Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House

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Marriage is a forever commitment between two individuals to love one another but marriages don't always have the fairytale happy ending. In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll House, Nora and Torvald Helmer learn some things about their marriage that they had not realized before. Nora Helmer discovers Torvald, herself, her marriage, as well as her own identity as a woman. Nora Helmer, the wife of Torvald Helmer, throughout the whole play has been keeping a secret from her husband. A few years back when Torvald became ill the doctor recommended that the whole family move south in order for Torvald to fully recover. Torvald would not pay the money for the family to move so instead, Nora borrowed the money from the bank, without her husband knowing. During the time when this was written women didn't have the authority to do such things as what Nora did. On top of just borrowing money from the bank, without her husband knowing, she forged her fathers signature on the promissory note because she would have gotten in trouble, as a woman, borrowing money let alone her husband might have gotten fired. Nora thinks that her husband, Torvald, will never find out until after she repays her debt and then she will tell him. Well, Nora pays off her debt but the explanation to Torvald wasn't as easy and painless as Nora thought it would be. In Act III of the famousplay The Doll House Torvald finds out what Nora did and Nora realizes some things in her life from that point on. One of the things that Nora learned was that of her husband Torvald. Nora always had this idea that her husband was perfect and loved her like no one else. Nora also saw Torvald as some what of a pushover more than a dictator. He seems to let Nora do whatever she wan... ... middle of paper ... ...orvald tried to keep her from leaving. Torvald even tried to forbid her from leaving but Nora decided not to depend upon him anymore and that he can not determine her actions anymore. Nora's main reason for leaving Torvald is that she wanted to find herself and she realized she no longer loved Torvald anymore. Her loved changed for him when he didn't take the blame for her that night when he read the letter. Torvald wasn't willing to forgive her for her action of love for that it wasn't meant to be. Nora and Torvald's marriage was over from the beginning because of the way Torvald was so worried about reputations. It took Nora a while to realize that her marriage was not perfect and was not based all upon love. Events in life happen for a reason and Torvald read that letter to enable Nora to learn more about Torvald, herself, her marriage, and her own identity.

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