Sacrifice

The true “crisis” in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is not the suspenseful tragedy centered on Nora’s actions in attempting to save her family from disgrace, but rather simply a conflict between Nora’s societal and personal identities. In the start of the play, Nora and Torvald’s relationship is introduced as being shallow and primarily based on material possessions. In fact, it is the lack of substance to their initial conversation –along with the obnoxious excess of pet names- that makes the dialogue difficult for the reader to digest without being nauseated. At this point of the story, Nora is content to fit the mold of societal norms because she simply knows no other lifestyle and, in fact, believes herself to be truly happy. To this melodramatic character, the tragedy of the story is a public disgrace that, in her naïve outlook, she finds to be equivalent to death. The only character in the story to see the absurdity of this situation is Mrs. Linde, who allows Tarvold to receive the letter from Krogstad revealing Nora’s debt. She explains herself in doing this by remarking that after what she had seen in the Helmers’ residence in the last days made it necessary for the truth to come out, meaning that the fairytale that they had constructed on a bed of lies should not be allowed to last for all of their sakes. In this sense, Mrs. Linde was justified in her actions by the transformation that Nora undergoes in the final scene of the play. In her preparations to kill herself over her “disgrace,” Nora frees herself of her responsibilities to the society along with her possessions. Although she is saved by circumstance, she begins to look at the world with a radically different mindset, finds her life to be empty and chooses to leave on her own accord. She finds that her marriage is not based on true love – a discovery that Mrs. Linde had already made earlier in her life-, and that through following what is deemed “appropriate” by the people around her she has no real experiences or thoughts of her own. Up to this point she had been essentially a one dimensional “baby doll” to be played with by others. It is only through sacrificing everything and taking a stand in order to separate herself from her society that she finally becomes her own person (399).