1. Introduction:
The discussion about whether or not Nora is justified in her decision in
leaving her family is a very controversial discussion. There are many critics
on both sides of the argument who have very strong feelings.
Nora at the and of A dolls house by Ibsen take the derision of making her
exist from her husbands house leaving her three children and going to face
an uncertain future. At the end she is entirely different from what she is at
the beginning. In the beginning she is very submissive a kind of pet, a sweet
sparrow or bird in the golden nest of Helmer’s love but at the end she
emerges as a very strong minded and self-assertive woman. Before
commenting on the Justification of Nora’s derision Nora should be analyzed
as wife and a mother and the reasons behind the change that take place in
Nora’s mind are necessary to be brought out. Nora as a wife easily excitable
and cheerful and plays the “Skylark” and the “Squirrel” just to please and
amuse her husband. She seems contents and Trovald is in control.
Her desires are not her own. She looks forward to Christmas Eve because
the Children will love it. She thinks to have a pretty house that her husband
will live. It is her great loves for Trovald which will force her to do anything
even her life if it is needed. To save her husbands life, she borrowed money

2. from krogstad forging her furthers signature because her father was himself
very ill and it would not have been proper that her husbands life was also in
danger. She has never thought it proper to reveal the fact of the loan or the
forged signature to Helmer because she knows that if her husband were to
know that he owes anything to her. His pride would be hurt. Nora thinks that
after knowing about the act, which may sent Nora to Jail Trovald would take
all the responsibility upon his shoulder .so she decides to commit suicide in
order to show the world that she is guilty when krogstad begins to blackmail
her. But the wonderful thing does not happen. After knowing the fact,
Helmer calls her hypocrite, lire, and a criminal and casts all the blames upon
her, decides not to allow her to bring up his children and makes no attempt
to protect her. When being overjoyed, Helmer reverts to his original
behavior, Nora realizes that Helmer is not the person who she thinks him to
be and a complete stranger who does not love her but think her as his
romantic object. Nora can’t really see how it is wrong to forge a name in
order to save a life but, Trovaled would rather die than break the law or
borrow money. This difference of thinking that reveals Helmer’s true
character which forces Nora to take the decision. At the beginning of the
play Nora dose not realize she has a self. She is playing a role. The purpose
of her life is to please Trovald or her father and to raise her children. But by

3. the end of the play, she discovers that most scared duty is to her. She needs
to find out who she is and what she thinks. Nora is quite logical in leaving
Trovald . The only improbability may be here is her abandonment of her
children but it can also be interpreted as an act of self sacrifice. Despite
Nora’s great love for children manifested by her interaction with them and
her great fear of corrupting them, she chooses to leave them. Nora truly
believes that the nany will be a better mother and that leaving her children in
their best interest. At the end she realizes that she is alone and this whole
time was just a doll for her husband and children and a mere object that have
no meaning without a husband and children. She wants to be educated
herself by the first land experience. By doing these she wants to break the
illegal rules and laws of male dominated society which million women
wants to do but becomes failure not being so brave and courageous like Nora
who is a liberated woman by being able to maintain her Self respect.
Nora as a Devoted Wife: Nora as a dutiful, cheerful and devoted wife loves
her husband very much. She is very faithful and loyal to him .she does not
disobey him. She has a childish tendency to eats macaroons stealthily. Some
critics think that it proves her tendency to tell lies. But I think it may have
another interpretation that she is afraid of her husband. She does not want to
heart him .she does not have not right even to eat something according to her
wish .Helmer has forbidden Nora from eating sweets because they might
ruin her teeth and spoil her visual expression it proves that he is concerned
with her appearance not her wishes . Nora perform tarantella dance in order
to please and amuse him. Nora has a passionate and devoted heart that is
willing to do anything for her husband. She saved her husband’s life even
after borrowing money and forging her father’s signature as a guarantor. It is

