Nora's self-centeredness is further demonstrated in her revelation that she failed to write to Mrs. Linde after her husband passed away.
Nora tells Mrs. Linde that Krogstad is a lawyer, and Mrs. Linde reveals that she knew him when he was living in her part of the country. Nora says that Krogstad is a widower who had an unhappy marriage and many children.
While Helmer goes into the study with Dr Rank, Nora talks to her old friend Mrs Linde. Mrs Linde asks Nora to use her influence with Helmer to get her a job. Nora tells Mrs Linde her secret – she borrowed money to pay for Helmer's convalescence, and has been working to pay off the debt.
Mrs. Linde says she remembers Nora being a “spendthrift” in their school days, and Nora admits that Torvald still calls her that. However, she says that she is smarter than that, and explains that she couldn't have spent a lot as they haven't had much money, and that she and Torvald have both had to work.
Nora says that she realizes that she is childlike and knows nothing about the world. She feels alienated from both religion and the law, and wishes to discover on her own, by going out into the world and learning how to live life for herself, whether or not her feelings of alienation are justified.
In that moment, she realizes that her marriage has been nothing but a sham and walks out the door, never to return. After such a triumphant exit, what could possibly bring Nora back to the home she once shared with Torvald and their three young children?
The play was so controversial that Ibsen was forced to write a second ending that he called “a barbaric outrage” to be used only when necessary. The controversy centered around Nora's decision to abandon her children, and in the second ending she decides that the children need her more than she needs her freedom.
Although this at first seems like a betrayal of Nora, it turns out to ultimately be a decision to Nora's benefit as it is after Torvald finds out about the debt that Nora is able to see the true nature of her marriage. This twist confirms Mrs. Linde's belief that honesty is always better than deceit, even if Mrs.
It is then revealed that she forged her father's signature in order to get the money. Krogstad threatens to reveal Nora's crime and thus disgrace her and her husband unless Nora can convince her husband not to fire him.
Linde also betrays Nora when she fails to help her (Nora) when Nora confides in her. She promises to help her by convincing Krogstad to withdraw his threat but when the two meet, they talk about their past and Linde confesses that she still has feelings for him and they decide to reconcile.
Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald.
What secret has Nora been keeping from Torvald? She was in love with his brother before she married him.
Linde describes how she married a husband of whom she was not particularly fond. Because her mother was confined to bed, Mrs. Linde had to look after her two younger brothers. She says she feels it would not have been justifiable to turn down her suitor's proposal and the money that would come with marriage to him.
Mrs. Linde represents the variety of ways that women can live fulfilling lives, independent of their husbands. Mrs. Linde acts as a foil to Nora, providing a serious contrast to Nora's frivolous personality and highlighting the spoiled life Nora leads.
Linde believed she had to marry someone with money so that she could take care of her family. She sacrificed her own happiness and reputation in order to fulfill her duties to her family. She sacrificed her own feelings for Krogstad, by making him believe she was not someone he should love. Mrs.
In her younger days, she had to sacrifice love for the sake of her family. Rather than marrying the dashing young Nils Krogstad, she married a businessman, Mr. Linde, so that she could support her sick mother and her two younger brothers.
At first, Nora's interaction with Dr. Rank is similarly manipulative. When she flirts with him by showing her stockings, it seems that she hopes to entice Dr. Rank and then persuade him to speak to Torvald about keeping Krogstad on at the bank.
Nora is a victim of the male-dominated society of the nineteenth century. To save her husband, Torvald, she borrows money so that he might be able to recover from a life-threatening illness in a warmer climate.
Although one can see Nora's pain in living with a man who didn't love her, her leaving was still premature. At the end of Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, Nora decides to leave Torvald because she doesn't know who he is anymore. She believes she is married to a stranger.
While speaking with Nora, Dr. Rank confesses his love for her, adding that Torvald is not the only man who would make sacrifices for her. In the end, however, we learn that Torvald does not even consider sacrificing himself for Nora. In his confession, Dr.
Rank is a doctor who is best friends with Torvald and Nora, who he visits every day. Dr. Rank suffers from spinal tuberculosis, a condition he believes was caused by his father's vices, which included having extramarital affairs and consuming too much luxurious food and drink.
Kristine Linde is a practical, down-to-earth woman, and her sensible worldview highlights Nora's somewhat childlike outlook on life. Mrs. Linde's account of her life of poverty underscores the privileged nature of the life that Nora leads.
Study focus: A tragic flaw
Helmer's tragedy is that he does not know himself. He is successful as a barrister and a bank manager. Both these professions have very clear rules. He enforces these and avoids anything that could be described as not 'quite nice' (Act One, p.
The main themes of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House revolve around the values and the issues of late 19th-century bourgeoisie, namely what looks appropriate, the value of money, and the way women navigate a landscape that leaves them little room to assert themselves as actual human beings.
When the play was first presented in Germany in 1880, the actress Hedwig Niemann-Raabe refused to act the final scene, on the grounds that "I would never leave my children". Ibsen was forced to write a different "happy ending", where Helmer forces Nora to the nursery door and she sinks down helpless before it.