Themes of Appearance, Reality, and Deception in "A Doll's House" and "Roman Fever"

She gains her independence and saves her husband. However, her reputation is nearly destroyed after Torvald finds out she forged the letter. Nora asking, “It is indiscreet, to save your husband’s life,” knows that she sacrificed a lot to save Torvald (Ibsen 1029). Nora believes she saved Torvald’s life, she also believes that if he knew then their lives would never be the same. If Torvald knew Nora had taken out a loan, he would feel indebted to her and that would be humiliating to his masculinity, while disrupting their “happy” home life. However, Nora relinquished many of the things that meant a lot to her. Nora forged her father’s signature risking her and Torvald’s reputation. She also takes on all the debt herself, paying it off with her spending money. Nora will not be able to buy as much for herself with the debt revealing her willingness to sacrifice wealth for Torvald’s wellbeing. Just as Cyrano sacrifices his life to send letters to Roxane, Nora sacrifices her happiness and reputation to save Torvald. This shows Nora’s devotion and unconditional love towards Torvald. Both Cyrano and Nora are risking their lives for someone they love. As Cyrano repeatedly risks his life for Roxane, Nora feels as though her “duties to herself” are more valuable than her devotion to anyone else as she states, “aren’t they your duties to your husband and children?... Duties to myself…” (1076). Nora has gone through a kind

Henrik Ibsen uses several different stylistic devices in A Doll’s House. The author’s choice of writing this piece as a play is to emphasize interactions between various

Although Nora is secretive about the crime she committed, which is forging her father’s name in order to borrow money; she does it to save her husband. During Act I when Nora is speaking to Mrs. Linde about someday revealing to Torvald about the secret loan Nora exclaims: “One day I might, yes. Many years from now, when I’ve lost my looks a little. Don’t laugh. I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him.” (Act I, pg. 12). This quotation shows that even early on in the play Nora understands the reality of her marriage, and her existence to Torvald. Therefore, Act I is merely an introduction to the overall overarching theme of independence. Act I shows the obedient side of Nora, until later scenes when she reveals her independence. Torvald attempts to oppress his wife, but his actions do not stop Nora’s independent thoughts from forming.

Throughout A Doll’s House, Torvald views Nora’s actions as being deceiving not only towards him but also towards her family. However, Nora gain her perspective on her own actions and begins observing it differently than Torvald’s. The play states, “ It was me they told that his life was in danger...well, well, I thought, you’ve got to be saved somehow. And then I thought of a way-,” (Ibsen 35-36). Within Nora’s and Mrs. Linde’s private conversation, Nora conveys that her manipulation of money revealed how she deceives her husband even though it was in good intent to save his life. In addition, this demonstrates Nora’s willingness to think about others, such as her husband, before realizing for herself that there were going to be consequences for her later on. Within the play, Nora states, “ You have never understood me. A

Firstly, Nora and Torvald have different opinions regarding money: he upholds that borrowing is never an alternative to financial problems, but acknowledges that Nora does not follow this rule. Torvald believes she cannot help her tendency of over-spending, describing it as a hereditary condition: "It is in the blood; for indeed it is true that you can inherit these things, Nora." (p 9). She has been content to maintain her secret of borrowing money from Krogstad without her husband’s consent. This allows her husband to think of her as a possession and an expense, as "One would hardly believe how expensive such little persons are." (p 8). This becomes the main source from which the play 's tension originates. This is essential, as Nora’s terror of Torvald uncovering this secret causes her to weave an increasingly unstable web of lies, which subsequently collapses around her

Ibsen’s character Nora in A Doll’s House, shows gradual development throughout the play to support his theme that above all else, you are human; even in marriage both parties should be given the equal opportunities, rights and respect. While Nora may at first seem happy with her life inside her “doll house”, she begins to recognize that she must find herself, and stop being a toy in the lives of men.

Torvald's reaction to the letter opens Nora eyes to the truth about her relationship with Torvald . Nora starts thinking of ways to change her priorities and of course an action to take. Nora shifts her thinking from suicide to deciding to leave Torvald and her kids. Nora becomes more independent on herself rather than having to rely on Torvald. Nora now realizes that she can escape from Torvald's realm of a "perfect family" and have no regrets.

Previous to the opening of the play, Nora makes the decision to get a loan without Torvald's knowledge so that he can go to Italy and improve his health, showing compassion and love for her husband. Nora's aquiring the loan with her father as a guarantor, shows that she cared enough not to worry her husband with money problems at a time that he needed to heal. Forging her

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

Ibsen utilizes the boundaries of the “inexpensively furnished” (147) room to create Nora’s symbolic cage displaying how she is physically unable to leave the confines of the room and the role in which every 19th century wife must play. In Act I, Nora plays her façade of the frivolous “funny little spendthrift” (150) in an effort to seem as defenseless as the woodland creatures Torvald finds so endearing and subsequently patronizing. Nora’s quarantine is enhanced as she is called a “squirrel…skylark, and little bird” (150) by Torvald, infantilizing her character and consequently solidifying her inability to escape the confines of her assumed womanly role. Nora readily assumes the position of a subordinate and feeble woman to protect the illusion she perceives as a complete home in addition to avoid “[being] completely alone” (154). This absolute isolation in adherence to the role in which she has been nurtured to conform to is slowly deteriorating her character, which is displayed in the increased sporadic nature of “poor little Nora’s” (152) actions and her lack of ability to focus as the play progresses. Nora’s childlike behaviors steadily become more obvious as her fixated birdcage becomes increasingly suffocating, the discomfort with her current isolation grows and as her mask of perfection slowly disintegrates.

Nora proceeds to apologize and plays the role of the obedient wife. Nora has the right to spend extra money after what she has been through for the first few years of marriage. Nora and Torvald were very poor. Torvald also became sick and had to travel to Italy to recover. Nora secretly and illegally got a loan to pay for the trip to Italy. During the time setting of the play, women weren’t allowed to do certain things without their husband’s permission such as take out loans. Nora has been working extra hard to pay back her debt and the promotion that Torvald will receive will help Nora become debt free.

Through every character and every lie in the play, Nora realizes that she has lived a sheltered life. She had always lived under a man's roof where she was dependent on that man, first her father, and then her husband, Torvald. Nora realizes she is sheltered from the world and dependent on her husband, first when she talks to the maid, who left her children to get a job, then when she talks to Kristine, who is an independent woman seeking employment. Also, the conflict of Nora borrowing money made Nora realize she is Torvalds’s doll that he bosses around and plays house with. She does not think that borrowing money to save her husband's life could be a crime, which leads her to realize that she does not understand the world outside the walls of her house. This all leads up to Nora’s decision to leave her husband and children behind so that she can grow into an independent woman.

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).

Later in the play things start getting complicated for Nora. Her husband Torvald had become Mr. Krogstad boss at work, and Torvald wanted to fire Mr. Krogstad. This is when Mr. Krogstad starts to blackmail Nora. He wants Nora to stop Torvald from firing him. If she does not, Mr. Krogstad was going to tell Torvald her secret. This should have been the perfect time for Nora to tell the truth to her husband, but she believed that telling Torvald the truth will ruin their relationship. Nora says to her friend Mrs. Linde “Torvald, with all his masculine pride – how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would ruin our relationship. Our beautiful, happy home would never be the same” (Iben 802)

As a proponent of the woman as an individual, Ibsen used symbolism, amplification, and motifs to express his views. In addition he utilized metaphors as he compared Torvald’s view of Nora to a parent’s view of a child, or even to a “doll” (Ibsen 126). Ibsen also had Torvald refer to Nora as an