A Doll's House Duty

“A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen is about a husband and wife Nora and Torvald Helmer, in which they struggle with their marriage and each have their own issues. Torvald Helmer is very controlling. For instance, when it comes to money he is very careful and disproves of his wife spending money. An example is when Nora went shopping and she came back to show Torvald, he states “Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?” (Act 1) Torvald does not like when she spends his money because he will not begin his new job position at the bank yet till next year. Torvald also likes to control what Nora eats he dislikes when she eats her favorite sweet which is macaroons. But Nora is not all sweet and innocent either. She has been lying to her husband about the money she had
Some example of Themes that are in the reading is the theme of duty to family versus duty to the laws of the state (and of society). The duty of family is expressed because no matter what goes on between Nora and Torvald they do work hard to try to keep their family together. At the end of the Story the relationship does not work out because the duty of law is put into place. Torvald was very upset with Nora for the forgery he states some very harsh words to her. Nora states “I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile” (Act 3), in which she leaves Torvald for treating her as a “doll.” The reason it is an example of the duty to the law of the state is because Torvald works for the bank and he has the duty to report any forgery but would not because it is family. It puts Torvald in an uncomfortable situation and made him very upset, but that does not make up for the way he had treat Nora in the past. Instead of Nora being his wife she was more as play toy or in Nora’s words a