How Does Nora Change Throughout The Play

612 Words3 Pages
Drama Essay Nora Helmer, the protagonist in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, is a very complex and contradicting character whose identity changes throughout the play. Henrik Ibsen’s play is set in 1879. In these times, the man ran the house and brought home the money and the woman took care of the house and children. Nora is made out to be a childish, carefree, ignorant woman in the first act of the play. Nora is actually in a very difficult situation, she has borrowed money from a man, named Krogstad, to save her husband’s life, and now Krogstad needs Nora’s help or he will blackmail her and tell her husband of her lies and deceit. Nora like most women, wants to please others. She is a charming, kind, and amusing woman. Her husband, Torvald, sees her as a doll, and nothing more, but Nora is a strong willed woman, with determination. Throughout the play Nora evolves and stops letting her husband and others treat her as nothing more than a doll.…show more content…
Her husband, Torvald, even calls her “a little squirrel” and a “spendthrift”, but Nora does not seem to mind, in fact she even plays along with it (860). But, this is where Nora’s complexity of a character shows. When Nora is confronted by Nils Krogstad, the man she borrowed the money from, who now needs help, her true character is revealed. Nora has not been carelessly spending the money Torvald gives her, but instead is using it to slowly pay Krogstad back. (878). Although it is unlikely for a woman in those time to borrow money, much less go behind her husband’s back, Nora does what she must to save her husband. Nora’s actions show that she is in fact wise, not the childish woman she is made out to be in the first act. Nora’s character now shows independence, strong will, complexity and cleverness to the

More about How Does Nora Change Throughout The Play

Open Document