is an old schoolfriend of 's who comes to
visit her inof . They have not seen each other for ten years, during which
time, Mrs. Linde has married and been widowed.
Mrs. Linde was once in love
withbut instead married Linde, even though she did not love him. He proposed at a time when her
mother was ill and bedridden and she alone had to provide for her two younger brothers. Linde
was rich (though his business was precarious and she was left with nothing when he died) and she
tells Nora that she could not in the circumstances justify refusing his offer.
According to her own account, Mrs. Linde married for money rather than love, but she
was actuated by a sense of duty to her family, and perhaps another kind of love for them, since
there would be no one to support and care for them if she married Krogstad. The idea that hers
is essentially a self-sacrificing nature is corroborated by her feelings of emptiness, rather
than the relief Nora suggests she must feel, now that she no longer has to look after her mother
and brothers.
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