Krogstads Letter Nora's Equality

Throughout Nora’s whole life she has been controlled by whomever she has been close to. She has never had to chance to have her own experiences, to think her own thoughts and to try to make something of her life. She knows nothing but what her and her father let her. Nora admits to

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.

Nora finds strength in realizing her failure, resolving to find herself as a human being and not in what society expects of her. Nora’s recognition comes when Torvald so

Nora is motivated throughout the story to be according to her "free," however, she does not only want to be free of the loan she is owning to Krogstad, she wants to be free from her father and husband's control. Throughout the story, Nora feels as if she has always been treated like a doll child first by her father and then by her husband and is never given the opportunity to evolve as an individual and become a woman who has the potential to be independent and forceful (Yuehua 83). The perfect example her attempt to fulfill her potential as a woman is when she first borrows the loan from Krogstad by forging her dying father's signature. Although she knows her act is wrong and against the law, she still goes on with a naïve challenge to Krogstad during their encounter about the forged signature

While Mrs. Wright lashes out against her perceived cage, her gender role, by killing Mr. Wright, Nora’s character ultimately decides to trip the latch, to fly free from the bars. Nora’s complex personality proves to be difficult to predict to the very end, when she decides to shirk her duties to her husband and children to focus on herself, to serve her own needs for individuality, a decision that was not entirely popular with readers and audiences alike. Indeed, Nora quite easily refuses to be the “doll” in Torvald’s house, and abandons her loving, though misguided husband, and her children. She feels driven to do this once she realizes that she and Torvald had never exchanged a serious word in

In A Doll House, Nora finds herself subordinate to her husband as well as the rules of society. Torvald forbids her from the consumption of macarons, bestows on her an allowance as if she were a child, persuades her to do as he wishes, dance like this, not like that, and she like a “good little lark” obeys his most every will. Her act of courage and independence, illegally taking out a loan to save his life, is seen as wrong in the eyes of society, while she sees it as necessary and forgivable; it is what a good wife should do for her husband.

Each time Nora finds herself unable to help herself the problem is easily directly traced back to her husband, her father, and to the overbearing dominance of the male society. She tries to save the life of the man she thinks she loves and in doing so sees how she has become a victim of her own ignorance which has been brought upon her by the men in her life.

Nora plays the part of a slave in her subservience to her husband, for she is supposed to

At the end of their first reconnection, Nora reveals that her transformation from obedient doll to liberated woman had already begun. She now admires Mrs. Linde for her long years of work and independence and uses it as inspiration for her own. In Mrs. Linde’s trust, Nora exposes her personal act of sovereignty: a few years ago, she had secretly borrowed money to save her husband’s life, incriminating herself. Even though she did the morally correct thing, Nora’s actions are condemnable and

Nora’s need for independence and self discovery are other things that stem from her socioeconomic status. Nora felt that her duties to herself were equally sacred during her quarrel with Torvald (905). Him saying, “you’re a wife and mother” made no difference to her (905). Her selfishness in wanting independence stemmed from a lifetime of living as a doll. She says, “When I lived with Papa… He used to call me his doll-child…then I came into your house and you arranged everything to your taste…It’s a great shame what you and Papa did to me. You’re to blame that nothing became of me” (903-904). Nora had been so accustomed to living by other’s standards that she lost herself in their lives. She had become used to having no opinion and input on

wants the reader to realize that Nora was not the fool she allows herself to be

Nora gets blackmailed for forging a signature, and for this she gets disowned by her husband. But, when her husband finds that the blackmail will be dropped, and will no longer affect their lives, he tells Nora that everything is okay and they both can presume living like normal. This opens Nora’s eyes fully for the first time, before she had only glimpses of the wrongness in her identity, but now she knew. Nora had been living a false identity, she had been a ‘toy doll’, and at the end of the play she decides to want so much more than to be what others thought she should be. In the end of Act three, Nora states ”I must think things out for myself and try to get clear about them” (Ibsen 199). Nora is now going to decided who she is and what she really believes, she is going to discover her own identity. In an article on women working in World War II, it states, “While patriotism did influence women, ultimately it was the economic incentives that convinced them to work. Once at work, they discovered the nonmaterial benefits of working like... contributing to the public good, and proving themselves in jobs once thought of as only men’s work” (“Rosie Riveter: Women”). Women before World War II were thought of as simply housewifes for the most part, similar to Nora. The circumstances of World War II brought about need for women in the workplace, this started a domino effect of women taking up an identity similar to males the sense that they could now

Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.

Until a woman tries to be free for deciding her preferences and following her own conscience, until she dares to be frank about her feelings, until a wife questions her loving husband why he gives her no respect, until she finds out that his love is only a form of possessing and exploiting her, and until she is disillusioned about how the 'shelter' of her husband can deprive her of all opportunities of realizing her dreams for being someone in the society, until that moment, Nora, like many women of her time, lives in the cozy (comfortable) illusion of love from her husband. But this husband turns out to be a hypocrite and an egotist, a man who doesn't apologise even when he is made to realise how much injustice he has done to her. When a crisis comes, he is able to discard his wife as a nobody; he is able to scold her in an unimaginable manner and forget all her lifelong love and sacrifice. She is his doll, his

Her final goal was so important to her, protecting her family, she knew she had to do whatever was necessary, even if that meant not being true to her husband or society. In the end, she realizes that it was more important to her husband his reputation, than what it had meant to Nora, all she had done for the love of her family, concluding to the raw truth that her husband didn´t really love her: he loved what she represented before society, a loving, faithful wife that compelled to all his expectations. She knew that to love her children, she needed first to understand and love herself, a thought way beyond and ahead of time, for a woman in the late 1800´s.