune.l

(New York Tribune,l
 An elderly poet of some ifty-one years sat down at Christiania in the year 1879 to write his first play. At the end of Act III his heroine, Nora by name, marched out of her dolls house with banners waving and slam med the door. Behind tho door she left husbandt wh oso sole fault, calm ly considered. was in being what he was supposed to be, a husband. That is to say. he called his wife his little twittering lark" his "littlc squirrel his little feather-head," welcomed what he regarded as her inability to ' think, and in so many words urged her to "lean on me-" T should not be a man." he explained, "ff this womanly helplessness did not just give you double attractiveness in my eyes," So she slammed the door and took to the open air.
 Such an utter husband may have among the advanced styles of Norway. But plenty of husbands Tn and out of Christiania arose to shout this dis approval. The Torvalds of real life emptied derision and worse on the old yet ever young head of Henrik Ibsen. And it was only an oxcep- tional woman in the world about that saw anything more in Nora than a selfish little cat with no more sense than to throw up a perfectly good job as a wife for the absurd pleas ure of proclaiming her creed: T be- lieve that before all else I am req sonable human being, just as you are or, at all events, that I must try and become one."
 That was thirty years ago. The Torvalds have not passed away, by any means. They still exist in profusion-perhaps little less puffed out in the chest, a good deal more ad- dicted to persuasion. But essen- italy the same. An especially choice specimen comes to mind from re- cent fiction, Edward, husband to q heroine of MT. Georges creation, in ''The Second Blooming" He called her his "Gracy-Bracy," with other baby talk to fit. and, as we recall, was wont to pinch her ear amorously. So she took the only course open to her as the heroine of modern English novel and ran quite a life of it until her second blooms faded and it be- came time to return to Edward
 There are undoubtedly many Amer ican Edwards left. Yet as a type we seem to recognize a greater prevail ency for a significant hero named Henry w. Henry who appears all too infrequently in dialogue form upon the pages of "The New Republic" He has a wife Edna, who is plainly a descendant of Nora; and two chill dren. Henry has discarded the play fitness that was wont to cheer the heart of Torvald. He is rather lugu- brious-a rooster with his wings clip ped, to revert to primitive metaphor. But he struts along over the same old | route, Haunting his traditional omnis- cience as last hope in a woman-rid- den world. Edna kisses him on the fore head punctures his fine theory with an obviols, particular instance, and goes singing on her cheerful, in- dependent way. She is more of mother to her absurd Henry than any thing else-a modern mother, that is kind and firm but not disposed to spoil.
 Which strikes us as an excellent spot upon which to leave the 1nde- pendent who slammed the door of her dolls house in 1879. She has apparently returned home, bring ing some wisdom with her. And she is still 8 woman-uuite as unmistak- ably a woman as ever. Actually the open air has done her good