How Is Nora Portrayed in 'a Doll's House' ?

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How Is Nora portrayed In ‘A Doll’s House?’ One of the most complex characters of the 19th century, Ibsen’s protagonist Nora is portrayed as a highly complicated character. Until she comes to the realization that her life is a sham, she spends her whole life in a dream world. In this dream world, Nora does not take life seriously, an attitude that led to many of the plot’s complications. Immediately in act one it seems that Nora is very immature and whimsical. Her first contribution to the play is her paying the delivery body. Nora insists he ‘keeps the change’; this is not a significant amount of money but, Nora’s casual domineer is indicative of her fiscal irresponsibility (her development portrays otherwise). Moreover, this mundane occurrence is the first act on stage and this would highlight to the audience Nora’s recklessness. Furthermore, it is not just Nora’s actions with money that conveys her ingenuousness. Nora has been treated like a child all her life by her father and by her husband. Both male superiority figures not only denied her the right to think and act the way she wished but, also placed a limit on her happiness. When Torvald enters the act he calls Nora pet names like ‘skylark’ and ‘little squirrel’. Nora is being treated like a little girl and this also presents Torvald’s dominance over his wife. Nora describes her feelings as ‘always merry, never happy’. This conveys the notion that when Nora slams the door and leaves, she is not only slamming the door on Torvald but also on everything else that has curtailed her growth into a mature woman. The stage direction ‘wiping her mouth’ conveys Nora’s discrete actions which would resemble those of a child around their father. When the play was first performed in English, it was titled "The Child Wife" which presents the idea that Nora was a victim of her husband’s patronisation as well as living in
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