After Krogstad’s threat of exposing her crime of forgery, Nora has since been jittery, often displaying her apprehension in the play.
Nora [after a moment’s thought, with a toss of her head]: What nonsense! Trying to frighten me like that! I’m not as silly as all that. [She starts to busy herself by tidying the children’s clothes, but soon stops.] But…No, it isn’t possible…I did it for love!
…
Nora [She sits on the sofa and, picking up her needlework, she does a stitch or two but soon stops.] No! [She throws down the work and, rising, goes to the hall door and calls] Helena – bring me the tree, please. [Going to the table on the left, she opens the drawer, then pauses again.] No! It’s simply not possible!
Nora’s agitation is clearly displayed here. At the beginning, the act of tossing her head suggests Nora trying to confidently assure herself that she is not frightened by Krogstad’s threat at all. Then she tries to distract herself from her thoughts by being busy, first attempting to tidy the children’s clothes, then her needlework, and finally the Christmas tree. Her continual lack of focus and sudden outbursts exhibits her perplexed state of mind. She again tries to reassure herself that everything will be alright, muttering to herself “we shall have a lovely tree – I’ll do all the things you like, Torvald, I’ll sing and dance”.
To prevent her forgery from being exposed, Nora attempts to satisfy Krogstad’s demands, to persuade Torvald to allow Krogstad to maintain his position at the bank. Nora tries to wheedle Torvald into a good mood first, playing the role of a helpless woman and asking for his help in ideas for the costume party, meanwhile coyly “stroking his hair”. After Torvald complies, “Nora: Oh that is nice of you! [She goes to the Christmas tree again. Pause.] How pretty these red flowers look…” This action shows Nora trying to think up of a way to persuade Torvald, and she slyly brings up the subject again, “Tell me about this Krogstad – was it really so bad, what he did?” On the other hand, this question might also be partly asked on her own behalf, since both her and Krogstad’s crimes were forgery. She again indirectly pleads her own cause, “Mighn’t he have done it from dire necessity?” hoping that her good motives for the forgery might diminish the significance of her misdeed. When Torvald claimed that the immorality of a parent can poison and corrupt the children, Nora gets even more uneasy, and this is highlighted when she moves “closer behind him” and asks, “Are you certain of that?”
Her fear of corrupting her children is confirmed when she later refuses to see them, “Nora: No! No! Don’t let them come near me! Keep them with you, Nanny…Nora [white with fear]: Corrupt my little children – poison my home? [She pauses, then throws up her head.] That’s not true! It could never, never be true.” Later, in the second act, Nora and the Nurse discuss about children and Nora again hints that she is avoiding the children, stating “But Nanny, I can’t be with them like I used to.” In response to Nanny’s reply, “Oh well, young children’ll get used to anything”, Nora queries hopefully, “Do you think so? Do you think they’d forget their Mamma if she went away altogether?” Her question insinuates her consideration of leaving her children. Her words to Nanny, “And if my babies hadn’t any other mother, I know you’d…” further fuels this notion, and her contemplation of entrusting her children to the Nurse’s care.
Having her original plan of swaying Torvald’s mind foiled, Nora gets increasingly agitated. When Mrs. Linde comes over to help mend her dress, Nora displays her restlessness by constantly moving about, “[getting up and crossing the room]… [walking about]… [pacing up and down]”, trying to think up of a solution. “Nora: …[coming to a halt] When you’ve paid off everything you owe, you do get your bond back don’t you? … And you can tear it to little pieces and burn it – the horrid filthy thing?” This illustrates her palpable anxiety about Krogstad’s threat of disclosing her forgery, and her desperate wish to destroy the evidence, as well as reflect her plan to immediately pay off everything she owed as to reclaim the offending bond and destroy it. This plan links to her previous conversation with Mrs. Linde, where Mrs. Linde had wrongly assumed that Dr. Rank was the imaginary “rich admirer” who provided the money for Nora.
Nora: No, it would never have entered my head to ask Dr. Rank. Though I’m quite sure if I were to ask him…
Mrs. Linde: But of course you wouldn’t.
Nora: Of course not. I can’t imagine there’d be any need. But I’m quite sure that if I told Dr. Rank –
Nora is reminded that Dr. Rank is quite well-off when Mrs. Linde was discussing about him, “Is Dr. Rank rich?...Oh yes”; and she appears to be considering about asking him for money, as shown twice in the above dialogue, where she distractedly ponders aloud in unfinished sentences, “I’m quite sure if I were to ask him”, with an emphasis on the were, and “I’m quite sure if I told Dr. Rank”. Hence, with these words, Nora has indirectly publicised her plan of asking money from Dr. Rank to pay of the rest of the debt as to retrieve the bond and destroy it.
Later, when Dr. Rank comes and visits Nora, he informs her of his prediction of his upcoming death.
Nora: No, you’re really being absurd today – and just when I so wanted you to be in a particularly good mood.
Rank: What, with death just around the corner? And when it’s to pay for someone else’s sins! Where’s the justice in that? Yet in one way or another there isn’t a single family where some sort of inexorable retribution isn’t being exacted.
Nora [stopping her ears]: Nonsense! Cheer up – cheer up!
Notice that Nora covers her ears when Rank speaks of “inexorable retribution” in every single family and of paying for “someone else’s sins”. Rank’s words have clearly reminded her of her own situation with her children, and she attempts to block it out, denying the idea of her children having to pay for her sins. Meanwhile, her wish for Dr. Rank “to be in a particularly good mood” exhibits Nora meaning to set her plan in action. Just like the way she habitually tries to coax Torvald into a good mood before asking him for a favour, she flirts with Dr. Rank before asking him for a “great proof of [his] friendship”. Her plans are ruined though when it resulted in an unexpected declaration of love from Dr. Rank, and upset that the innocent appearance of their relationship is spoiled, Nora refrains from asking the favor.