4. true that it was against the law for a woman to take out a loan without her
husband’s consent but when she did this she was not as submissive as
Trovald thinks her to be .to save her husband’s life for a woman is more
important than anything else. Nora knows that her husband will not support
her to borrow money because he is an independent minded person to
maintain her self respect .at this moment what should she do-borrow money?
Or let him die? To some readers Nora could have borrowed money from his
father or the bond could have been signed by his father. But she did not do
so because signing the bond by her father was impossible in that time
because he was himself very ill and it would not have been proper to tell him
that her husband is also in danger. She did not want to hut his father who
was near to death. She was so much worried about her husband’s life that
she did not bother what method she adopting in order to get money .so she
copied money from Krogstad .in order to pay the loan she saves money by
spending very little on herself and by doing some extra work as a copyist.
She has never thought it proper to reveal the fact to her husband because
“Trovald is a man with a good deal of pride – it would be terribly
embarrassing and humiliating from him if he thought he owed anything to
me”. It is this nature of her husband which compels Nora to do things behind
his back (vaidyanathan, 243).she has therefore taken every precaution to
keep the whole transaction a secret from her husband. Here through this
action Nora is seen not as a hypocrite, liar and a criminal but as a passionate
and devoted wife who is willing to do almost anything for her husband even
any work which may send her to jail. According to some critics Nora’s
relation with Dr.Rank throws light on another aspect on her personality and
proves her to be a flirtatious woman. It is said that Nora prefers the company
of DR. Rank to that of her husband for she finds father –substitute in her
husband. In Dr Rank Nora finds a confident and a good friend”
(vaidyanathan, 231).I completely agree with him. It is true that in spite of
being aware of doctor’s love for her she uses her feminine charms and flirts
with the doctor in order to get money from him to clear off the debt of
Krogstad . But when the doctor reveals the fact of his secret love Nora
changes her mind and tells him that she loves her husband only and her
feelings towards the doctor are friendly. Nora is intelligent enough to
understand the fact that her asking him for money would look like selling
herself to him of course, “it is far from her thoughts to acquire Dr Rank as a
lover” (lall,159).I think it is the purity in Nora’s love as a devoted wife for
her husband Trovald that prevents Nora to make an illegal relationship with
Dr Rank to get money from him in exchange in order to keep the secret of
her forgery.

5. Justification in leaving children:
Nora’s relation with the nurse reveals the Picture of Nora as a mother. Nora
has immense love for her children. She has taken pains to buy them
clothing’s and presents for the Christmas. She looks forward to the festival
mainly for the sake of the children who would love to be with their parents.
She knows very well that the nurse marry Anne will look after the children
very well if she “went away” for good from her house. It is said that Nora
could have kept children near to her. But I think Nora is right beacuse She
feels that she would “deprave” her children as given out by her husband
Helmer and it is not justified because Helmer as a father does not perform
anything wrong to be punished. Besides her own moral guilt makes her
withdraw from her children slowly. She really feels for the Separation but
then she learns from the nurse that children would soon adopt to change the
circumstances quickly. If Nora alien tales herself from her children, I think it
is Helmer who is to be blamed for he is the one who has made Nora believe
that she would pollute her own children and demoralize them as did
Krogstad to his children. At the end of the play we find Nora telling herself
in a brief Soliloquy “Corrupt my children? Poison my home? It is not true! It
could never never be true! (Act II, 81 ) . She further thinks that being a bad
woman, her influence on her children might be bad and poisonous. At the

6. same Time she can not believe that she is a wicked woman and that she can
have any evil influence upon her children. Thus there is an acute conflict in
her mind (varshney, 27).Nevertheless she keeps her children away for
herself. She asks the nurse if the children can really adjust themselves to any
change and forget their mother if she were to go away altogether the nurse
tells Nora the story of her own daughter with home the nurse had parted with
in order to earn money. The daughter was now grown up and married. She
also tells Nora that when mother’s die, the children are looked after by the
nurses. The nurses sometimes prove to be as good as mothers. She was
looking after the death of Nora’s mother. Thus Nora is quite concerned
about the welfare and happiness of her children. The conflict of Nora’s mind
is finished at the end of the play by Helmer’s statement .he says, “ I are
concerned, things must appear to go on exactly as before but only in the
eyes of the world . . .but you will not be allowed to bring up the children. I
can’t trust you with them”. (Ibsen, 158). It is time when Nora becomes sure
that it will be proper decision to leave her children because Nora herself
does not know about what is right and what is wrong- to forge her father’s
signature or to save her husband by doing anything she can do. As she is not
able to distinguish between rights and wrong so what sorts of qualifications
have Nora to teach her children? Nora’s decision of leaving children is quite

