Plot and Sub-Plot of A Doll's House

Plot

A Doll’s House is the last few days in the relationship of Nora and Torvald, and it follows Nora’s struggle for freedom from a marriage based on forgery and lies, with a man that treats her like a ‘doll’. Her husband overprotects her and encourages her to let those around her do the work, rather then be resourceful and fight her own battles. Although the play starts on Christmas Eve, the events start much earlier. Several years before the play is set, Nora’s husband is taken ill and needs to go to Italy to recover. It is here that the problems for the Helmers start. Nora cannot afford to pay for the trip so she gets a loan from moneylender Krogstad, forging her dead father’s signature to receive it. They then live in peace for a while until the play starts and these old demons of Nora’s are brought up.

When the play starts, Nora has been shopping and she returns having bought many presents. Torvald enters and we learn that Nora often overspends and borrows money from him to keep her going. As the play progresses we learn that she is not, as we were lead to believe, spending this money on clothes, instead she is using this as a pretence to cover up her repayment of the debt to Krogstad. After Torvald leaves an old friend of Nora’s, Mrs Linde, enters. After discussing life in general with her Nora tells Mrs Linde of the loan and her forgery, however she doesn’t reveal Krogstad as the moneylender. The next feature of the main plot is when Krogstad enters towards the end of Act one, placing pressure on Nora to repay the loan, and threatening to tell Torvald of the debt and forgery. He then blackmails her, threatening not only to reveal it to Torvald, but also to use it on Torvald to climb his way up the business ladder, eventually to join Torvald at the top, he also reveals the I.O.U. that he has kept as evidence. This scares Nora, but with no options, she is forced to beg Krogstad not to tell Torvald. He then leaves and Torvald enters, questioning if anyone has visited. Nora lies, telling him initially that no one has visited, but then changing her story and admitting Krogstad visited when Torvald reveals he heard voices. Torvald guesses that Krogstad was asking Nora to try to persuade him to let Krogstad have his old job back. He then gives Nora a small speech about how she shouldn’t lie, as ‘a songbird must have a clean beak to sing with. Otherwise she’ll start twittering out of tune.’ It is here that we start to see Torvald’s negative view on lies and he supports this view again in this piece of dialogue, saying how they can ‘contaminate’ every corner of the home, so that ‘every breath that the children draw in such a house contains germs of evil’. This terrifies Nora so much that she decides she must keep herself away from the children, as not to contaminate them, and at the end of Act 1 she tells the nurse she wishes not to see them.

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At the beginning of Act two we see Nora pacing around the living room, terrified that Krogstad is going to come and reveal the truth to Torvald. After a short piece of dialogue between Nora and the nurse about the forthcoming ball, Mrs Linde enters and she asks if it was Dr Rank that lent the money, as he seems to like her very much, and he is always visiting. Nora denies this, but doesn’t reveal whom it is that did lend the money. Torvald then returns and Nora ushers Mrs. Linde into the nursery, telling her Torvald dislikes to see sewing lying around. She then tries once again to persuade Torvald to rethink Krogstad’s position, pretending to fear he may write letters to newspapers, with ‘frightful slanders’ that may lose Torvald his job. He tells her that it would be impossible for him to let Krogstad keep his job, as most his employees have already heard rumours of the dismissal, and he would be humiliated for letting his wife force him to change his mind. He then gives the letter to a maid so she can post it, sealing his own fate. When he leaves Dr Rank returns, and he reveals to Nora that he is dying, and that is in love with her. This makes Nora feel as if she cannot now ask for his help as she feels his decision would be biased due to his feelings towards her. He leaves; upset that she feels she can’t ask for his help. Krogstad then returns, and expresses his anger at being sacked. He tells Nora not to think of doing anything ‘desperate’ like running away or killing herself because he would still use the I.O.U. to bribe her husband. He then reveals that he has a letter to Torvald, telling him the whole truth, and that he is going to post it so he can bribe Torvald and work his way back to the top of the business ladder. He then leaves, ignoring Nora’s pleas of silence, and posts the letter telling Torvald of the loan. Mrs Linde then re-enters and Nora reveals it was Krogstad that lent her the money. She explains about the letter, asking that if something bad should happen to her, could Mrs Linde testify that it was all Nora, and no-one else had any knowledge of it. Mrs Linde agrees, but protests that she doesn’t understand why. She then tells Nora that she will try to talk to Krogstad, as ‘once upon a time he’d have done anything’ for her sake. She asks Nora to make sure Torvald doesn’t check his mail, and exits to talk to Krogstad. Nora thanks her, and lets Torvald in, telling him he must not worry about any business until after the dance, and he cannot even open his letters.

