Monday, June 24, 2013

What are Nora's objectives in the play A Doll's House?

As is true with major characters in most successful dramas, Nora's objectives change throughout the play. Not only are her objectives varied in individual scenes but her overall objective shifts as more of the story of her past are made evident to the audience and other characters. A key point to remember is that Nora knows all of the information that she reveals throughout the course of the play at the beginning.
At the beginning, Nora seems quite content being Torvald's Doll (a comparison that she makes at the end of the play). She flits about the house, takes care of the children, and is apparently quite the spendthrift. All the while, she carries a deep secret about why money seems to flow through her fingers. She hints at that secret in the first act in her reunion scene with Mrs. Linde. It is in this scene, that the audience is first privy to the fact that Nora really wants to share her secret...even though they don't know what that secret is. She is obviously proud of something she's done in her past but isn't sure who she can trust with the secret.
When the audience first sees Nora interact with Nils Krogstad, they also find out some of what Nora has been hiding. It is at that point, when Nils confirms that Nora not only took out the loan without Torvald's knowledge but also forged her father's signature on the documents, that Nora's objective changes. She becomes, at least to herself, focused on the task of getting rid of Krogstad from her life and ending the financial relationship once and for all. While on the one hand, she wants Torvald to remain unaware of the truth, on the other hand, she seems to want to let him know so that he can take care of the situation and come to her rescue to break off the financial relationship.
In the third act, when Torvald and Nora return from the party, she first finds out from Mrs. Linde that Krogstad had not stayed to retrieve his letter from Torvald (even though it was Mrs. Linde who actually convinced him not to). Once Mrs. Linde leaves and Dr. Rank leaves his black-crossed card, Nora uses the apparent impending death of Dr. Rank as a reason to send Torvald to his office to read his mail rather than go to bed with him as he desires. Nora is thoroughly desiring and expecting the most wonderful thing...Torvald will come to her rescue, dismiss Krogstad, take whatever punishment comes and they will live happily together regardless of their financial future.

"When that was done, I was so absolutely certain, you would come forward and take everything upon yourself, and say: I am the guilty one."

When Torvald emerges furious with Nora, she realizes that her relationship with her husband has never been anything but as a plaything (a Doll). It is then that her objective changes to getting out, taking responsibility for her actions, clearing Torvald's name and enduring the consequences on her own.
Finally, when Torvald receives Krogstad's final letter, along with the promissory note and his statement that the debt and forgery are completely forgiven, Nora's final objective is to illustrate to Torvald how they have never really lived as husband and wife...but that both he and her father treated her as a doll rather than a young lady or woman.

It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to live with you--


The answer to this question depends on your interpretation of the "point" of the play. Nora changes considerably during the course of the action, and finally, she strikes out on her own, leaving her husband. In that respect, her ultimate objective would be to gain her freedom. But throughout the play, she has numerous other, very different objectives; her ability to achieve them, or not, contributes to her final decision and action.
Nora wants to be a model wife to her husband, Torvald. Before the play begins, we learn, the couple spent time in Italy for the sake of improving his ill health. Unfortunately, Nora's objective prompted her to make some bad decisions. The contradictions between her goals in marriage and her inability to behave ethically set up the conflict that leads her to leave.
Nora also aims to keep her bad financial behavior secret, especially from Torvald, who is a bank manager. Stemming from her earlier act of forgery, keeping the secret involves a related goal: preventing another banker, Krogstad, from informing Torvald. In this, Nora does not succeed.
Because Nora has the goal of helping her friends, she sets in motion the events that lead to Krogstad’s writing to Torvald about her crime. Her husband is then revealed to be a hypocrite, rather than the honorable man she loved and wanted to support.
In the end, Nora’s objectives are to be her own person: to be honest and free, to not live without true love, and to not tolerate a false marriage.

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