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A Doll's House: The Analysis of Nora and Her Case of Leaving Her Family.

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In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in …show more content…

Unfortunately, there are two players to this game, and Nora decides to betray her husband and borrow money anyhow, not only to help her aide him during his illness, but also use it to an advantage: "Years from now, when I’m no longer pretty … Then it might be useful to have something up my sleeve” (Ibesen 18). Fabienne Oguer states that Torvald's motivation to play "Trust" is that “he believes Nora would feel guilty if she betrayed his trust" (Oguer 86). Unfortunately, it only makes her feel an obligation to be an individual, separate from martial control. Nora is motivated throughout the story to be according to her "free," however, she does not only want to be free of the loan she is owning to Krogstad, she wants to be free from her father and husband's control. Throughout the story, Nora feels as if she has always been treated like a doll child first by her father and then by her husband and is never given the opportunity to evolve as an individual and become a woman who has the potential to be independent and forceful (Yuehua 83). The perfect example her attempt to fulfill her potential as a woman is when she first borrows the loan from Krogstad by forging her dying father's signature. Although she knows her act is wrong and against the law, she still goes on with a naïve challenge to Krogstad during their encounter about the forged signature

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