Act three begins with Nora and Torvald dancing ‘upstairs’ while Mrs Linde and Krogstad have a conversation on stage. Krogstad then leaves through the front door as Torvald and Nora enter from their dance. They are surprised by the presence of Mrs Linde in the living room and it becomes clear that Torvald wanted the house empty for him and Nora. After a quick description of the night from Torvald, Mrs Linde leaves and Torvald seems to be in a particularly happy mood, obviously still excited from the dance. He then attempts to claim his conjugal rights, but Nora pushes him away, and as she does so Dr. Rank enters. It is here that all the sub-plots begin to merge, as he is saying a final ‘goodbye’. He then leaves, and Torvald decides to check his letterbox. He sees a calling card from Dr. Rank signifying his imminent death, and expresses his sadness at the man’s death. He then tells Nora he wishes ‘some terrible danger’ might threaten her so he could offer his life and blood. Nora tells him to read his letters now, and although Torvald says no initially, he eventually agrees and goes to his study. Nora then gets ready to run away, and as she is about to leave Torvald charges into the room with the letter from Torvald in his hand. Instead of sticking up for Nora, he reprimands her for being so silly as to commit forgery, saying that she has brought shame upon the household. He decides he must succumb to Krogstad’s blackmail and do as he is asked-a reaction Nora didn’t expect, and this leads her into realising she doesn’t know her husband, so how could she be married to him? Even when the original I.O.U. is returned she chooses to leave him, to start a new life elsewhere. When he asks if they could ever get together she replies that the ‘miracle of all miracles’ would have to happen. She then leaves and the door slams behind her.

The main plot of A Doll’s House is supported many times by the use of sub-text to show what is really going on in the character’s minds. An example of this is on page 31. Torvald returns to the house after seeing Krogstad leave and when he enters it is clear that Nora is very flustered and the sub texts are used here to show Torvald’s suspicion of his wife and the way he nearly discovers the truth, but it just eludes him. For Nora the sub text shows how eager she is to cover up the meeting and her attempts to lie to Torvald show her nervousness and her anxiousness to dismiss what little information Torvald discovers as trivial, just to stop him being suspicious. This moves on the plot by showing how much Nora fears the truth coming out, foreshadowing the revelations at the climax of the play.

Sub Plot

Within this central plot, each of the character’s have their own sub-plots, and journeys the take throughout the play, separate yet entwined as the play progresses.

Mrs Linde is a school friend that comes to Nora widowed, penniless, with no job and no home asking for help, Nora gets Torvald to find her a job, unknowingly causing Krogstad to lose his job, sparking the chain of events that eventually leads to Nora’s departure. She is very secretive about her past and we later learn that this is because she had an affair with Krogstad, the man that lent Nora the money, several years ago. As the play progresses Mrs. Linde acts as confidante to Nora, but then rekindles her old flame with Krogstad and after trying to persuade Nora to tell Torvald of the secret, she convinces Krogstad, who nearly gives up, to tell Torvald, saying that for Nora and Torvald to have a proper relationship ‘then must have a full understanding.’ And so it in through this subplot that Nora’s fate is sealed.

Krogstad is the man that Nora borrowed the money of to pay for her husband’s trip. He has a history of forgery, and Nora is obviously not the first client he has persuaded to forge signatures. He is also fairly secretive about his past, and the only knowledge of it that the audience learn is that he had the affair with Mrs. Linde and he used to forge signatures. Krogstad comes into the play because he is upset at losing his job, though unknowingly to his ex-lover, and he plans to use his knowledge of the forgery to climb his way back to the top of business hierarchy by bribing Nora and Torvald. He is very willing to follow through with his plan until he gets together with Mrs. Linde, when he becomes so happy he decides not to continue the bribery, because he no longer has the need, but now Mrs. Linde convinces him to carry on, and he posts the letter to Torvald, revealing the truth of Nora’s loan.

This journey taken by Krogstad and Mrs Linde is through the play is a key part of the sub-plot because it is through their love and reunion that the truth behind Nora’s forgery is revealed, so it is this sub-plot that finalises the events of the main plot. Krogstad and Mrs. Linde’s reunion is also highly ironic, because they only meet because Mrs. Linde is replacing him at the bank, but this replacement is the first step towards them rekindling their old love.

Dr. Rank is Nora’s long time friend and confidante that suffers from Tuberculosis of the spine, due to the ‘fun’ his father had as a ‘gay lieutenant’. He declares is love for Nora in the second act, just as she was about to ask him for money to repay the loan to Krogstad. This declaration takes her by surprise and she feels that it compromises their friendship and she can no longer rely on him or confide in him.