Introduction
The play, Dollhouse, is a drama outplay that features the young family of Torvald Helmer and his wife, Nora. Nora comes around as a very cheerful lady, and caring, considering that she went to great lengths to secretly borrow money to finance her husband’s treatment. She is a homemaker, kind and mainly responsive to the needs and the feelings of other people, including Mrs. Linde, who lost her husband and sick mother. To her husband, Nora was a kind of a movie actress, performing a role that was defined by the society of being a wife, faithful, submissive and loyal. Across the play, her life comes in as a fitting to Helmer’s wardrobe, because she only does things that contribute to his happiness. When she tried to convince her husband not to sack Krogstad, he was adamant that Krogstad had poor morals, and he was not fit for the job. When he learnt that Nora had borrowed money without his knowledge, he becomes very mad and turns vitriolic. He tries to right his wrongs on the discovery of the second letter from Krogstad, but the damage done on Nora is already too much. Nora decides to leave their house, and the easy guess is that she ends up with Dr. Rank, who had told her that he was in love with her (Ibsen 43)
Nora character analysis
The play opens with Nora coming from the market where she has done shopping for the family and a Christmas tree that should not be seen by the kids until that evening. She has bought a doll for the youngest child and suit for Ivar, their firstborn. At first, Torvald is adamant that she has not bought anything for herself, and asks her the sensible thing she would want to have, but she insists that she wants nothing. That brings her out as a very selfless person who is interested in the happiness and comfort of his family and children. When Torvald insists, she tells him that he could give her money for her to spend on something; ‘You might give me money, Torvald. Only just what you think you can spare; then I can buy something with it later on’ (Ibsen 02). From the previous speech, it was clear that they will have to grapple with very little resources in the following four months before Torvald gets his first salary, and perhaps, Nora wants the money as a safe bet for a bad day.
Ironically, it is Nora who is keen on spending money wisely, despite having been accused of being a spendthrift. When she tells Torvald to give her money, he starts to dilly dally and diverts the topic to the spending habits of Nora. He says that money slips through her fingers, and she is just like her father. When Nora says that she saves as much as she can, Torvald tells her that the much amounts to nothing ‘[Laughing.] Very true as much as you can but that's precisely nothing’(Ibsen 03). Nora’s response is measured and cool because she insists that she does her best to have food and provisions for the family using the little money. Despite the fact that Nora is accused of being a bad spender, it turns out that she is actually a good one, and the stereotypes held by Torvald are the reason why he gives her very little credit. In perspective, the role played by Nora at home is under-appreciated, and she suffers from wrongful accusations, embedding the notion of the Dollhouse where she acts like a doll or toy that must be consumed and enjoyed by Torvald.
While Nora is played out as a naïve woman who does not understand the complexities of business, at least to Torvald, it occurs that she is very creative, loving, proactive and an efficient problem solver. After the birth of their first child, Ivar, Torvald fell sick, and he needed urgent treatment in Italy. She went to her father and borrowed money for the treatment without telling her husband, and her father died during the time that they were in Italy. Despite that trouble, and the fact that her father died, Nora remains very strong, keeping the secret for many years. That act of boldness and quick thinking in a moment of crisis should earn her a lot of praise from Torvald, but instead, she feared that he would be mad at her, a fear that was proved true later in the play. Thinking about her decision to borrow the money, it is clear that she was a good wife who wanted the best for her husband ‘And besides how painful and humiliating it would he for Torvald, with his manly self-respect, to know that he owed anything to me! It would utterly upset the relation between us; our beautiful, happy home would never again be what it is’ (Ibsen 08). She confides to Mrs. Linden she could not reveal her to Torvald because it would mess his ego as a man, and think that he owed everything to her.
Borrowing money from her father and keeping it secret, and keeping the secret about her husband’s illness (told by the doctor), characterizes Nora as a very modest lady, and a schemer. Privately, it was an act of courage, and the way life panned out when they were in Italy complicated issues more because her father died and she did not want to hurt her husband’s ego. She did not even want to tell him about the illness, and all these issues made her breakdown, especially when Torvald scolded her when he discovered what had happened. Her acts were expressive of love, with purity and clarity, and the pain she went through privately was the price she paid (Ibsen 26). Nonetheless, Nora embodies the strength of a woman who had the interests of her family at heart, and, on the same wavelength, albeit at the trough, she is a victim of male superiority that meant that Norah suffered because of the good things she did.
Towards the end, Nora gets an awakening that reminds her of the importance of a free life. She realized that she had been looking at life from borrowed eyes and that she had conformed to social norms, so much, and badly that, she had started teaching her children the same norms. In her heart and mind she feels free, and when Dr. Rank confesses his love for her, she is intrigued by the possibility of having another person appreciate her. She decides to leave the kids and Torvald, in the end, making it clear that she will not be coming back. “Very well. Now it is all over. I lay the keys here. The servants know about everything in the house better than I do. To-morrow, when I have started, Christina will come to pack up the things I brought with me from home. I will have them sent to me.”(Ibsen 45). She leaves with her guilt intact without remorse, because she knows that she did the right thing. She is bold, decisive and determined, character traits that will enhance her securities and freedom.
Conclusion
Nora passes through as a conservative woman who was married to a macho man, who believed that everything oscillated around him. She loved him with everything, and the reward was that she was treated like a doll, and her decisions and attempts to get understood landed on deaf ears. By the end of the day, however, she breaks free, learns that she can live freely. She lets go the burdens of her eight years in marriage and admits that she will miss the children. The play starts with her as caring and loyal, and she exits as a bold and decisive woman.
Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House (Methuen Students Editions). Ed. Non Worrall. London: Methuen Publishing, 1985. Print.
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