Andrew Robledo Critical Thinking Fall-2011 Professor Dibakur Burua Essay #3 Noras personality in A Dolls House.

In the play, A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen, a house wife named Nora battles both her inner conscious and other individuals as she is confronted with her own secrets and wrong doings. This action causes a drastic change within her personality from beginning to end. Nora at first comes off as a normal housewife and a mother tending to the kids, maintaining the living environment, and being an essential part to her marriage and family. More about herself is revealed within the first act (and as the play progresses) when Nora comes face to face with another character named Krogstad. Although Nora is very much a dedicated housewife and mother, she is also a friend, who has committed the act of forgery that has brought upon a negative outcome upon Krogstad. Krogstad intimidates her enough that she begins to worry about the welfare of herself and, most importantly, her husband and children. Her personality goes from being content and secure, to being worried and insecure. In the second act, feeling threatened by Krogstad and her own secret possibly being revealed, she begins to question who she really is. The main aspect of her personality that she manages to keep up with in the first two acts is putting on a faade for her husband, not letting him detect any intensity of the conflict. She begins to debate with herself, questioning

whether or not shes a moral individual who, in essence, deserves a family and a husband. She realizes that Krogstad has trapped her, yet she continues to fend him off doing whatever necessary to keep the truth from her husband. Nora has conflicting emotions during this act and even contemplates suicide to save the reputation of both her husband and children. In the final act, before Torvald finds the letter, Nora and Torvald both have a heated and meaningful debate about their love and marriage. She is taken aback when he admits that hed do anything to protect her and their marriage. This debate is ended amicably but the tension between them instantly rises again when Torvald finds and reads the letter that states that his wife is a fraud. Torvald surprises her completely as he angrily recants everything hes just said to her and admits that shes put the reputation of both hers and his at stake. He becomes disgusted and embarrassed by her. Nora opens up about everything and Torvald, feeling guilty for harshly judging and condemning her so soon, begins to apologize and becomes confused when he learns that she forged for his sake. Nora not only opens up about her forging her fathers signature for money but she also opens up about everything else. She admits that shes no more of a good wife than she is a mother and that the only way shell feel peace is if she leaves Torvald and the children. She does not want her immoral actions to have a negative effect on her family. Not only that but she feels no love for Torvald anymore. At the conclusion of the play Nora is somewhat of a much better person after opening up about what she hid and owning up to what negative outcomes (Krogstads loss of job, the ruining of his reputation) she was responsible for. It was only then that

she finally knew right from wrong, and realized she didnt love Torvald. She feels free from the oppression she felt while living married. Nora leaves much to Torvalds dismay with the intention of looking for a new life, a life she feels shes fit for. Regarding Noras decision to leave her children, most people would oppose that and theyd probably deem her as a female deadbeat. But Noras reasons for doing so were completely understandable considering her conflicting thoughts and emotions she had about the situation. Nora probably had the thought that if she stuck around after doing what she did, she could possibly repeat it all over again, and after realizing the sadness and pain she caused both her husband and Krogstad, she couldnt deal with taking any chances and decided that leaving was something that would justify her wrong doing. She also didnt want her children to grow up around someone who was corrupted (as she believed) and end up like her when they grew older. It is hard to side with Nora on her decision to leave her children because although she left to protect her husband and children from her negative influence she practically walked out on her children without even a farewell or an explanation, In essence, she did abandon them. That part of the play alone is hard to condone even if she did it for the childrens sake. Leaving an unhealthy marriage is an excusable act that any woman can do but everyone would be quick to criticize their decision to leave their children forever. Anyone can not that after reading act one that Nora was always a good person and that she just held a lot of secrets and did something immoral that brought on negative outcomes. At the end of the play she learns to free herself from her own

dishonesty, and also experiences a self-realization so overwhelming that it caused her to not only leave her children but come to the conclusion that she didnt love her husband.