Everything is going well for her until Krogstad enters the story. Then the audience learns that Krogstad, a co-worker of her husband Torvald, has the power to blackmail
Nils Krogstad is, at least at the beginning, the antagonist of the play. Known to the other characters as unscrupulous and dishonest, he blackmails Nora, who borrowed money from him with a forged signature, after learning that he is being fired from his job at the bank.
After revealing the information he can use against her, Krogstad flat out threatens Nora. At this point in the play, Krogstad is not only seeking to restore his reputation, but wants revenge if he cannot keep his job at the bank.
Krogstad threatens Nora that he will reveal her past crime of forgery unless she helps him. He remarks that he is prepared to fight for his small position at the bank as if he is fighting for his life. He does not want to lose his reputation, his dignity and his position in society.
Krogstad says that Nora has other things to worry about: he has figured out that Nora forged her father's signature on the promissory note. Krogstad informs Nora that her forgery is a serious offense, similar to the one that sullied his reputation in the first place.
Like Nora, Krogstad is a person who has been wronged by society, and both Nora and Krogstad have committed the same crime: forgery of signatures.
Ushering the children out of the room, Nora is alone with Krogstad. He has come, he says, to ask her to intercede with Torvald on his behalf, for only her influence can protect the job which Christine Linde might take from him.
The play, by Henrik Ibsen, is a scathing criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage. The main character is a woman named Nora. Just before the scene opens, a former employee of her husband, Torvald Helmer, has threatened to blackmail Nora.
Nora owes $ to Krogstad because he lent her money to go to Italy (for husbands health) and is currently being blackmailed because she forged her fathers signature and Krogstad wants to keep his job.
Krogstad and Torvald, Christine and Nora, and Krogstad/Christine's relationship and Torvald/Nora's relationship are all foils to each other. Foil characters are mirror images of each other; they have similarities as well as differences.
He's got a lot of power over Nora, because apparently she forged her father's signature after he was dead in order to get the loan. Krogstad threatens to expose Nora's crime if he loses his job. After he leaves, Nora freaks out.
What does Krogstad threaten Nora with? What does he do as he leaves her house? He threatens her by saying that he could tell an outsider about her crimes but he will keep her predicament between himself, Nora, and Torvald if he gets a better job at the bank. Krogstad also says that he controls her final reputation.
It is ironic that Krogstad committed a similar crime as Nora as he forged someone's name, however he threatened to reveal Nora and disclose her forgery if she refused to comply with his demands.
Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed, and lives in fear of her husband finding out.
In the play, money symbolizes the power that the characters have over one another. In the first scene, Torvald's ability to dictate how much Nora spends on Christmas presents shows his power over her. Meanwhile, the debt that Nora owes Krogstad allows him to have power over her and Torvald.
As the play progresses, the audience comes to learn that due to a sickness Torvald had in the past, Nora in order to pay for a trip needed to save Torvald's life was forced to take a loan from a rich man known as Mr. Krogstad.
Although his intent here is to stress that he is implacable and that she is in danger, his phrasing is interesting. Rather than rejoicing that she is no better than he is, he seems concerned that she should not judge him. Like Mrs Linde, Krogstad is a mirror in which Nora can view herself.
Torvald, reading Krogstad's letter, at first can't believe Nora's crime, then grows enraged. He says he will have little choice but to submit to Krogstad's power over him. Then Torvald turns on Nora, accusing her of being dishonest and immoral.
At the beginning of the play, Nora appears to be a dutifully obedient and honest wife, however it is quickly revealed that she is hiding a serious secret from him—the fact that she borrowed money from Krogstad to finance a trip to Italy that she claims saved Torvald's life.
We know what is enclosed in the letters because it says earlier in the play that the letters are from Krogstad and state that Nora committed forgery.
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.
He blackmails Nora to get her to talk to Torvald on his behalf. Krogstad gets fired anyway.
Rank uses the expression differently: Krogstad is 'a moral cripple' (Act One, p. 39) – an individual damaged by his own actions, to whom society should behave with limited compassion. He argues with Mrs Linde's about society's responsibility to care for those 'sick' in this way (p. 40).
Krogstad is different from Torvald because he is not as well off economically and socially and this leads him to try an extremer form of manipulation. Krogstad is desperate to keep his job at the bank and tries to get Nora to secure the job with her husband through blackmail.
Krogstad knows that Nora forged her father's signature on the loan that he gave her, and he uses this information to blackmail Nora. He demands that she convince Torvald to keep him on as an employee at the bank.