After Krogstad rescinds his blackmail threat and returns the loan document with the signature Nora forged, Torvald is relieved and tells Nora he forgives her. However, Torvald uses his forgiveness as an additional means of objectifying and controlling Nora by saying he now owns her doubly.
Nora changes out of her costume and into everyday clothes. Torvald continues to assure her that everything will be okay. In fact, he argues that, by forgiving her, “it's as if [a man has] twice made [his wife] his own.” He says that he feels he has given Nora a new life so that she is now both his wife and his child.
Torvald Helmer
Nora's husband. Torvald delights in his new position at the bank, just as he delights in his position of authority as a husband. He treats Nora like a child, in a manner that is both kind and patronizing. He does not view Nora as an equal but rather as a plaything or doll to be teased and admired.
He treats Nora more like a child than a wife. He calls her silly names and scolds her for eating macaroons. Toward the end of the play, he even says that Nora is "doubly his own" because she has "become both wife and child" (3.257).
It soon becomes clear to us that Nora's dependence, not Torvald's love for Nora as a person, forms the foundation of Torvald's affection for her. In Act One, Torvald teases Nora about wasting money but then tries to please her by graciously giving her more.
This is a drastic change from the traits Nora displayed in the beginning of the play where she was dependent on Torvald for all things. She has now liberated herself from his grasp and the play ends with her leaving, never to be spoken to again.
What secret has Nora been keeping from Torvald? She was in love with his brother before she married him. She borrowed the money they used to take a trip to Italy. She had an affair with Krogstad five years earlier.
Torvald Helmer betrays his wife by not defending and understanding her when he finds out the secret she has been keeping from him. To her utter disappointment, Helmer tells her that he can work day and night for her, bear sorrow for her but no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.
Nora procured money and told Torvald that her father gave it to them, though she really raised it herself. Nora's father died before Torvald had a chance to find out that the money didn't come from him. Nora has kept the source of the money a secret because she doesn't want his “man's pride” to be hurt.
Throughout the play, he keeps reassuring Nora that he will protect her and be a savior to her, that he is “man enough to take it” but when he learns about her deception, he chides her for it, calling her a liar, a hypocrite, and a criminal. He is quick to judge people, as is seen from his judgment of Krogstad.
After Krogstad rescinds his blackmail threat and returns the loan document with the signature Nora forged, Torvald is relieved and tells Nora he forgives her. However, Torvald uses his forgiveness as an additional means of objectifying and controlling Nora by saying he now owns her doubly.
In that moment, she realizes that her marriage has been nothing but a sham and walks out the door, never to return. After such a triumphant exit, what could possibly bring Nora back to the home she once shared with Torvald and their three young children?
Nora's use of Torvald's pet names for her to win his cooperation is an act of manipulation on her part. She knows that calling herself his “little bird,” his “squirrel,” and his “skylark,” and thus conforming to his desired standards will make him more willingly to give in to her wishes.
Nora is a victim of the male-dominated society of the nineteenth century. To save her husband, Torvald, she borrows money so that he might be able to recover from a life-threatening illness in a warmer climate.
He insists that Nora is not to be allowed near the children anymore, because she may corrupt them. Just then, a letter arrives from Krogstad. In the letter, Krogstad says that he's had a change of heart and will no longer be blackmailing them. Torvald is really happy and forgives Nora.
There are major opposing moral views between characters in Henrik Ibsen 's dramatic play A Doll 's House. One moral trail leads to the conclusion that once someone commits a bad deed, there is no saving them; that person is now a low-life degenerate with no redemption in sight.
"How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything [says Nora]. It would upset our mutual relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is now."
Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald.
The first instance of female sacrifice is seen in Act 1 through the interaction between Torvald and Nora, where Nora sacrifices her opinions and desires to satisfy her husband. Nora puts on a submissive façade, whose characteristics are similar to a child.
To Nora, the right choice seemed to be to leave her family. She felt trapped in her own home. She was like a doll taken from the shelf to play with whenever Torvald felt like he wanted to pay attention to her. She lived only for him.
On the contrary, she saved his life... by getting them both into massive debt. Unbeknown to Torvald, Nora borrowed money so that they could afford a year-long trip to Italy. Doctors said that Torvald would die without it—but that he shouldn't know how bad his condition was.
Linde marries her husband for money so that she can support her sick mother and dependent younger brothers. Again and again in A Doll's House, women sacrifice their personal desires, their ambitions, and their dignity. While Nora marries for her own welfare, however, Mrs. Linde does so for the welfare of her family.
For the author, Torvald stands for all the individual-denying social ills against which Ibsen has dedicated all his writing. As a victim of his narrow view of society, Torvald inspires sympathy rather than reproach.
Torvald has banned Nora from eating macaroons. Although Nora claims that she never disobeys Torvald, this is proved false in the very opening of the play when Nora eats macaroons while she was alone in the living room. The macaroons come to represent Nora's disobedience and deceit.
A Doll's House ends with the slamming of a door. Nora turns her back on her husband and kids and takes off into the snow (brr) to make her own way in the world (brrrrr). It's a pretty bold decision, to say the least.