Tita and Nora are victims of role-play. Tita has the role of housewife and Nora is a mother and wife. Nora finds freedom in her debt, which gives her a sense of authority and control. Ibsen uses debt as a symbol to expose the superficiality of Nora and Torvald’s marriage. Ibsen uses Nora’s secret debt as a tool for making social comment. It is significant for Nora’s realization of the shallowness of their marriage and it also gives her a sense of pride and control in her dialty life. The debt gives her freedom for self discovery but simultaneously restrains her because she must deprive herself and lie to Helmer in order to repay it. “To be able to be free from care, quite free from care; to be able to play and romp with the children; to be able to keep the house beautifully and have everything just as Torvald likes it!” Nora happily looks forward to the time when she will have paid off her debt to Krogstad and reflects that then she will be free. Her speech has dramatic irony, where the audience knows or suspects that the opposite to what the character believes is true, as her freedom. Nora comes to realize this by the end of the play.
A Doll’s House narrates how role play and the competition for control co-exist. Consequently, one cannot be discussed without the other. This is also very true for Like Water for Chocolate. “She started to tear apart all the sausages she could reach, screaming wildly. Here’s what I do with your orders! I’m sick of them! I’m sick of obeying you!” The tearing of the sausages who are prepared so delicately and under strict orders amplifies and highlights Tita’s anger are she breaks them, which in addition, symbolizes that Tita is breaking the orders and thus, wants freedom. Tita’s outburst of anger also displays her hatred towards Mama Elena who has been killing her slowly with her restrictions and the way she “confines” Tita. Tita screams at Mama Elena and the healing process has started. The incident of tearing up all the sausages is the turning point in the novel, it allows Tita to meet John. “Those hands had rescued her from horror and she would never forget it.” John’s loving hands contrast to Mama Elena’s dictatorship and show that she is in need of love, to break free. In addition to the importance of Tita’s role play in Like Water to Chocolate, Torvald Helmer, Nora’s husband, challenges the strength of his marriage to Nora. Torvald’s superficial relationship with Nora disguises the lack of depth of his love for her. Nora soon realizes this and she immediately leaves Torvald. This leads to her discovery that this is the kind of freedom that she really wants, that she’s always wanted.
“Always merry, never happy”, a way Nora used to describe her feelings. When Nora finally slams the door and leaves, she is not only slamming it on Torvald, but also on everything else that has happened in her past which didn’t allow her to grow into a mature woman. “I have existed, merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you wanted it like that. You and father have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life. Our home has een nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was father’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls.” These were Nora’s final words to Torvald before she left him and their children, for good.