Nora Character Analysis Laith Khalil

AP English
#7
10/22/10

Nora Character Analysis

The word “freedom” can be defined as “the power to act or speak or think without externally

imposed restraints”. However, it can also be construed as an “exemption from an obligation or duty”.

It is often that the sacred word “freedom” is confused among these two definitions by those who strive

for it. One such person who struggled to remain on the fine line between freedom from “restraints”

while remaining faithful to her “obligations and duties” is Nora Helmer. She is the protagonist of the

play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. This play is centered around the life of a household in the late

nineteenth century. Her image as a typical happy housewife is embedded into the mind of the reader

and plays an important role throughout the play as a contrast, and one with little foundation to begin

with at that. The transformation of Nora Helmer is one of many twists and turns punctuated by her

various uses of other characters to define herself throughout the play which highlight her descent into

confusion and madness only to rise out of the ashes of her own demise. Nora, though crafty in many

respects, ultimately suffered a good deal for a reward of bitter sweet taste.

Nora shows very early on that her status as “the ideal wife” is but a facade she dons to appease

herself and the others. This facade is one whose roots die slowly throughout the play until it is no

more. However, the roots of Nora's idealistic belief in her and her husband Torvald's “beautiful happy

home” (Ibsen, 22) in which the husband commands a “manly independence” (Ibsen, 23) which would

be threatened by the involvement of a woman. She even often expresses her supposed submission

towards her husband in the form of saying things such as “As you please, Torvald.” (Ibsen, 13). This

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submission and the image of manly strength is shown in Nora's initial environment through Torvald

giving her the nicknames of weak, frail, and powerless animals such as a “squirrel” and a “lark” (Ibsen,

12) which denote her image as one who is not only weak but ignorant. Torvald also hits upon this by

remarking jokingly about Nora's quips as they were “ [just] like a woman” (Ibsen, 12). At this point of

the story is not entirely untrue as it reflects upon Nora's lack of understanding of the society around her.

This ignorance quickly turns into confusion which then in turn promptly transforms into questioning.

Nora's sense of independence was present ever since her introduction at the very start of the

play. One easy to overlook aspect of this is that she gives the Porter extra money and seems very merry

about it at that. However, it soon after discovered that money has recently been tight and Nora has on

her own decided to begin spending more and more money on the assumption that Torvald is soon to

have “a big salary and earns lots and lots of money.” (Ibsen, 12). Even though slight, this kind of

action shows that there is a seed of rebellious thought within the conscious of Nora. However,

rebellion in itself is never a truly negative thing, as it could result in both desirable and undesirable

results.

Another early action that hints upon the seeds of dissent is when Nora ate macaroons and hid

the fact from Torvald, her husband. As he notices that she might have been eating sweets, he jokingly

remarks calling her a “Miss Sweet-Tooth” (Ibsen, 14), which connotes a tone of superiority in not only

wisdom but status as he is calling her a mere child (which will be elaborated further upon later). And

to the questioning of her symbolic superior she answers with a defiant “No, certainly not.” (Ibsen, 14).

This drives home the point that Nora is not in any way incapable or unskilled in deceit to her most

beloved one. This is further shown through her willpower and gumption to answer a second round of

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questioning about whether she had eaten sweets with a “No, Torvald, I assure you really–” (Ibsen, 14).

Defiance in this respect may seem as negligible, however, one must keep in mind the essence of what

she had done; she has spent money on items that her husband had not condoned (the sweets), hidden

some of the evidence of such transgressions, and lied to her husband. Taking into consideration the

time period in which this play takes place, what she has done is paramount to a crime against the

society itself. No matter so, she keeps up her mask of frivolity when in fact it is one that is only

partially true. For Nora truly believed her “reckless” (Ibsen, 14) spending was warranted with

Torvald's acquisition of a high paying job.

This sense of belief is what will guide Nora to do many other actions as it is what she considers

right that defines her as a person. This again goes against the time of the play in which society dictates

that a woman should be a mere extension of her husband and not do much more than to obey him in

every thing he does and says. In the beginning of the play Nora is also such an obedient wife, at least in

beliefs. This faith in beliefs is shown at the end of Act I, in which she takes to heart Torvald's speech of

how most bad people come to be; “It seems most commonly to be the mother's influence …

persistently poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation … I literally feel physically sill

when I am in the company of such people” (Ibsen, 37). This prompts Nora to begin doubting her own

pureness even though she disobeyed her husband and borrowed money initially to save her husband as

“his life was in danger” (Ibsen, 21). She begins to feels confused and bewildered by the weight of the

fact that what she has done to save her great love has pushed her greatest love away from her without

him even knowing of what happened. This is expressed by Nora saying, “Deprave my little children?

Poison my home? It's not true. It can't possibly be true.” (Ibsen, 38) For Nora has already and continues

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to defy her husband through her actions (such as the buying the macaroons). This is yet another seed of

discourse and transformation that germinates and grows as Nora progresses. It is Nora's backbone,

determination, and belief in her own judgment that gives early evidence to her transformation into a

more independent woman. This independence is ironic as it is formed through her interactions with

others, not completely through herself.

