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A Doll’s House Passage Essay # 1

Passage – End of Act I:
Helmer “The mother is nearly always the root of it…I honestly feel sick, sick to my stomach, in the presence of such people.”

Ibsen collaborates the themes of ignorance, lying, and deceit to form a dramatic play. Nora, the main character, is the mother of three children and the wife of Torvald Helmer, who recently became successful in his career as a banker. It seems ironic that every character is egotistical and interested only in how they can personally benefit from other people, while Nora is blamed for an illegal act that she committed out of love and kindness for her husband. Nora committed a selfless act of forgery to save her husbands life. Her family was struggling financially and Helmer was sick to the point where he was almost dying. They needed to move and get help for Helmer so the family could move on with their lives and Helmer could focus solely on recovering from his illness. Nora took out a bank loan to obtain the money necessary to move to another town in Italy; however, she told her husband that she obtained the money through inheritance from her father so Helmer would not feel as if he has failed his family by not earning a sufficient living.
Nora is generally a caring wife and mother to her children, while she is also interested in materialism and desires large amounts of money from her husband now that he is successful in business. Krogstad, a deceitful and shady character in the play who works for the same bank as Helmer, only he does not have as prestigious of a position at the bank as Helmer, approaches Nora to help his uneasy situation at the bank. Krogstad was also involved in an illegal act along the lines of forgery and people are well aware of his wrongdoings. He has a poor reputation among his peers. His job is at risk at the bank and he asks Nora to put in a good word to Helmer for him so he feels more inclined to...