A Doll's House

1. How does Nora choose what to say to her husband and what is to keep hidden?

Nora only tells her husband what he wants to hear. In the beginning of the play Nora acts like his “toy”. Trovald treats Nora like she is a possession to him. She does not realize that this is how she is being treated; she doesn’t understand that Trovald is treating her like a child, like someone he has complete control over. The only thing that she wants to do is to please him. She always does the right thing and says the right thing. She wants him to be happy even if his happiness leads to her unhappiness, for example when the letter comes to Trovald from Krogsted. Nora would rather kill herself to save Trovald’s reputation than to allow him to be morally harmed by what she had done or to be blackmailed by Krogsted.

In the first act Nora lies to her husband about eating pastries. He doesn’t want her to spend too much money, especially on pastries or snacks such as macaroons. To her this is just a little lie, and it is no big deal but it indicates how she feels toward her husband. She wants to please him so much by acting exactly the way he wants that she feels she must lie about buying and eating a few macaroons.

The only thing she keeps hidden from Trovald is about how she got the money for the trip they took to save Trovald’s life. She keeps this hidden from Trovald in order to protect his reputation and his ego. Trovald obviously has a very big ego and sees Nora as a �trophy wife,’ just �arm candy.’

2. How does a definition of “wife” emerge from the interactions between Nora and Mrs. Linde? In what ways is this definition important to the action within the play?

Mrs. Linde is a much stronger woman than Nora. She was not always so strong but she became strong after she took control of her life and left her husband. Nora and Mrs. Linde are opposite people in this play. In a way, Mrs. Linde balances Nora actions because Mrs. Linde takes control of her own life. In the beginning of the play Nora’s idea of “wife” was to be a slave to her husband, to do everything to make him happy. Nora had no life; she did everything that Trovald wanted and lied to him to make him happy. As the play goes on Nora realizes that that she has been treated like a child her entire life, first by her father and then by Trovald. By seeing what Mrs. Linde has been through and how she has changed her life, Nora realizes that it is time she grew up and took control of her life. Mrs. Linde sacrificed her entire life to marry a man that she did not love so that she could provide for her brother and mother. Mrs. Linde finally takes control of her life and chooses to be with Krogsted, the man she really loved but left to be her husband (who made more money). Mrs. Linde is happy now that she is with the man she loves.

Nora sees how Mrs. Linde has changed her life and because of this her idea of what a wife is supposed