The Unrecognized Dimensions of Nora Essay - 1512 Words

In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House, Ibsen tells a story of a wife and mother who not only has been wronged by society, but by her beloved father and husband because of her gender. Nora left her father’s house as a naà ¯ve daughter only to be passed to the hands of her husband forcing her to be naà ¯ve wife and mother, or so her husband thinks. When Nora’s husband, Torvald becomes deathly ill, she takes matters into her own hands and illegally is granted a loan that will give her the means to save her husband’s life. Her well guarded secret is later is used against her, to exort Torvald, who was clueless that his wife was or could be anything more than he made her. However, Nora has many unrecognized dimensions â€Å"Besides being lovable, Nora is†¦show more content†¦Their relationship is better related to a parent child relationship not a husband and wife relationship. As the play develops Nora becomes exposed for her true self, and not her r eputation given to her by the dominate males in her life. In an attempt to achieve total dependence on Torvald, he chastises Nora about spending money on gifts for the up in coming Christmas holiday. As his personal standard operating procedure he tortures his wife about money until she begs him to take a temporary loan until his promotion is fully instated so that she may continue to shop. Torvald uses this opportunity to further chastise her about being a woman and that she could never possibly understand the facts about currency (Ibsen 800). Her appà ©tit for an unlimited bank account makes it easy to force Nora to be dominated. By the end of his speech, Nora is able to persuade a little extra spending money, making him feel superior to her, and her feeling that she can charm anything for her own gain. Although, Nora allows her husband to dominate her, she is a completely different person when she is around other people. This dominance is extended to her personal friend, Kristine (Ibsen 804). Nora subjects Kristine to answer embarrassing questions regarding her sudden turn of bad luck. When Nora uses her picturesque life as rebuttal