preview

How Is Nora Presented In A Doll's House

Decent Essays
Open Document

A Doll’s House

Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, was presented in a time a time and era when women could not be independent, when women could not stand up for themselves, when women had to be under the leadership of their husbands, and definitely in a time when women did not walk away and leave their husbands and their children too. He presents Nora, the protagonist, as the completely happy wife. She responds affectionately to Torvald’s teasing. Nora often kept secrets and told lies to cover up her own faults. Torvald would often call her a “silly girl”. Nora reveals that she is not just a “silly girl”. That she understands the business details related to the debt she uncured by taking out a loan to preserve her husbands’ health …show more content…

Our first impression of Nora, Torvald, and Krogstad are all eventually undercut. Nora initially seems like a silly, childish woman, but as the play progresses, we see that she is intelligent, motivated, and strong-willed, independent thinker. Torvald, though he plays the part of the strong, benevolent husband, reveals himself to be cowardly, petty, and selfish when he fears that Krogstad may expose him to scandal. Krogstad also reveals himself to be much more sympathetic and merciful character than he first appears to …show more content…

Krogstad set out to blackmail Nora because he so desperately needed the money after he learned from Torvald that he would be losing his job and he knew that he had children at home. Krogstad’s blackmail and the trauma that follows do not change Nora’s nature; instead, it opened her eyes to her unfulfilled and underappreciated potential. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald,” she says during her climactic confrontation with him”. 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 become someone she is not in order to fulfill the role that Torvald and the society have expected of her. Krogstad never really let up on Nora until Linda went over to talk to him. His determination to destroy not only Nora, but Torvald too, because he no longer had a job. The tragedy of losing his job was upsetting to him and then to find out that the woman that left him for a richer man was the one to replace him. Krogstad is the antagonist in the play, but his is not necessarily a villain. Though his willingness to allow Nora’s torment to continue is cruel, Krogstad is not without sympathy for her. As he says, “Even money-lenders, hacks, well a man like me, can have a little of what you call feeling, you know.” He visits Nora

Get Access