Nora is Torvald's wife. She plays a very important role in the play as she is the one who leads to the development of the story. Eight years ago she borrowed money from Krogstad, so that she could save her husband's life and has kept this a secret from him. But keeping this secret is harder as Krogstad starts threatening her to expose her secret unless she convinces Torvald to keep Krogstad employed. As she fails to do this, Krogstad starts warning her even more, and telling her that he knows that she did a lot more than just borrow a lot of money and keep this a secret, but that she also forged her father's signature. This was a crime that he was once blamed for and hence it is a very sensitive topic, which makes Nora transform from a very jolly person to a very nervous person.
First impression of Nora:
When the audience first sees Nora, she gives of the impression of being very childish and naive. In the play this can be seen as she is always galloping, humming, speaks fast, smiles all the time, and plays a lot with her hands. She seems childish especially since she hides the macaroons from Torvald. She very much enjoys Torvald's company and hides his present away from him. In the play, Nora's motion is always overdone and swift. From the start she does not seem to mind the type of society where she is, as she called it, treated like a "doll".
As the play progresses:
As the play develops, Nora experiences a vast change in character. During the play Nora reveals more of her characteristics that push away the childish image of herself. She first does this by telling Mrs. Linde how she borrowed money and got involved with the business world. This shows how Nora is more than just a traditional housewife that takes no initiatives without her husbands permission. She saw that her husband was in trouble and so she helped him, which is seen as a normal thing to do today, but at the time it was not. This loan that she took for Torvald's health, shows how Nora is also an intelligent woman and brave woman. Taking a loan was probably not an easy thing to do, and as she also forged her father's signature it shows how perhaps she was desperate, but that she was also courageous. She however also seems to be a very ambitious woman as she keeps to her payments and has always been working hard to raise the money; "I was lucky: I got a lot of copying.... It was exhausting. But it was thrilling too, to be sitting there working, earning money. Almost like a man." (22)- Nora. She did things on her own and so it portrays how Nora is a very strong person looking after family.
Even though Nora reveals to the audience that she is much more than just the playing mother from the beginning of the play, through the events of the play she also learns a great deal about herself and about her marriage. When Torvald finally finds out about what Nora had done, Nora finally sees the person Torvald really is. She had expected him to understand what she had done, and taken the blame instead. But instead he just screams at Nora and tells her how disappointed he is in her, and how he no longer trusts her to take care of the children or to do anything else. As Torvald screams at her, she finally realizes how Torvald is not the man that she can see herself spending the rest of her life with, and in fact she does not see herself anymore doing the things that she had done her whole life. When Torvald gets the second letter from Krogstad, Nora just keeps getting disappointed by Torvald. All of a sudden now that he had gotten the documents that could save his life, he changed his attitude towards Nora and tells her how he forgives her. From this Nora sees how unrealistic her relationship with Torvald is, she mentions this when they are having a serious talk, how this was actually their first serious talk, which is rather shocking. This is further supported when Nora alludes to dolls. Nora mentions how she was just being played around with, and did not do things for herself, just like one does when playing with dolls. This is when Nora finally realizes how she is stronger than the person that she showed herself to be to Torvald and so reaches the decision to leave him and her life behind to build a new one of herself, where she is certain to be herself.
This development in character of Nora is very strong because even though Nora showed to possess very strong characteristics during the play, this all became a lot stronger at the end. She finally decided to bring herself away from the conventional laws of society, she even mentions that to Torvald after he asks her why she would leave her obligations.
Helmer: It's unbelievable. You abandon your most sacred obligations -
Nora: You know what they are, then, my sacred obligations?
Helmer: You need me to tell you? To your husband, your children.
Nora: I've other obligations, just as sacred.
(83)
Nora finally after her eight years of marriage steps away from her societal obligations, to discover herself.
Staging of Nora:
At the beginning of the play when Nora is introduced to the audience as a rather silly person, she tends to be very jumpy, talks fast, plays around a lot, is always smiling, plays with the children's toys, plays around with Torvald (for example she chases him and somewhat plays hide and seek). An important attribute is that whatever she feels can be read from her face expressions. This is especially obvious as towards the end she is not as jolly, she is rather serious and no longer smiling and laughing. She seems like a very different person, instead of laughing she fake laughs, and speaks very lightly and slow.
The music is very important during the play in portraying Nora's expressions as well. At the beginning the music is rather friendly, but towards the end it is much slower and there are more frequent use of low tone instruments, to emphasize the sadness and unsureness in Nora.
Important Quotes:
- "The person who save Torvald's life - it was me." (20) - Nora
- "I'm a human being, the same as you. Or at least that I'll try to be one." (83) - Nora
- "I'm going to find out - which one is right, society or me." (84) - Nora
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