Nora as a Doll in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House"

In A Doll's House, Nora Helmer spends most of her on-stage time as a doll: a vapid, passive character with little personality of her own. Her whole life is a construct of societal norms and the expectations of others. Until she comes to the realization that her life is a sham, she spends her whole life in a dream world. In this dream world, Nora does not take life seriously, an attitude that led to many of the plot’s complications.

Fiscal irresponsibility is a prominent factor in the advancement of the plot. It is Nora’s fiscal irresponsibility that catalyzes the situation in which Nora's childlike expectations of Torvald are shattered. The conflict of the story is driven by Nora’s forging of loan documents to raise money for an expensive trip to Italy; Krogstad, who had processed the loan, tries to blackmail Nora over the fact that she forged the documents. Another aspect of the crime, which was not elaborated on so much, is that even if the documents were not forged, Nora did not have any means to repay the loan anyway. Nora could be excused for trusting Krogstad not to blackmail her, but not recognizing that the loan would have to be repaid is inexcusable. Though at one point we are led to believe that whenever Nora would pry money away from Torvald, she would reserve half of it to repay the debt, when Krogstad confronts her, she confesses that she is not, in fact, in possession of the remaining balance.

An important aspect of a dream world is the suspension of cause and effect. Nora’s lackadaisical approach is very prominent throughout the story. One example of her disregard for others is when she blames Mrs. Linde1 for smuggling forbidden macaroons into the house. Though she is just trying to hide her indiscretions, she does not care whom she hurts in the process. Another aspect of the dream world is the acquisition of material possessions; Nora is always trying to make herself happy by buying things: dresses, toys, candy etc., rather than doing anything meaningful with her life. She has never spent serious time with her husband of nearly a decade, and is always dumping her children on the nurse rather than bonding with them herself. This practice may have been common at the time the play was written, but Ibsen is clearly not ashamed of bold social criticism (Chandler 333).

In her dream world, Nora takes a back seat approach to life and becomes like an object, reacting to other’s expectations rather than advancing herself. As a result of her passivity, Torvald is very possessive of, frequently adding the “my” modifier to all the pet names he calls her. In the original Riksmål2 (Boel), there are many monetary idioms, lost in translation, that advance the concept of Nora’s objectness. In one line, Torvald calls her “[his] dearest property”; Mrs. Linde states that she will save Nora “at any price”, as if she could be bought (Drake 32). Though she is infatuated with the acquisition of possessions, she herself is a possession of Torvald.

When Torvald enters the scene, Nora's childlike behavior becomes more patent. Torvald calls her pet names "little lark", "little squirrel", and "Little Miss Extravagant". Nora is being treated like a cute little girl and she happily accepts the epithets. Torvald finds himself having to restrain Nora with rules, much as a father would have to inhibit a child, forbidding her from pursuing candy and other temporal pleasures. (Kashan) When the play was first performed in English (in Milwaukee), it was titled "The Child Wife" (Templeton 113).

The maturity level Nora exhibits demonstrates that the relationship between Torvald and Nora is more like father and daughter than husband and wife. (Ford) She whines at Torvald3, exhibits poor judgment4, does not care about the consequences of her actions5, and immaturely shuts her ears to unpleasant thoughts, placing her hand on her mouth and exclaiming, "Oh! Don't say such things!" when Torvald presents a hypothetical tragedy.

The father-daughter relationship is referred to later when Nora confronts Torvald in the final act. She makes this connection that life with her father was like life with Torvald. Nora’s father would force his beliefs on her and she would comply with them lest she upset him; she would bury her personal belief under Papa’s. According to Nora, Torvald was guilty of the same things. In addition to his insistence on her wearing the fish girl costume is his frustration over her inability to grasp the tarantella. The costume and dance are part of Torvald's fantasy of gazing upon Nora from across the room at a party and pretending that she is something exotic. Torvald made Nora take on a foreign identity; Torvald used her as a doll.

On the subject of the costume party, Dr. Rank suggested that Nora go as herself and that he be invisible. Under the surface, Rank is suggesting that Nora should not be a doll. With an invisible chaperon, Nora would not be dominated by a figure placing an identity over her. If this interpretation is Rank’s intended meaning, it would corroborate Nora’s judgment of his character when she explains how she always feels at ease around Dr. Rank because he does not have any expectations or demands of her.

At the end of the play, the doll symbolism becomes very powerful. Nora imagines that Torvald will two dimensionally remain morally upright and, on principle, defend Nora's honor and not allow Krogstad to blackmail the Helmers. Nora imagines that Torvald would sacrifice his own reputation and future to save her, but Torvald tells her that he would not make the sacrifice, shattering Nora's dream world. At this point it becomes clear to Nora that “[she] had been living all these years with a strange man, and [she] had born him three children”. This realization forces Nora into the real world and she ceases to be a doll. At the end of the above statement, she adds “Oh, I cannot bear to think of it!” which echoes her childlike shutting out of unpleasant thoughts.

It is not only that Torvald would not sacrifice himself for her that opens Nora’s eyes to reality. She did not understand that though Torvald loved her, he loved her as a thing - a status symbol (Lord 25). Nora serves as a wife and mother, but not as an equal to Torvald. Torvald planned to cope with the scandal resulting from blackmail by stripping Nora of her spousal and motherly duties, but would keep her in the house for appearance sake. If Nora, with her reputation tainted as a criminal, would poison the minds of the Helmer children, she would be useless as a mother to them (Metzger).Continued on Next Page »