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Quote 23- For a man, there is something indescribably moving and very satisfying in knowing that he has forgiven his wife—forgiven her, completely and genuinely, from the depths of his heart. It’s as though it made her his property in a double sense: he has, as it were, given her a new life, and she becomes in a way both his wife and at the same time his child. Meaning. Nora has tried to leave the room, but Torvald stops her, continuing to speak joyously about how wonderful it is that he has forgiven her. The speech takes a perverse turn when he explains that Nora is now "his property in a double sense," because by forgiving her he has given her a new life. Torvald's use of this metaphor takes patriarchal logic to the extreme, suggesting that Torvald sees himself in a god-like role. Even more disturbingly, Torvald then remarks that this double-ownership means that Nora is simultaneously his wife and also his child. Even if we put aside the paedophilic overtones of this statement, it is clear that Torvald never wished his relationship with Nora to be equal and mutually respectful. Indeed, his joy seems to stem from the fact that due to his discovery of her secret debt - he believes he will henceforth always enjoy an unquestioned moral superiority and authority over his wife. While Torvald expresses a desire to control Nora throughout the play, it is only at this moment that he fully voices his alarmingly infantilizing feelings about her.