A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen is considered a major, controversial classic play written in 1859 which shattered allusions of what a woman should be. Nora, the protagonist, is a woman who represents the rejection of the acceptable notion of women in her time; through her dismissal from her husband Torvald she realizes that she needs to begin her journey to her self- actualization. In the beginning of Act 1 Nora the protagonist has a childlike demeanor and is careless with her actions without any care about the consequences. Her husband Torvald represents the patriarchal society of her time which Nora is submissive to and he patronizes her with pet names like “my little skylark” and “little spendthrift” which emphasizes his superiority and sees …show more content…
Nora is completely excluded out by Torvald as he again is interested in his own safekeeping. Her husband Torvald is outraged over her act of forging her father’s signature on the loan. Torvald is blinded by the madness and fails to see that “her crime, after all, was motivated by an unreflecting love for her husband” (Goontilleke 2). He attempts to reconcile with Nora, but to no avail she says to him, “You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me” (Ibsen 720). Insensitive, Nora decides to leave her children and dear husband which according to Erikson’s Theory of development she “gives up on intimacy and ends up isolating herself” because nothing is hers (Licht, Hull, and Ballantyne 476). He tries to dismiss her by bringing up their vows and responsibilities to him and her family to appeal to her senses but “Nora the apostle of the new creed of humanity, leaves her children without a pang” (Metzger 3). Nora recalls that her self worth is more important when she tells Torvald and she is first a human being just like him. Nora’s great disappointment from her husband uproar from what was written in the letter transforms her from a loving housewife to a woman who sees the truth in her marriage and has to make a decision outside of her fixed