In the play A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen portrays Nora Helmer and Torvald Helmer as a happy 19th-century couple. They have three young children as well as a nice home "furnished inexpensively, but with taste (147)"; Torvald had also just received a promotion at the bank. As the play progresses the audience learns that their marriage is not so happy and perfect at all. The Helmer's marriage comes to a conflict because Nora and Torvald share different ideas of a happy marriage; Torvald values his reputation and honor more while Nora seeks happiness and love. Ibsen criticizes society and does not support the idea of deceiving in order to fit into …show more content…
Deception is a common theme that occurs throughout A Doll's House. The play is filled with deception within the characters and within society to protect certain ideas or …show more content…
Nora and Torvald seemed happy with their marriage; Nora would always talk about her love for Torvald and Torvald told Nora how he loves it when she sang for him. By the end of the play, their marriage fell apart due to lack of understanding and lack of capability of understanding who they were as individuals. Right from the beginning of the play Nora and Torvald are not open with each other and there is not a lot of honesty between them. Nora easily lies to Torvald about small things such as eating macaroons. Torvald is suspicious about Nora eating Macaroons and asks her, " Didn't Little Sweet- Tooth just look in at the confectioner's? (151)" Even though Nora had just eaten macaroons she did not hesitate to reply with " No, honestly, Torvald. (151)" Lying leads to more lying because Nora knows she can get away with lying to Torvald, this gives her more confidence and encourages her to lie if she needs to hide something because lying seems easier than telling the truth. Nora borrowed money from Krogstad to be able to finance a trip to Italy in order to save her husbands life. Nora does not want Torvald to find out about her secret loan because she does not feel that Torvald is capable of hearing the truth and she is aware of his dislike towards loans. " There's something constrained, something ugly even, about a home