A Doll House is a very interesting play about making difficult decisions. Our main character, Nora, has several major decisions to make. The first major decision is the decision to take money from Krogstad. Nora gets bad news that unless her husband gets to a warmer climate he will most certainly die. She decides to keep the information to herself and then takes matters into her own hands when she takes a loan from Krogstad, a loan shark. She then makes the decision to forge her father’s signature as a cosigner. The last major decision she has to make is whether or not to leave her husband and family.
Her first decision to is actually not to take the money from Krogstad, but to hide her husband’s ailment from him. “Krogstad: When your husband was sick, you came to me for a loan…” Why did Nora not want her husband to know he was ill? This is a question I have thought about a lot and one we discussed in class. I believe the main reason was because she didn’t want him to be stress out. He has a good job, and tried to play off the vacation to Italy, as a gift from her father.
Nora then decides to get a loan from Krogstad, whom works at the bank with Torvold her husband. Its bad enough she is taking a loan from a loan shark, but then she decides to use her father as a cosigner, forges his signature, and then dates it after he has already passed away! While the decision to not tell Torvold of is illness was wrong but not all that bad, her decision to take this loan and then forge her father’s signature was downright stupid. “Krogstad: Tell me, Mrs. Helmer, do you happen to recall thte date of your father’s death? Nora: Papa died the twenty-ninth of September. Krogstad: This is the curious thing: that your father cosigned the note for your loan three days after his death.” There is no justifying her actions in this situation.
As the story continues Torvold is informed of his wife’s wrongdoing by a letter from Krogstad causing Torvald to explode on Nora and tell her she cannot raise the kids anymore. This is when Nora sees the true side of her husband, he is only worried about his reputation, and how this will look to his co-workers. “Torvold: Oh, what an awful awakening! In all these eight years-she who was my pride and joy-a hypocrite, a liar-worse, worse-a criminal!…Now you’ve wrecked all my happiness-ruined my whole future…You’ll go right on living in this house, of course. But you can’t be allowed to bring up the children; I don’t dare trust you with them.” Torvold then receives another letter from Krogstad with the note and a statement that he will not make this incident public. Nora saw the true side of her husband, only worried about himself, “I’m saved. Nora, I’m saved!” this is when she makes her final decision. Torvald apologizes and takes it all back, but she has seen what a selfish man he is, she has seen that he truly only cares about himself, and doesn’t trust her with her own kids. She makes the decision to leave. I completely agree with her, Torvold turned out to be an awful self-centered person, that doesn’t even trust her. Yes she is leaving her children but I do believe she will come back somewhere down the road and I’m sure she won’t be completely out of their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment