A Doll 's House By Henrik Ibsen

Krogstad’s behavior and motives are based on the fact that he does not want to lose his job at the bank where Nora’s husband Torvald manages. In a desperate attempt to keep his job and spare his children from hardship, he uses Nora to influence her husband. Her attempts to save Krogstad’s job fail because Torvald is convinced that Krogstad is a liar and a cheat and he will not jeopardize his moral character or be swayed by his wife. He states, “Do you think I’m going to make myself look ridiculous in front of my whole staff, and let people think I can be pushed around by all sorts of outside influence?” (1624)

Deborah Tannen Author of “Sex, Lies and Conversation” says “Men tend to talk less at home and this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage” (Tannen, Sex, Lies and Conversation:1) also says “If their husbands don’t adapt, the wives may look to their friends or family for that kind of talk” (Tannen, Sex, Lies and Conversation:3). In the play we can see, Dr. Rank a close friend of Torvald visits almost every day in their house. He knows Nora never gets enough accompany from her husband and takes that advantage to get more close with her. He is the first person ever to tell Nora that there are others who can easily give up their life for her and made her to realize how important she can be. Interestingly, Nora welcomes Dr. Rank and says “I always have an hour to spare (Ibsen 870)”. In fact, her relationship with Dr. Rank helps us to understand that there definitely lies a distance between Torvald and Nora. For Nora, Dr. Rank is the only person she is able to reveal her true self. Nora feels she can speak with Dr. Rank in a way she can never speak to Torvald. She could also talk more seriously with Rank and by the same time feels so relieve around him. Dr. Rank also is the most important character for Nora's transformation who acted as an adviser for her, helps her to realize her personal feelings. On other side, Nils Krogstad, Torvald's childhood friend

Later in the play, Krogstad enters to speak to Torvald. Krogstad is a lawyer, works with Torvald at the bank, and is the

As he took over the role as bank director his first motion was to fire a man who had been seen as a disgrace for forging a signature. This “disgraceful” man is known as Krogstad. Krogstad is the person that allowed Nora to borrow money. Krogstad comes to find out that Nora had forged her father’s signature on the loan that allowed her to receive the money. When Krogstad finds out that Torvald is planning to relive him from the company, he notifies Nora that he will be blackmailing her if she does not sacrifices for his loss. In other words, Krogstad threatens Nora, in which he will reveal the crime Nora had committed to Torvald. If Nora cannot convince Torval to keep Krogstad at the Bank, Krogstad states that there will be consequences. Day after day, Nora continues to influence and change the perspective of Torvald. In result of Torvald seeing Nora as a “Doll” who entitles, nevertheless childlike activities, he does not take her advice to keep Krogstad. He values Nora as someone who simply means nothing in the world of knowledge. When Nora does not succeed to complete Krogstads request, he sends Torvald a letter describing Nora’s

Little did they know that the plan did not work. When Nora went to Torvald asking if he can give Krogstad his job back, Torval denied her request, but only to protect his reputation. "I hear [Krogstad] is a good worker, too. But I knew him when we were boys. […] this tactless

When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fakes as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.

In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen moves the plot forward through the usage of aha moments. Other scenes merely provide the context of these decisive events. The key moments of the play make great strides in the development of the plot, such as when Nora Helmer realizes the potential consequences of her actions, Krogstad and Mrs. Linde decide to shoulder their burdens together, and Nora realizes the perverseness of her marriage. Krogstad awakens Nora to the ramifications of her loan, forcing her to take action. Until Krogstad threatened her with the possible consequence of prison, Nora had considered it implausible.

Krogstad who is a low level worker at the bank where Torvald works is aware of the her actions and she even has evidence of her transactions, when he realizes that Torvald who is his superior intends to fire him, he tries to blackmail Nora into using her influence over her husband to prevent his dismissal. Nora agrees to try but Torvald does not take her seriously as usual and insists of firing him, she realizes that Krogstad would probably reveal her secret and this greatly traumatizes her. Krogstad presses her further after the dismissal and demands that she not only has her husband reinstate but promote him as well. However, Torvald is adamant and lashes out at her for pursuing the matter while Krogstad put her in an impossible situation by making demands that she had no power to fulfill. She attempts make Krogstad to

When Krogstad threatens to expose the truth, Nora must use her craftiness to distract Torvald and sway him into letting Krogstad keep his job. Unfortunately, she is not able to change his mind, but she does succeed in diverting his suspicions of her motives. She praises him and lulls him into a false sense of security by telling him that "[n]o one has such good taste as [he has]" and then goes on to ask him if he could "take [her] in hand and decide what [she is] to go as" for the dance. She confesses to him that she "can't do anything without [him] to help [her]". These statements lead him to believe that he is the one to "rescue" her, when it is in fact Nora who is trying to rescue him from dishonour. Later on, when Krogstad puts a letter in Torvald's mail, explaining everything that Nora has done, Nora uses her charms once more. She pretends that she has forgotten the tarantella so that Torvald will spend all his time with her and think nothing of the mail that awaits him. Nora truly believes that by deceiving her husband, she is protecting him from worry. Because of Nora's deception, the person that Torvald believes her to be is quite different from the person she actually is. He believes that she is a "spendthrift," infatuated by expensive things when in reality, she saves her money to pay back Krogstad and buys cheap clothing and gifts. Torvald

In most societies, the person who holds the most money is considered to hold the most power. In the case of the household, the person who holds the most power is the person who handles the money, and in our man-centric world, it is usually the man who holds both money and power. In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll’s House, the theme of money is used to establish power roles between the characters of the play, and how the theme contributes to typical gender roles in the 19th century.

We find that Torvald has just been promoted to manager of the bank, where he will recive a huge wage Torvald, Nora’s husband meets her affectionately but then lectures her about spending too much money on Christmas gifts. Nora said, “Now that you’ve got a big salary and are going to make piles and piles of money” (785). Later on, the maid telling the Helmer that their friend dr. Rank has come to visit, and at the same time to Noras surprise her school friend Mrs. Linde comes to meet Nora. She tells her how she worked hard in the past years with no husband and family support. Linde’s mother has passed away and her brothers have grown up. Now, she is not obligated as she was before, but she says that she wants a job. She wonders if Torvald could give her a job at the bank. Finally, Krogstad arrives and goes to Torvald’s study room. After talking with Krogstad, Torvald enters the living room and states that he can give Mrs. Linde job at the bank. It turned out that Torvald wants to fire Krogstad from the bank because he has low reputation. However, Krogstad asks Nora to use her influences to tell Torvald to let him keep his job. When Nora refuses, Krogstad blackmails her with a forged signature of her father many years ago. Krogstad said, “Poor or not - if I introduce this paper in court, you’ll be judged according to law”

After having used Krogstad to get what she needed, yet another issue arose. Krogstad turned on Nora once his position at the bank was on the line, and used her borrowing against her for his own good. “Niles Krogstad is also Mrs. Linde’s former crush, and he tries to redeem himself of his crimes of forgery by raising his children” (Rosefeldt).

Krogstad feels threatened by her influence because she can be the pivotal deciding factor in whether or not he keeps his job. Nevertheless, Krogstad tries to turn her influence to benefit himself by threatening to reveal her crime if she does not help him to keep his job. This backfires on Krogstad when two women, Nora and Mrs. Linde, manipulate Krogstad into feeling obstinate and therefore he promises never to tell anyone of what Nora has done. Nora's power helped her to remain protected throughout the entire play.

A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play that has been written to withstand all time. In this play Ibsen highlights the importance of women’s rights. During the time period of the play these rights were neglected. Ibsen depicts the role of the woman was to stay at home, raise the children and attend to her husband during the 19th century. Nora is the woman in A Doll House who plays is portrayed as a victim. Michael Meyers said of Henrik Ibsen 's plays: "The common denominator in many of Ibsen 's dramas is his interest in individuals struggling for and authentic identity in the face of social conventions. This conflict often results in his characters ' being divided between a sense of duty to themselves and their responsibility to others." All of the aspects of this quote can be applied to the play A Doll House, in Nora Helmer 's character, who throughout much of the play is oppressed, presents an inauthentic identity to the audience and throughout the play attempts to discovery her authentic identity.

In “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen Nora’s character has traits’ of a narcissistic person. You can see these traits through her actions throughout the story. In the article “A Psychoanalytic Reading of Nora” written by Carol S. Tufts states values of a narcissistic personality one of these are “Grandiose sense of self- importance and uniqueness….” Nora can relate to this because when she decides to leave her family to go find her self, she is displaying this notion of self-importance. Nora also shows this when Dr. Rank confesses his love for Nora, when he is about to die and she gets upset with him because she needed his help and now she feels that she can-not take advantage of him.