A Doll House

A Doll House Throughout the play A Doll House, Ibsen plays with the concept of appearance versus reality. Nora appears to be childish and irresponsible while she really she has taken upon herself a very large weight and has saved her husband’s life. Torvald seems to be a very moral man and very selfless when actually he is a coward and only thinks of himself. Krogstad appears to be a villain but changes his heart and is indeed a very understandable man. Each of these characters were given a certain precept and each of those precepts were proved to be wrong. In the opening of the play Nora is appearing to be a very selfish and silly young girl who does not know how to take care of money. As the story progresses the reader soon comes to realize though that Nora has given everything she could to save her husbands life. She took out a secret loan to take him on a vacation for his health and has been consistently paying it back each month without letting her husband know. Instead of being a spendthrift, as she was perceived, she was being very sly and clever. Torvald is Nora’s very endearing husband. He gives her names of adoration and praise, and embraces the idea that in marriage the woman is to be looked after by her husband. He always wishes to look after and guide Nora, and at one point states that he has “often wished [that Nora was] facing some terrible dangers so that [he] could risk life and limb, risk everything, for [Nora’s] sake.” He wants to be seen as Nora’s savior, but when the time comes for him to risk everything for her sake he tells Nora of all the shame she has now brought upon the family and how she has ruined all of his happiness. He tries to portray himself as a man who is confident in himself, but in reality is dependent upon the way he believes that society will look upon him and is not full of as many heroic and moral qualities as he is believed to have. Krogstad comes into the story being immediately seen as a villain, but is not