7. logical. Nora thinks that she must take steps to educate herself first but
Helmer can not be the perfect teacher who suffers from superiority
complex and bears false sense of social values with him. So she wants to
educate herself with a first hand experience. If this tender-hearted, kind and
submissive Nora, decides to abandon her husband, children and all it is
because of the utter ingratitude uncompromising selfishness and male
chauvinism of her husband Trovald Helmer.Her desertion of children at the
end is something which shock us deeply, but her own state of mind at the
time is such that she finds no other alternatives but to leave them. I think
Nora is justified in her decision thinking her mother is dishonest why shoud
notsheleave .
The Constraint of Social Prejudices; Nora is also constrained by existing social ethics,
which regard those who violate social etiquette or break the law to be moral degenerates.
Helmer propounds these social ethics when he condemns Krogstad’s behavior, making
some highly ironic statements in light of Nora’s illegal loan and the forgery of her
father’s signature: “Just imagine how a man with that sort of guilt in him has to lie and
cheat and deceive on all sides, has to wear a mask even with the nearest and dearest he
has, even with his own wife and children.”
Nora’s self-deception, however, prevents her from understanding the social prejudices
that limit her independence. She does not initially question her role as a possession; in
fact, she sees Helmer’s possessiveness as an expression of his love for her: “You see,
Torvald loves me beyond words, and, as he puts it, he’d like to keep me all to himself.

8. For a long time he’d almost be jealous if I even mentioned any of my old friends back
home. So of course I dropped that.” In addition, Nora believes that Torvald’s new
managerial position at the bank and the corresponding increase in his salary will solve all
of her troubles: “Oh, how lovely to think of that, Kristine! Carefree! To know you’re
carefree, utterly carefree; to be able to romp and play with the children, and to keep up a
beautiful, charming home—everything just the way Torvald likes it!”
Nora’s happiness depends on keeping a home that is consistent with her husband’s wants
and needs; she does not yet consider whether or not Torvald’s wants and needs are
consistent with her own. She also does not accept the legal consequences of her actions,
believing that a daughter must have the right “to protect her dying father from anxiety
and care” and that a wife must have the right “to save her husband’s life.”
Although Nora does not yet realize the consequences of her actions, Ibsen foreshadows
her future through a description of Mrs. Linde’s “unspeakably empty” existence, three
years “like one endless workday without a rest,” and Krogstad’s social alienation, when
“every door was closed in [his] face.” It is clear that Nora will have to make a difficult
choice between the financial and social security of her marriage and the social and
economic hardships she will face if she chooses to leave. Self-Awakening
Nora’s illusions about her family life are finally shattered in Act 3 by Helmer’s selfish
and insensitive reaction to the news of Nora’s deceit:
"Oh, what an awful awakening! In all these eight years—she who was my pride and joy
—a hypocrite, a liar—worse, worse—a criminal! How infinitely disgusting it all is! The
shame!...The thing has to be hushed up at any cost. And as for you and me, it’s got to
seem like everything between us is just as it was—to the outside world, that is. You’ll go

9. right on living in this house, of course. But you can’t be allowed to bring up the children;
I don’t dare trust you with them."
Until Helmer’s outburst, Nora had been prepared to take her own life in order to save her
husband and children—“I was so utterly sure that you’d step forward, take the blame on
yourself and say: I am the guilty one…And to stave that off, I would have taken my
life”—but his cruelty shocks her into an understanding of the nature of their relationship.
Even when Krogstad returns the loan note and Helmer tells Nora that he forgives her,
Nora refuses to fall back into her role as the dutiful wife and mother: “I have to try to
educate myself. You can’t help me with that. I’ve got to do it alone. And that’s why I’m
leaving you now.” She realizes that she has been her father’s “doll-child” and her
husband’s “doll-wife,” and that in turn her children have become her own dolls. More
importantly, Nora realizes that she has duties to herself: “I believe that, before all else,
I’m a human being, no less than you.”
Despite the social and economic hardships that Nora will face, Ibsen makes it clear that
Nora must choose freedom over the security of her doll house if she is to become a
human being and not just a possession bound by social strictures and self-deception. Nora
makes this choice and the sound of the front door slamming shut as she leaves her family
is a celebratory reverberation of her emotional and physical survival after the mosthe
most difficult decision of her fictional life.