She is both a victim of her circumstances and also at fault for actions which she committed. Nora is a victim. Throughout her entire life, she has never been taken seriously by anyone. She has been treated like a doll by both male characters in her life, her father and her husband, and has acted accordingly.
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.
Here we see Nora presented as a victim of her father and male dominated society; however she also plays the role of victimizer against her husband, family, and friends. As Nora takes both sides of the conflict we see how she is forced into both roles.
The main character of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, Nora, suffers because of hiding a big secret from her husband. She borrowed money from Nils Krogstad to save her husband who was terribly ill at the time. Torvald (Nora's husband) has no clue that Nora was the one who got the money to pay the hospital bills.
Summaries. 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.
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.
He did not treat her as an equal at all and tried to make her feel useless. Nora was capable of living alone. She was not the best person to raise her kids because she also treated them like dolls. Nora has to leave her children so that they can also become real human beings just like her.
Nora says that she realizes that she is childlike and knows nothing about the world. She feels alienated from both religion and the law, and wishes to discover on her own, by going out into the world and learning how to live life for herself, whether or not her feelings of alienation are justified.
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.
Lack of personality
She seems to be completely and thoroughly dependent upon her husband and she behaves as if she were absolutely subservient to him. She eats macaroons without her husband's consent but she does it in secret. Her husband treats her as a pet and she is content with her role as a pet.
When he is greeting or adoring her, however, he calls her by childish animal nicknames such as “my little skylark” and “my squirrel.” By placing her within such a system of names, Torvald not only asserts his power over Nora but also dehumanizes her to a degree.
She explains that because she has no one for whom to work, she must look after only herself, which has made her selfish. She admits that she is happy at the news of Torvald's new job because of the implications it could have for her personal interests. Nora promises to talk to her husband about helping Mrs.
While Torvald never physically hurts Nora, he represses her individuality. The exception to this would be the one time that Hopkins' Torvald slaps Bloom's Nora But besides this one act, Torvald barely says any negative words to her. He does call her a lot of condescending names though.
As defined by Aristotle, a tragic hero must be of noble stature and radiate greatness. In this instance, Nora fits the bill quite well because she is part of the upper echelon of society. She also has a burning desire to be in that group of people and remain there.
While Torvald carries his own set of secrets such as what the ideal home, wife, and mother means; Nora fulfills his minds play of a doll, placing her where he wishes and manipulates her with playful words of “my squirrel”, “my little lark”, and “my little spendthrift.” These spirited gibes are meant to keep her in ...
Nora's character is thus a very complex one.
She is cunning yet innocent, timid and insecure yet extremely courageous, defenseless yet fiercely independent and manipulative and secretive in the beginning but bold and direct towards the end.
Nora talks joyfully about her love for Torvald, and Torvald refers to Nora using affectionate pet names. Their loving marriage stands in stark contrast with the lives of the other characters: the marriages of Krogstad and Mrs. Linde were based on necessity rather than love, and were unhappy.
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.
The play was so controversial that Ibsen was forced to write a second ending that he called “a barbaric outrage” to be used only when necessary. The controversy centered around Nora's decision to abandon her children, and in the second ending she decides that the children need her more than she needs her freedom.
Nora explains that Torvald has never understood her and that she has been wronged both by him and her father. Torvald, shocked, asks how that can be true of the two people who loved her more than anyone else.
Nora Helmer once secretly borrowed a large sum of money so that her husband could recuperate from a serious illness. She never told him of this loan and has been secretly paying it back in small installments by saving from her household allowance.
Nora comes to realize that in addition to her literal dancing and singing tricks, she has been putting on a show throughout her marriage. She has pretended to be someone she is not in order to fulfill the role that Torvald, her father, and society at large have expected of her.
Her decision to leave Torvald represents her first chance to find true freedom, which she now defines as the ability to make her own choices. Nora's entire outlook on life shifts by the end of the play, and she now understands that marriage needs equality to work.
She eventually finds a life she's happy in, but in the process she learns that her original life had value. The Library dissolves as Nora decides to live. Nora returns to her original life, except now with less regrets and hope for the future.
However, Nora, who has seen Torvald's true selfish character, decides to leave. She tells Torvald that like her father, he had never known her—even she doesn't know who she really is herself. She states that she felt like a 'puppet' under Torvald's control and she needs some time to live alone to understand herself.