Nora constantly uses other minor characters as an opportunity to release a side of her

individuality that is held at bay when she is around Torvald. One of the most important of these

characters is Mrs. Linde as she starts off as the polar opposite of Nora. As Linde is a bitter and

sorrowful widow who is wearied by hard work and suffering with little room for love in her heart, as

she explains that she was left in the world with “Not even any sorrow or grief to live upon.” (Ibsen,

17), Nora is a happy housewife who has relatively comfortable living conditions and children to love

and care for. It is this very contrast between life styles that results in a very fine contrast between them

both. It is this contrast that results in the further unveiling of Nora's more independent character when

it comes to what she believes in and what she wants to do in life. She is also the medium through which

we discover the truth of some of the lies she has told Torvald such as her being confined in a room

making Christmas tree ornaments for three weeks (Ibsen, 15), when in fact as she reveals to Linde that

she had spent that time copying documents for money … she had a job. This gives Nora an amount of

power that she has yet to comprehend the extent nor strength of; she describes this feeling of struggle

and reward as if “It was like being a man” (Ibsen 23). She also reveals for the first time that she has

borrowed money behind her husband's back and that she had forged her father's signature. Most

importantly, Linde magnifies the extent of Nora's naivety.

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Another main character that was instrumental in the development of the independence of Nora

was Krogstad. He was the corrupt and desperate person who lent her money and was constantly

threatening to tell her husband of the money she owed. He was also key in breaking her naivety as she

was forced to gripe with the reality that things could go wrong for her. He even discusses how that no

matter what Nora does (even suicide) that “what use would it be? I should have [Torvald] in my power

all the same.” (Ibsen, 55). It is this frankness and cruel realism that is able to make Nora once again

question herself and the happiness that she thought she had built. This sense is heightened to a level of

paranoia as Nora frantically panics about the Krogstad's letter in Torvald's letter-box detailing her

deceit of Torvald, her father, and Krogstad himself. As Nora had naively thought that she could have

postponed informing her husband of the story of her debt, “after many years, when I am no longer as

nice looking as [she is] now” (Ibsen, 22). However, with the advent of Krogstad and his letter she

quickly comes to the frantic resolution of that her relationship with Torvald is doomed, or as she says at

the time, “Torvald, Torvald, there is no hope for us now!” (Ibsen, 55). Just as her naivety was matured

by Krogstad, Dr. Rank was responsible for illuminating the more childish side of Nora.

Dr. Rank was used as a device of childish play and amusement for Nora. The irony in this is that Rank

was a dying man and one who was most pitiable in that respect. He even confessed his heart to her at

one point (Ibsen, 50-1) and was promptly refused with great force. She likens him with the maids that

she often spent time with as a child, “because they never moralized at all, and talked to each other

about such entertaining things.” (Ibsen, 51). This implies yet another personal struggle within herself,

which is between the part of herself that includes people she feels obliged to love, such as her dad and

Torvald, who both set her moral compasses (as aforementioned confusion when she thought herself

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poisoning her children), and the people she chooses to be with as they do not discuss what is right or

wrong, rather they are equal to her if not on a higher position. She is in effect “free” when she is free

with people like Rank. It is probably because Rank and people like him that Nora was able to

formulate an idea of what true equality means, of what it means to, as Rank said, “gladly his life for

your sake” (Ibsen, 50).

All these culminating factors lead up to the climatic event of Torvald and Nora's tumultuous

argument in which the secret about the debt is revealed. When Torvald is reading the letter, Nora tries

to escape with the image of suicide in her mind, imagining “the icy, black water – the unfathomable

depths …” (Ibsen, 72). However, as she is confronted by Torvald concerning her deeds, she slowly

becomes colder and calmer. It is as if she has been worrying all this time for a man, her husband

Torvald who she said “loved her; he would never for a moment hesitate to give his life for me.” (Ibsen,

50). However, through Torvald's rage and anger Nora could tell that the man she thought she had been

nothing more than what society had told her to believe was the image of her husband … the person that

she had sacrificed herself for so long for, as she says, “Its is a thing hundreds of thousands of women

have done.” (Ibsen, 80), simply was not there. Instead, there stood Torvald with his rage and realistic

self. It is at that point that she decided to question everything in life, for if the important thing that was

in her life was not actually true, then she would question everything thing else in life and try to find her

answers outside of her father and husband who have “wronged her” by keeping her ignorant and just an

extension of themselves. She chose to give up on the “strange man” (Ibsen, 80) that she thought she

once knew and change herself so that she could become independent enough to hopefully answer her

questions about the world in a way that will make her equal to men in general.

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Nora transformed from a confused dependent housewife to a cold and resolved independent

woman planning to find the answers to her questions. This was facilitated through many characters

interacting with Nora in a way that conflicted and developed her. Linde allowed Nora to take pride in

what she had done and to revel in it. Krogstad had pressured her out of her own sense of safety and

allowed her form a more critical view of the world. Rank allowed Nora to be more of herself and

continue to develop her affinity for being an equal. The final fallout between Nora and Torvald

solidified these changes in character while destroying any lingering sense of dependence or attachment

to him all in one fell swoop. Nora began this play as a prisoner of her own dreams and fancies only to

be freed of the obligation of maintaining and being able to freely think what she desires. Freedom may

mean quite a few things, but in the case of Nora, it is a case of where one human being was released

from the hold of another … so that from that day on, they can hold themselves to their own standards.

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