ipl-logo

How Is Nora Justified In Leaving Her Husband

864 Words4 Pages

A Doll House In Ibsen’s play, A Doll House, Nora is the unhappy wife finding a hard time to gain affection and love from her husband. Throughout the play, it is revealed that she has taken illegal loans in order to pay for a trip to Italy that would improve the health of her husband, and has been working in secret to pay it off. Her life seems to be wrapped around supporting her husband and seeking his approval, as well as raising their children in a happy home, all in return for the reward of her husband giving her the love and attention she seeks and satisfaction with her efforts at being the perfect wife. At the end of the play, her efforts to save her husband’s life, and to secretly secure finances for the family, and to be the perfect wife and mother are shattered when her husband (Torvald) discovers her secrets and instead of appreciating her efforts, becomes angry and reacts cruelly towards her. In the end, Nora leaves Torvald so that she can focus on her rather than focusing on a man that doesn't care about her. Nora’s decision to leave her children is justified because of how unhappy she was in the marriage because of her husband's treatment towards her, because she truly believed her children would be better off without her, and because staying in an unhappy marriage would be a bad example for her children. …show more content…

Not only does Torvald not treat her well as a wife, he doesn’t understand that the illegal choices she made to raise money for Italy were done for his benefit and he doesn’t come through to support or defend her. She finally understands this when she tells him “Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home when I was papa’s doll-child”(Ibsen 879). When Nora leaves Torvald, she is starting a new life with a new idea of

Show More
Related
239 Words | 1 Pages

Nora has not only caused problems for herself, but now for her marriage. Torvald soon comes to find out that Nora forged her father’s signature and that the money wasn’t just handed

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Nora is a married woman and has children to take care of. She really has little freedom because of the way Torvald treats her. She is not even I feel as if deep down she knows she is not free and wants something more in her life then to be a entertaining puppet for Torvald. She realizes at the end of the story that Torvald is not good to her because of the way he acted when she told him about forging the signature. When Torvald called her a criminal and other harsh words she realized that she had no true love from Torvald and wanted to be free from him.

Read More
1319 Words | 6 Pages

This brings in to question whether or not it is acceptable for a woman to simply walk away from a marriage, involving three children, and not attempt to work things out. Nora realizes she and the life she has been living has been a complete construct of the way society expects her to be. Nora is Torvald’s doll and her life has not amounted to anything more than making sure he and the world around her is happy. The result of the inequalities she is faced with results in Nora being completely unhappy. Torvald fails to recognize everything that Nora does to ensure his happiness.

Read More
1418 Words | 6 Pages

Torvald tells her that Nora has a duty as a mother and a wife but Nora tells him that “she is an individual”, showing that she is finally putting herself on par with Torvald, and no longer allowing Torvald to control her, but instead she is trying to gain independence and liberation from social norms in order to break free from the “Doll’s House.” She tells him that she must leave him, because “for eight years [she’d] been living with a stranger”, emphasising how there was never any proper communication and mutual understanding between them, and hence no proper marriage, as she didn’t actually know what his true character was like up until that night, as she was convinced all along that Torvald would be the man to take everything upon

Read More
630 Words | 3 Pages

In her eyes, she did not think Torvald loved her, but simply used her as a doll. She believes he uses her for his own pleasure. Nora exclaims to Helmer, “When I

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

Previously they had been fighting about Nora borrowing money from Krogstad for their trip to Italy, a trip that they took to heal Torvald from being sick, but ultimately turned out to be root of their fighting that ended their marriage. Nora knew she sacrificed a part of her marriage by lying to Torvald about where the money came from but she did it to help save it. A selfish yet selfless act that turned out to do more harm than good. She didn’t necessarily want to lie about the money but she did so in order to help save her husband and family- a sacrifice she felt like she needed to make. Torvald, of course, doesn’t understand why she made such a sacrifice: T: “But no man sacrifices his honor, even for one he loves” N: “Millions of women have done so.”

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the play, you come to realize that Nora and Torvald marriage is shallow. Torvald doesn’t see Nora as his equal, and views her as inferior to him. He is all about appearances and reputation. Nora is just as shallow and goes along with Torvald and society’s view of women being the lesser sex. Though, Nora goes against her husband by keeping her debt secret.

Read More
2066 Words | 9 Pages

But listen to this, Kristine - I got something to be proud and happy for.” (Ibsen, 1256), This statement by Nora changes the conversation from Kristine’s troubles and accomplishments and turns everything around so that Nora can brag about what she has done. We also see Nora’s selfishness in the last act of the play when Nora leaves her family. It is understandable for Nora to leave Torvald if she no longer feels loved, but Nora decides to leave her kids

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

Torvald is a man that cares more about his reputation than his wife’s feelings. Nora and Torvalds’s relationship from the outside view appears to be a happy. The further the play goes along the more Nora realizes how her husband treats her like a child and how phony her marriage really is. Torvald sees Nora's only role as being a loving wife and not truly as human being.

Read More
1029 Words | 5 Pages

Nora is a character that will do everything that somebody tells her, she is kind of submissive regarding what Torvald says. She has to mention him at least once while she’s talking about anything, but she does have some petty forms of rebellion, like the macaroons. A larger way of her rebelling would be when she pays for the trip so that Torvald can get better. She is viewed as a child by Mrs. Linde, Christine, and is treated like one by Torvald and it seems almost like they look down on her because she is a woman and she is completely dependent on her husband. Her character, at this point, has no backbone; she is completely captivated by this life in which she perceives as

Read More
1436 Words | 6 Pages

In the end, Nora inevitably chooses to leave her family. In this decision to as stated “educate” herself, she leaves her children motherless, and runs from a substantial household. Some may say that she was unhappy, but Nora never brought it to Torvald’s attention that she was unhappy and chooses to leave him behind without ever giving

Read More
833 Words | 4 Pages

Torvald, however; only lusts after Nora and does not truly love her for who she is. Torvald treats Nora as an object and although he is just is a man of his time, it is still a vile and not virtuous thing to do to another human being. This play has characters that are complex, but their virtues are clearly seen. Every fault that Nora has in this play can be linked back to her being a victim of the time she was born in and the people

Read More
1229 Words | 5 Pages

He rather expects her to be more compliant, loyal and wants her to follow the social and moral rules strictly, like he does. Torvald’s assertion that Nora’s lack of understanding of money matters is the result of her gender (“Nora, my Nora, that is just like a woman”) reveals his prejudiced viewpoint on gender roles. Torvald believes a wife’s role is to beautify the home, not only through proper management of domestic life but also through proper behavior and appearance. He quickly makes it known that appearances are very important to him, and that Nora is like an ornament or trophy that serves to beautify his home and his reputation. He tells Nora that he loves her so much that he has wished in the past that Nora’s life were threatened so that he could risk everything to save her.

Read More
1329 Words | 6 Pages

Nora acts how Torvald has primed her to, she stays out of his business, and as a reader of the book, it seems as though he sees her solely for her physical appearance, and their attraction is only physical, which could have contributed to the fall of their

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

Towards the end of the play, Nora herself comes to the realisation that she has in fact been nothing more than a ‘doll’, made to humour the men in her life. She states ‘I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was daddy’s doll child.’ This statement concluded the fact that Torvald has never truly seen Nora as his equal, whether that’s by objectifying her or infantilising her. Torvald has many nicknames for Nora such as ‘skylark’ or ‘squirrel’, which while on the surface seem like terms of endearment, are actually ways in which Torvald belittles her, as it allows Torvald to further view

Read More

More about How Is Nora Justified In Leaving Her Husband

Related Topics

Open Document