"How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything [says Nora]. It would upset our mutual relations altogether; our beautiful happy home would no longer be what it is now." Christine, still amazed, asks if Nora will ever reveal her secret to Torvald.
How is Torvald portrayed in his approach to issues of money? Torvald is portrayed as frugal. He is concerned that Nora is spending too much money onChristmas items. Even though Torvald will have a big salary after the New Year, he feels thatthey needed to economise so that they do not go into debt.
He is quick to judge people, as is seen from his judgment of Krogstad. “An atmosphere of lies like that infects and poisons the whole life of a home.” He also immediately blames Nora's deceit on her father's character and remarks that he cannot allow her to bring up the children. “I shouldn't dare trust you with them.
Torvald says he is willing to toil for her day and night, bear any suffering, "but no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves." "It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have always done," Nora quietly points out.
Torvald, reading Krogstad's letter, at first can't believe Nora's crime, then grows enraged. He says he will have little choice but to submit to Krogstad's power over him. Then Torvald turns on Nora, accusing her of being dishonest and immoral.
The fact that Nora pays the porter twice what she owes him indicates her spendthrift and wasteful nature or habit. It is also evident that Nora spends very generously before her husband has received his promotion and extra salary!
She is contemplating suicide and is about to rush out of the house never to return when Torvald storms out of his study in a rage after reading Krogstad's letter. Nora confesses that everything Krogstad has written is true and tells Torvald she has loved him more than anything.
When Torvald accuses Nora of not loving him anymore, Nora says his claim is true. She then explains that she realized that she didn't love Torvald that evening, when her expectation that he would take the blame for her—showing his willingness to sacrifice himself for love—wasn't met.
Stage directions tell us that, "A hope flashes across his mind" and then Torvald says, "The most wonderful thing of all?" (3.381). He's referring to the conversation he and Nora had right before she walked out of the room.
For the author, Torvald stands for all the individual-denying social ills against which Ibsen has dedicated all his writing. As a victim of his narrow view of society, Torvald inspires sympathy rather than reproach.
Perhaps Torvald's most dislikeable quality is his blatant hypocrisy. Many times throughout the play, Torvald criticizes the morality of other characters. He trashes the reputation of Krogstad, one of his lesser employees (and ironically the loan shark that Nora is indebted to).
He once committed a forgery, Torvald tells her. "Out of necessity?" asks Nora, and he nods. Any man is allowed one false move, Torvald continues, so long as he openly confesses and accepts his punishment.
Finally, Torvald is a misogynist. A misogynist is someone who has prejudice against women, who hates them or doesn't trust them. Torvald can be both a victim of society's pressures and a misogynist because usually, misogynistic societies create misogynistic people.
When he is greeting or adoring her, however, he calls her by childish animal nicknames such as “my little skylark” and “my squirrel.” By placing her within such a system of names, Torvald not only asserts his power over Nora but also dehumanizes her to a degree.
However, Torvald uses his forgiveness as an additional means of objectifying and controlling Nora by saying he now owns her doubly. He believes he has the power to make her a new person, showing how little he thinks of her and her ability to make anything of herself on her own volition.
In the play, money symbolizes the power that the characters have over one another. In the first scene, Torvald's ability to dictate how much Nora spends on Christmas presents shows his power over her. Meanwhile, the debt that Nora owes Krogstad allows him to have power over her and Torvald.
At the end of A Doll's House, Nora makes the ultimate assertion of her agency and independence by walking out on her husband and her children in order to truly understand herself and learn about the world.
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.
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.
This is most apparent when Torvald bans Nora from eating macaroons, restricts her finances to an allowance, and calls her by several names.
Nora asks that he not look at her “like that,” and Torvald responds by asking if he can't look at his “most treasured possession.” He says that he can tell she still has the tarantella in her blood and that makes her even more desirable.
Nora's use of Torvald's pet names for her to win his cooperation is an act of manipulation on her part. She knows that calling herself his “little bird,” his “squirrel,” and his “skylark,” and thus conforming to his desired standards will make him more willingly to give in to her wishes.
Torvald has just read Krogstad's letter and is enraged by its content. He accuses Nora of ruining his life. He essentially tells her that he plans for forsaking her, contrary to his earlier claim that he would take on everything himself.
Eventually he'll control the whole bank. He leaves a note detailing everything to Torvald. Nora dances a crazy dance to distract Torvald from opening his mail. At the end of the act, Nora contemplates suicide.
Why does Nora claim Torvald's never "actually" loved her? Torvald never came to her rescue when she was threatened. What toy does Nora compare herself to?