A Doll's House Nora

Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, introduces a 19th-century housewife, Nora Helmer, whose husband imposes strict rules upon her in order to maintain a patriarchal way of life. Torvald Helmer’s seemingly unnecessary rules restrict Nora from acting according to her own desires and instead force her to yield to his requests. She alludes to how children exercise complete control over their play dolls by describing her role in the marriage as Torvald’s doll-wife. Throughout the play, Nora commits simple rebellious actions in order to free herself from the chains of her husband's household dominance and the norms of Victorian society. Nora starts with menial rebellions against Torvald’s code of laws for a good wife by eating macaroons, which Torvald specifically bans in his household. At first, Nora tries to limit herself to “ ‘have one, just a little one,’ ” but after tasting the sweetness of disobedience, she quickly adds: “ ‘or at most two’ ” (Ibsen …show more content…
Despite this rule, Nora secretly receives a loan to go on vacation in order to save her husband, fueled by a shortage of money, from overworking himself. When Krogstad, the loaner, threatens to tell Torvald of his debt, Nora mutters between tears that the secret of the loan exists as her “ ‘joy and pride’ ” (21). Clearly, Nora enjoys her acts because Torvald’s knowing of her dissent would wreck her happiness. However, when Nora gently proposes the idea of debt to Torvald, he angrily clarifies that “ ‘There can be no freedom or beauty about a home that depends on borrowing and debt’ ” (2). Ironically, Torvald speaks of the exact motive for Nora to not reveal the secret: Freedom. Nora thoroughly enjoys that she has the freedom to keep the grand secret from Torvald and that his knowledge of the debt would result in a loss of his freedom as