A Dolls House: The Analysis of Nora and Her Case of Leaving Her Family

In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in the story are her dishonest, her individualism, and the unfortunate failings of the father figures during in her life. In the story, Nora is in a troubling situation because she borrows money from Krogstad, Torvald's employee at the bank, to pay for a trip to Italy so that Torvald could recover from an illness and is now being blackmailed by Krogstad because Torvald wants to fire him. Not only does borrow the loan, which something her husband is fully against, she lies to Torvald saying that she receives the money from her father. The borrowing of the money without her husband's approval, and her lie saying that it is from her father are two dishonest acts on Nora's part, acts that a wife should not do. In a review produced by Fabienne Oguer, he calls this situation a "Trust Game" (Oguer 85). Both characters, Torvald and Nora, hypothetically play a game in which one may has to trust the other. In the beginning of the story, Torvald is forced with the decision to either trust Nora and marry he... ...terrible decision to leave Torvald, trapped within his doll house. Works Cited Drake, David B. "Ibsen's A Doll House." The Explicator 53.1 (1994): 32-34. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. Ibesen, Henrik. A Doll's House: A New Version by Frank McGuinness. New York: Faber and Faber,1997. Print. Oguer, F. "Ibsen's "A Doll's House" As a Psychological Trust Game with Guilt and Reciprocity." Review of European Studies 2.1 (2010): 84-90. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. Rosefeldt, Paul . "Ibsen's A Doll's House." The Explicator 61.2 (2003): 84-85. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. Yuehua, G. "Gender Struggle Over Ideological Power In Ibsen's A Doll's House/LA LUTTE DES SEXES SUR LE POUVOIR IDEOLOGIQUE DANS MAISON DE POUPEE D'IBSEN." Canadian Social Science 5.1 (2009): 79-87. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.