A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

In A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, Torvalds wife seems to make a very controversial decision at the end of the play by leaving everything she has including her house, husband, and children. At the beginning of the play, Nora seems to come off as a childish gold-digger that just pretends to love Torvald for the money, as she seemingly rants on about his new job, which will increase his income. Nora seems childish always asking Torvald for favors instead of sharing the equal communication that couples would normally share. Soon after we discover Nora's infatuation with money, we learn the real truth. Nora has secretly been living a double life. Nora has been saving money to pay off a loan from Krogstad. In the past, Torvald had become ill and Nora forged her father's signature and took out a loan in order to pay for Torvald's treatment without Torvald knowing this.

After the audience finds this out they see a different side of Nora. The audience loses the sense of Nora as a child and starts to see her more as a risk taker and independent. Nora is proud of the sacrifice she made in order to save her husbands life and believes that her husband would do the same for her. Yet her perception of her husband's dedication to her is a bit off. When Krogstad threatens to reveal the truth about the forged signature, Nora begins to slightly panic. She ponders on the idea that she potentially has brought disgrace and scandal upon Torvald. Nora now begins to question how moral her decision actually was.

Nora has her epiphany when Torvald finds out about the loan and unleashed his disappointment with her and speak of the disgrace that she has brought upon his name. When Torvald says that he will not take the blame for Nora, Nora realizes that her husband is a completely different person than she thought he actually was. She thought that Torvald would be selfless and take all the blame and try to work through the problem. Nora is wrong realizes that their marriage had been fake.

Nora's reasons for leaving at the end of the play can be justified. Maybe Nora believes Torvald was right after all and that she doesn't know anything about the world and she is just a child. Since she apparently doesn't know anything about society or herself, she feels that she is a bad mother and leaves her children because it is for their benefit. Nora also leaves her home because she is selfish and would rather move onto a new life instead of fixing her current one. Nora wants to learn things in life that she wouldn't be allowed to while living with Torvald. She leaves her children because they are the only thing that connects her to Torvald and without leaving them she would still be connected to Torvald. Nora realizes that Torvald views her more so as a possession rather than a wife, hence the name A Doll's House, where Nora is the doll. Nora makes a statement of her independence of Torvald when Torvald