Nora’s plans had all failed, and Krogstad comes again to see her, but this time with a letter for Torvald, notifying him of Nora’s crime and of Krogstad’s plan to have the bond in his possession for further blackmailing purposes in the future. He informs Nora that there’s nothing she can do now.
Krogstad: – if you’ve thought of running away from your home –
Nora: I have.
Krogstad: – or of anything worse –
Nora: How did you know?
…
Krogstad: Most of us think of that at first. I thought of it, too – only I hadn’t the courage.
Nora [dully]: Nor had I.
Here, “anything worse” most likely refers to suicide, which Nora had considered but could not muster up enough courage to do it. However, Nora later changes her mind when Krogstad speaks of his plans to use Torvald to get him a better position at the bank, “Nora: That’ll never happen as long as you live… “Krogstad: Do you mean that you’ll – …Nora: Yes, I have the courage now.”
Krogstad finally drops the letter of doom into the letterbox, and since Torvald has the only key to the letterbox, Nora realizes that the disaster that is about to happen is inevitable. She informs Mrs. Linde of the disastrous news and asks her to be her ‘witness’.
Nora: If I were to go mad – as I easily might –
…
Nora: Or if anything else were to happen to me, so that I shouldn’t be here –
…
Nora: And in case there was someone else to take it all on himself – all the blame, you understand –
…
Nora: – then, Kristina, you must bear witness that it isn’t true. I’m perfectly sane, and I know exactly what I’m doing now, and I tell you this: no one else knew anything about it – I did it all by myself. Remember that.
Nora again hints of her planned suicide when she claims that she might ‘not be here’, and Nora believes that when Krogstad exposes her crime, Torvald will “take it all on himself” to protect her. Torvald’s previous words, “You’ll see that I’m man enough to take it all on myself” had led her to this belief, and Nora, “horror-struck”, had asked, “What do you mean?” and later determinedly claimed, “You shall never have to do that.” Nora has obviously set her mind to prevent this horrible ‘miracle’ from happening at all costs, even if she has to exchange her life for it.
Mrs. Linde, after learning of the horrible news, she offers to look for Krogstad and persuade him to ask for his letter back. In the meantime, Nora has to keep Torvald occupied to prevent him from reading his letters yet, and she successfully does so by insisting on Torvald to coach her on her tarantella dance for the costume party the next night.
[Rank sits at the piano and plays. Nora dances more and more wildly. Helmer, taking up a position by the stove, gives her frequent directions as she dances. She seems not to hear them, her hair comes down and falls over her shoulders, but she goes on dancing without any notice…]
…
Helmer: But, Nora darling, you’re dancing as if your life depended on it!
Nora: So it does.
Ironically, the tarantella is rapid whirling dance from Southern Italy, commonly known as a dance to shake off the deadly bite of a tarantula spider. This makes it a rather fitting symbol in this situation. Nora dances as if her life depends on it, dancing more and more wildly, as if to shake off the disaster, or even death itself. Nora confirms that the end of the tarantella tomorrow night symbolizes the end of her life, announcing, “Seven hours till midnight. Then twenty-four hours till midnight tomorrow. Then the tarantella will be over. Twenty-four and seven…thirty-one hours to live.” In addition to that, Nora becomes very “wild and excitable”, calling for a “champagne supper – lasting till dawn” and “lots and lots” of macaroons, “just for once”. This is possibly Nora’s way of celebrating her death, enjoying herself “just for once” before she kills herself.
Towards the end of the play, Nora decides to accept the whole thing as fate. “Nora [freeing herself and speaking firmly and purposefully]: Now you must read your letters, Torvald.” This shows that she has made up her mind, and instead of accepting Torvald’s refusal to read his letters as an opportunity to delay the ‘miracle’, she resolutely insists on it happening. What she doesn’t expect is that instead of proceeding with the ideal line of conduct, Torvald flies into a vulgar rage and accuses her of disgracing him. “Helmer:…Do you realize what you’ve done? Answer me – do you realize?...Nora [looking fixedly at him, her expression hardening as she speaks]: Yes, now I’m beginning to realize everything?” Nora comes to a realization, not of what she had done to Torvald, but that he is not the man she thought him to be. Her disillusion is further displayed, “Nora looks fixedly at him without speaking” and when Torvald again angrily questions her about her understanding of her doing, “Nora [calm and cold]: Yes”. Later, after Torvald receives another letter from Krogstad detailing his apology and with the bond enclosed inside, Torvald rejoices and after destroying all the evidence, resumes to his normal state and forgives his wife. Nora returns to her room, and in reply to Torvald’s question of her action, stated, “I’m taking off my fancy-dress”. This sentence is meant in a literal way, but at the same time, also symbolizes Nora ‘taking off’ her illusions, removing her mask and role as Torvald’s doll wife. This signifies the end of her marriage, and after a ‘reckoning’ with Torvald, she leaves him in search of her own life.
Ibsen has cleverly used symbols to externalize the characters’ inner problems in A Doll’s House. From small actions such as moving to the stove, to significant symbols, such as the tarantella, he has managed to effectively convey to the audience what each character is thinking, and hints of upcoming events, without using too much monologue. While preventing the audience to be totally at sea at what is going on, it also keeps the play enjoyable and realistic, making A Doll’s House as popular as it is.
