In the play when the scene is set, Nora is moving around the kitchen lighting candles on the table which sets a romantic mood for when Michael comes when a knock is heard on the door. It makes her jump and she looks at the dead body of her husband uneasily. She then opens the door. This opening scene pulls you into the story, as you want to know why she has candles on the table and why she looks at the body uneasily and why there is a dead body in the kitchen. You want to find out the answers to your questions. In this part of the play Nora comes across to the audience as suspicious as she is continually looking at the body with troubled looks.
Nora invites the tramp that is knocking at the door into her house and gives him whisky and tobacco. She comes across as being flirtatious towards the tramp and as if she is trying to get something from him.
The tramp sees the body and comments on Dan's “queer” look, which Nora then jokes about – “He was always queer, stranger, and I suppose them that’s queer and they living men will be queer bodies after”. She isn’t sad about his death and treats it as a joke. This unsettles the audience and the tramp. In this situation Nora should be sad and maybe tearful. She would not have let the tramp in, or if she did then she wouldn’t have spoken to him much, and just given him what he asked for. Nora then tells the tramp that she can't move or touch the body as he has put a “black curse” on her. This also comes across as suspicious and raises questions in the audience's minds. It comes across that they have been having problems – “for he lay a black curse on me this morning if I’d touch his body the time he’d die sudden, or let anyone touch it except his sister only” one question in the audience’s mind at this point would be why would he only let his sister touch him and not his own wife? This fits in with why Nora is not very sad about Dan's death. Nora then supports this idea by commenting on Dan being cold towards her and that he was a horrible person that complained with this quote, “Maybe cold would be no sign of death with the like of him, for he was always cold, every day since I knew him… and every night…”
It seems to the audience and the tramp that she is sad that they were never loving towards each other and it raises another question in the audience's mind that maybe she was regretting it. She then lightens the mood and offers the tramp the whisky and Dan's pipe. The tramp and Nora get talking and Nora tells the tramp that she is sacred of being alone, “I’m thinking many would be afeard, but I never knew what way I’d be afeard of beggar or bishop or of any man of you at all… It’s other things than the like of you, stranger as if you were easily afeard.” The question then in the audience's mind is does she want something? or is she indicating something? The tramp then talks about Darcy, and Nora, who we know later has an affair with Darcy, is interested in what the tramp has to say about him, and enquires about him. The tramp then describes when and where he met Darcy and how he got to know him. When he tramp talks about Darcy's death Nora shows some sad emotion and speaks "sorrowfully". This shows she is sadder about Darcy's death then her own husbands. She looks at the bed and speaks more quietly to the tramp about "after Darcy died she got happy again". This indicates she is having another affair and that she cannot talk about Darcy around Dan, even if he is dead. This portrays Nora as being an unfaithful wife to Dan as she was having an affair with Darcy whilst he was alive and having one in his last few days or months.
She changes the subject and asks if there was anyone else on the road. When the tramp tells her a young man was running after his sheep Nora gives a "half smile" and is intrigued. She asks about how far he was as if she wanted to meet him. She fills a kettle and puts it in fire to make some tea as if she is expecting someone. We know she is not making tea for the tramp as he has his whisky. So this proves she is expecting someone. She asks the tramp to stay with Dan. We now know this was why she was flirting with him and giving him their best whisky and cigars. In line 42 Nora speaks in "constraint" – as if she was holding back some enthusiasm to meet the young man but the tramp is uneased and wants to go himself. He doesn’t want to be left alone with the dead body. He continually looks at the dead body after Nora has gone and when she goes he tries to occupy his mind with sewing.
After Dan jumps up we know that Dan is trying to trick Nora and that he is very bitter about Nora’s affair with Darcy. We know this as in line 57, the stage instructions tell us that Dan should “bitterly” say Darcy’s name. In the stage directions it is said you hear a long whistle from outside. This is Nora attracting the young man’s attention. Dab hears this and speaks “fiercely” in an ashamed way about his wife. He then takes a stick and then goes back to being dead. In this scene where Dan is alive the audience sympathise with Dan, as Nora is not sad about his death and very excited about meeting Michael.
When Nora enters the house with Michael, Nora asks about Dan and if he made any sign of being alive. This may be because she suspects Dan of not being dead or just because she is being polite. The tramp lies, as he wants to see what will happen next. Nora then tries to get the tramp to leave the two alone and flirts with him a little by inviting him to use the bed, which could indicate something, “will you go into the little room and stretch yourself a short while on the bed”. But the tramp pretends to go to sleep nearby so he can hear. Michael is jealous of this and challenges the tramp a little.
Once the tramp is asleep, Nora teases Michael and asks him why she should marry him. She is playing hard to get and in line 88 when she says, “It’s a hard woman I am to please this day, Michael Dara, and its no lie I am telling you.” She tells him about not wanting to be alone and that she wants to be secure and safe. During this time Michael is counting out money. This can be for two reasons – one to get more money or two to have an excuse for marrying Dan. This may be because she feels ashamed of herself and tries to find an excuse to make herself feel better. She aimlessly talks about money and not wanting to end up like a tramp roaming around streets and Michael is trying to console her. She is tempting him with whisky when Dan wakes up. Michael puts arm around her as if he is trying to prove himself when Dan sneezes.
Michael is then very scared and begs for forgiveness. When Dan wants to throw Nora out he can only offer a refuge but not at his house. At this Nora is very scared a she would be alone and starts to flirt with Dan. This could be because she thinks if she flirts with him and shows him that she loves him the he would let her stay with him. But when this doesn’t work she curses him. This shows that she is using him and that she doesn’t love him. At the end the tramp to help Nora and they walk out. Nora does not enjoy the idea of not living in a house with no roof over her head as she explains to the tramp, “I’m thinking it’s myself will be wheezing that time with lying down under the Heavens when the night is cold,” and that she does not appreciate the tramp’s description of the magic of a grand morning when she describes to the tramp “What good is a grand morning when I’m destroyed surely, and I going out to get my death walking on the roads.” Nora obviously found her punishment unfair as she thought Dan was dead. She did not to be lonely and financially unstable so she acted on this thought alone.
I think the writer presented her character well as it was a hard role to write. She had a lot of emotions, which were hard to display, but the point was clear.
