Nora Helmer is a very complicated character despite the fact that at the beginning of this play it seems like quite the opposite. At the beginning of act one, Nora is whimsical and gleeful and very much like a child. She is very much living in a fantasy world or a doll’s house as the title of the play suggests. Nora has been taught since birth to be similar to a doll. Her father treated her as such in the past and so does her husband at the time the play takes place. However, once her illusion of this perfect world is shattered due to the realization she makes about Torvald, her character changes quite a bit and it turns out there is much more depth to her character than what was originally portrayed. It is a rather astounding change that Nora
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She stopped playing the role of this doll and showed him and the audience the Nora that had been hiding beneath that act the whole time. The change in Nora’s character is evident when she says the line, “yes, now I am beginning to understand thoroughly” (Ibsen, 62). This is the moment in the play when Nora realize that Torvald is not going to sacrifice himself for her and that their entire relationship is much different than what she thought it was. Once she comes to this realization her sentences get much shorter as she starts thinking about what she needs to do. Earlier in the play when Nora was talking with Mrs. Linde for the first time there were glimpses into the kind of person that Nora was underneath the act she puts on for her husband. It is evident that she is indeed a strong woman that has sacrificed much to help her family, something that she is proud of as stated with the lines, “Now I will show you that I too have something to be proud and glad of. It was I who saved Torvald’s life” (Ibsen, 10). These lines show that Nora isn’t completely a ditz, as many characters in the play would think, but is in fact, quite a capable young woman who will do what is necessary to protect her family. Seeing this hint that she in actually quite capable is something that makes her final transition at the end more
She stopped playing the role of this doll and showed him and the audience the Nora that had been hiding beneath that act the whole time. The change in Nora’s character is evident when she says the line, “yes, now I am beginning to understand thoroughly” (Ibsen, 62). This is the moment in the play when Nora realize that Torvald is not going to sacrifice himself for her and that their entire relationship is much different than what she thought it was. Once she comes to this realization her sentences get much shorter as she starts thinking about what she needs to do. Earlier in the play when Nora was talking with Mrs. Linde for the first time there were glimpses into the kind of person that Nora was underneath the act she puts on for her husband. It is evident that she is indeed a strong woman that has sacrificed much to help her family, something that she is proud of as stated with the lines, “Now I will show you that I too have something to be proud and glad of. It was I who saved Torvald’s life” (Ibsen, 10). These lines show that Nora isn’t completely a ditz, as many characters in the play would think, but is in fact, quite a capable young woman who will do what is necessary to protect her family. Seeing this hint that she in actually quite capable is something that makes her final transition at the end more