Nora’s character and development in “A Doll’s House
In this play by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Nora is one of the main characters whom the play revolves around. She is a wife to Torvald Helmer, and they have three children. At the beginning of the play, she is happy about charismas and her husband’s promotion. She is also seen to be somehow disappointed by the fact that other characters believe that she is wasteful. However, she does not care about that but stays happily with her husband’s silly names to her like a songbird, Skylark. Besides all that, Torvald treats her like a child, for example, by forbidding her from eating macaroons, something she like despite her promises of total obedience to him. All this description can show that Nora was entirely innocent and carefree that suggests that her husband Torvald does not take her as an adult person just because she is a woman.
Nevertheless, Nora’s character in the play gradually develops to complement the main subjects of the author of this play including humanism. In a real sense, where two parties agree to marry each other, then equal opportunities should be given to each party, equal rights and respect to each other. However, after a while, Nora realized that she has to understand her position in her life and stop being played as a toy in the house of Helmer. Nora’s character development can be described as a contrived process because at the end of the play she decided to move out from Torvalds marriage and looked up for the life experience she wanted where she can be free to develop her idea, imaginations and do her actions.
The author of the play’s Ibsen gave a final reflection of Nora’s character as an intelligent and empowered woman with confidence and courage to move away from a simple and slavery clutches of her old life to her own chosen way of life. Those reflections show how Nora seems to be a woman who is limited by society’s traditions that do not give women’s power and freedom.
When Nora was still new in her marriage, she borrowed money from Krogstad where she concerted her father’s signature so that she can access financial support for her visit to Italy that was necessary to save her husband’s life. When Krogstad went to Nora, they speak of why she used the money. Nora replied that is it not the right of the daughter to shield her father from worry and anxiety when he’s old and dying. She added by responding that is it not the rights of the woman to save her husband’s. Those two statements are making a lot of sense. Honestly, even if I don’t know much about the law, there must be an article somewhere that highlights that such things are possible in real life situations. Her concern is that she could not sign for a loan to take care of her family as a man, but she is questioning the rights of the woman in society.
As the play progress, Krogstad’s intimidations and violence that follows doesn’t change Nora’s nature. They open her eyes to oversee her potential that looked to lack fulfilment and appreciations from the understanding of Krogstad and her husband. Instead, she appeals for mercy, and she does not seem to be much conscious of her life. However, she is more depressed about the repercussions that will occur in their family life. She is a social and enduring lady because she used to face her problems by herself. Even if to what level of threat she received she was not easy at all to open up the secret also if she is constantly threatened. This shows how courageous she was, and the confidence and faith she had on her own opinions. Most of the women in our society’s today don’t know how to tackle their challenges with stages; they rely on consultations especially from their husband’s without weighing the weight of the outcome of someone’s suggestion
When Nora was challenging Torvald, she told him that she has been playing tricks for him. In addition to her distinguished dancing and singing tricks, Nora comes to realize that she has been displaying on a show throughout her marriage, by feigning so that she can satisfy the desires of her husband unlike what her father, and the society at large expected of her.
Another trait that describes how she developed from a dependent woman to an independent woman of the society is being compromised. She showed her adaptability to the community she was living without bragging that she was superior to others. Nora was quite careful with her children as she used to play with them as friends. She was also very much friendly to Mrs Linde to the extent of harmonizing with her and even requesting her husband to give Linde a job. Actually to my understanding, Nora has never shown any sign of conflict in the context. All these traits contributed to her towards developing into an adult woman who knows the real position of women irrespective of the environment she was living in.
She was also not a believer and lawful like other characters in the play. To my understanding Nora had self-wisdom. She had a lot of faith in real thinking and knowledge of human beings in our societies. This brings us to the fact that she does not care whether it is right or wrong to save the life of her husband and her dad. She said, “I don’t know much about the law, but there must be something that illustrates detailed information about it. She actual does not believe that the law can limit someone from saving the life of his/her father or husband.
When Torvald Helmer found that Nora was also involved in some forgery, he uses offensive language with his pride just to make Nora feel guilty and disappointed. After Torvald read the second letter, Nora was wholly distressed and unhappy. But abruptly, she gained some courage and a positive approach towards her life when she identified her self-importance.
Nora becomes very violent; she does not compromise her husband and declares to leave the house in the night. She ignores all duties including the duty of a wife, but she is a mother destined to her duty to herself. ”I am no longer prepared to accept what people say and what’s written in books. I must think things out of myself and try to find my answer ”.these are words that she spoke when Helmer her husband tells her with some experts of the religion and morality and she boldly disagrees with her husband. In spite of Helmers’ constant efforts to stop Norah, she left the house and went out to find her place to start her different lifestyle different to the one she has been living with a husband.
The understanding of Norah of her financial activities collides with the attitudes that are slowly but sure brought to the light in the dialogues with the other characters. Norah rescued the state of her husband by conducting a heroic project to prevent the loss of Helmer’s wealth and property. She was telling Mrs Linde that ”I have got something to be proud and pleased about too, I saved the life of Torvald.” Norah has not only acted as an autonomous person with the business idea of which she saved money and paid back the loan with some of the wealth she saved from her husband of which this enterprise idea gave her some self-esteem because as she did it was almost like a man. The reason she could not tell this to Helmer was because of the gender norms she’s concerned like the masculine pride nature of her husband, Helmer Torvald.
Norah is courageous in that despite the hostile response of Mrs Linde of her childish behaviour and actions and that a woman was not supposed to take the loan without the consent of her husband. Norah knows her experience as a woman; she picked at the hardcore the fact that the impossibility of a woman to conduct the financial transaction without their husband knowledge.
Finally even after her husband pleaded her to remain in the relationship, Nora decides to choose her way of life and leave. Nora’s characterization has been viewed in many ways. Activist representing women join her character as women’s role against prevailing societal norms and expectations of which many other people interpreted in various ways. However, Nora is a character of practical conscience in terms of the play. She emerges as the truth of reality. She finds herself in conventional morality and the individual life of a human being. She should be identified as a human being instead of a female character in the play.
Nora’s behaviour is more smoothly accepted when she is acting like a woman. Nora’s femininity is a powerful and divulging demonstration of how gender is performed various historical versions of womanliness are collected and exposed. Her husband Torvald identifies her as a child, but she acts out her different roles. However, her actions of being rebellious in which she gets in shows that she is not as innocent or exited as she appeared before. She then came to see her position in her marriage clearly and finds the effort to free herself from her oppressive life.