- Many people view money as playing a significant role in A DollÆs House because of NoraÆs secret over forging loan documents. While this action will play a catalyst in NoraÆs dramatic decision to abandon her husband and family at the climax of the play, money plays a much more significant role in the action, characterization, and themes of IbsenÆs play.
NoraÆs life represents one of secrets and play-acting because of them. Nora used to live the role of a doll while living under her fatherÆs authority as a daughter. In this manner she is more an owned possession than a woman in her own right. Her marriage to Torvald merely represents a transfer of power from her father to her husband. As wife, she must still play the role of TorvaldÆs ôdollö, a possession more than equal partner. Though Nora dislikes this role and feels confined due to it, she consents to it for the sake of economics. Though she rails against TorvaldÆs treatment of her, she also plays to it. She humiliates herself by stealing food, begging for money, and playing ôlarks and squirrelsö for his pleasure. NoraÆs role as a ôdollö is one that is forced upon her by men and her role-play while she leads a secret life represents her coping mechanism. We see her understanding of this when tells Torvald that ôa great wrong was done to me, Torvald. First by Papa and then by youö (Ibsen 1972, 104).
Because Nora acts like a ôdollö to exert her will or achieve her aims is not to say she is a hypocrite when she becomes angry at Helmer for treating her in such a confining manner. A woman in NoraÆs era had little opportunity for self-expression unless they did lead a secret existence as Nora does when she takes jobs to save money and forges her fatherÆs signature. So too they seldom enjoyed domestic harmony without acting in the manner prescribed for them by male constructed, Victorian era norms and roles for women. In his preliminary n
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