Nora procured money and told Torvald that her father gave it to them, though she really raised it herself. Nora's father died before Torvald had a chance to find out that the money didn't come from him. Nora has kept the source of the money a secret because she doesn't want his “man's pride” to be hurt.
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.
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.
Nora illegally forged her father's signature after he died, which was without Helmers permission or knowledge. Krogstad threatens to expose Nora's secrets if she does not help him keep his job at the bank.
Nora hides her macarons from Torvald because she knows that he disapproves of her eating them. She doesn't want to give him any reason to criticize her, so she keeps them hidden.
The money was necessary to finance a trip that saved her husband's life, but Nora forged her father's signature to secure the loan and lied to Torvald that her father had given them the money. Thus, she has been deceiving her husband for years as she worked to repay the loan.
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 banned Nora from eating macaroons. Although Nora claims that she never disobeys Torvald, this is proved false in the very opening of the play when Nora eats macaroons while she was alone in the living room. The macaroons come to represent Nora's disobedience and deceit.
In spite of being forbidden from eating sweets, she eats macaroons without the knowledge of her husband, and even lies to him about it, saying “I wouldn't do anything that you don't like.” Nora is also manipulative and often plays dumb to get her way with her husband.
Nora is the main character of the play, and we get to find out about her secret when Mrs. Linde comes to have a chat with her. It appears that Nora borrowed a large sum of money from Krogstad to pay for the trip to Italy. It was the only chance to help Torvald improve his health.
Nora replies that though it would be unpleasant for her husband to find out that she had borrowed from Krogstad, Torvald would pay off the loan, and dealings with Krogstad would be terminated. In addition, Krogstad would lose his job.
Nora is both a victim and villain. There's no easy way to categorize her, but the social setting in which she finds herself definitely plays a role in how she is perceived by critics.
"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."
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?
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.
Torvald tells her to stop talking, bemoans the ugliness of the forgery, and calls Nora a hypocrite and a liar. He then says that he should have seen such a thing coming—Nora's father was a morally reckless individual. Torvald blames Nora for ruining his life and his happiness by putting him at Krogstad's mercy.
She's been secretly working odd jobs and even skimming money from her allowance to pay back the debt. Later on we learn that Nora was so determined to save her husband that she committed fraud to do so. This choice shows that Nora is both daring and tenacious. She values love over the law.
She is both a victim of her circumstances and also at fault for actions which she committed. Nora is a victim. Throughout her entire life, she has never been taken seriously by anyone. She has been treated like a doll by both male characters in her life, her father and her husband, and has acted accordingly.
Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed, and lives in fear of her husband finding out.
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 main message of A Doll's House seems to be that a true (read: good) marriage is a joining of equals. The play centers on the dissolution of a marriage that doesn't meet these standards.
Tarantella is therefore a symbol of Nora's constraining illusions that belong to her previous life and, at the same time, a symbol of her aware destruction of them in order to be free. It means that we are in front of a transformation from an old existence to a new one.
Torvald's objectification of Nora is clear from the start, as he addresses her with dehumanizing epithets like “little singing bird” and “little squirrel of mine,” which cast Nora more as a pet, as a thing to be kept, than as a person with autonomy (3).
Nora talks joyfully about her love for Torvald, and Torvald refers to Nora using affectionate pet names. Their loving marriage stands in stark contrast with the lives of the other characters: the marriages of Krogstad and Mrs. Linde were based on necessity rather than love, and were unhappy.
He treats Nora like a child, in a manner that is both kind and patronizing. He does not view Nora as an equal but rather as a plaything or doll to be teased and admired.