How Does Nora Desert Her Husband In A Doll's House

When Nora makes her climactic decision to abandon her husband, Torvald, in the closing moments of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” there was a minimal amount of reason to be skeptical about her choice. This is due to the fact that she certainly has a plethora of rock-solid reasons that more than justify her controversial mindset. In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen shows that Nora’s decision to desert her husband was the right one. First of all, Torvald heavily undervalues his wife; she has been nothing but a pet, a trophy, a doll to play with to her husband. Nora has never had the opening to live as her own human being, and abandoning Torvald would guarantee that privilege. Furthermore, Nora has already proved that she loves the feeling and genuinely
To illustrate, Torvald does not think of Nora as an equal. In the opening sequence, Nora tells her maid that nobody can see their Christmas tree until it has achieved full beauty. She uses this exact same perspective on Torvald when he unknowingly requests to see her dress. In a sinister way, this parallelism shows that Torvald sees Nora just as Nora views the tree, as an item to decorate, and show off to others. Additionally, Torvald often calls Nora by pet names, such as “Skylark,” “Squirrel,” or “Songbird’” inferring she is merely a belonging to him. Moreover, Nora even begins to adopt these pet names for herself, in order to attract his attention. For example, she asks Torvald “If [his] little squirrel were to ask [him] for something very, very prettily” (Ibsen 38) in an attempt to invoke sympathy. She knows squirrels are helpless in the clutches of humans, so she uses these appalling names Torvald labeled her with in order to gain sympathy, proving neither she nor her husband view her as a person quite yet. Finally, Torvald is not willing to sacrifice anything for her. Torvald tells her outright that he would never “sacrifice his honor for the one he loves” (Gaines 78). With this statement, he essentially tells Nora that she will never be his top priority; she will always play second fiddle to his honor. In summary, Nora has never been a true person in her time with
To clarify, she was the one to utterly eradicate her husband’s fatal sickness with the trip to Italy, which she paid back on her own. In addition, she even enjoyed this task, saying that although “many a time [she] was desperately tired; but all the same it was a tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning money. It was like being a man” (Ibsen 15). Additionally, this attitude will help her get a job easily. Men who interview job candidates love people who show genuine love and desire to actually do the job, not simply the weekly paycheck. In addition, she knows several others who possibly could get her into a job. For example, Anne, Mrs. Linde, Krogstad, all could play a great role in getting Nora into work to do the task she loves much more than cleaning, making money. In conclusion, whenever Nora does get a job in the outside world, she will love that job an infinite amount of times more than being in Torvald’s