Nora's lies are engineered to protect the central deception she's created in borrowing money from Krogstad under false pretences. The irony of this is that it was done solely to obtain medical treatment for her husband. He's the principal one she needs to continue deceiving—and we can see why this is so when he goes into a rage at Nora upon learning of Krogstad's blackmail attempt.
All of this is symptomatic of the weak and dependent position of women in nineteenth-century society. Every effort Nora makes to continue hiding her past actions backfires upon her. She is forced to try persuading Torvald to promote Krogstad at the bank, although she knows Krogstad is the most untrustworthy person imaginable for this or any job.
When she suggests he is being "petty" in objecting to Krogstad's behavior, Torvald blows up, saying that "you must think I am petty." Yet even in this situation Nora's "lies" are ones of omission, not commission. The only real falsehood was the forging of her father's signature on the loan application. This doesn't indicate she's "untrustworthy" but rather that she was in desperation mode at the time, having no alternative except to let her husband die.
If it does say anything else about her personality, it might suggest that even in the context of the times, Nora is a passive-aggressive individual. Perhaps someone else could have found a different strategy than forgery, though under the circumstances it's not clear what this would have been. Ibsen deliberately withholds much of the detail concerning Torvald's illness that prompted the deception.
Without knowing all of the back-story we can't piece together the puzzle of this central event. But the main issue is that Nora, as a woman in the repressive society of the time, has been given few legitimate options to deal with a life-threatening problem.
Lying comes almost as second nature to Nora. She doesn't mean anything by it; it's largely a way of dealing with her life as an emotionally dependent housewife. Nora has never been allowed to grow up, either by her husband or her later father, so she remains in a state of permanent childhood, in which the causal utterance of untruths becomes a way of life.
Nora's whole life is one big lie, one she's been living pretty much since day one—certainly since she got married to Torvald. As such, there's no incentive for her to be truthful. Whether it's telling little white lies about eating macaroons or telling big lies when forging her father's signature on a loan application, it's all the same to Nora. The size of the lie will depend on the situation and what she hopes to get out of it.
Strictly speaking, this makes her a throughly dishonest person. But at the same time, we shouldn't overlook the fact that Nora, to a considerable extent, is the creature of a patriarchal society which regards women as fundamentally dishonest. Given this unpropitious cultural background, one shouldn't be too harsh on...
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Nora for her numerous lies; to some extent, she's only doing what's expected of her.
In Ibsen's A Doll's House, Nora continuously tells lies, with their seriousness varying from that of petty "white lies" to far more serious deceptions.
In the beginning of the play, Nora lies about relatively silly things, telling Torvald that she hadn't consumed any sweets when he asks her, "Hasn't Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today... taken a bite at a macaroon or two?" This is a harmless lie... the kind of mistruth that an audience understands could be easily forgiven. It's a habit that seems to play an important role in the dynamic of Nora and Torvald's relationship; she bends the truth in order to avoid his gentle scolding, and the entire thing plays off as an inside joke, with Nora continuing to act as his "little featherhead," "little skylark," or "little squirrel." It's easy to write these lies off as facets of Nora's childishness or her ineptitude in understanding the big, complicated work of her husband.
In reality, however, Nora is not inept; while she may pretend to not understand their financial situation, she knows that they are in trouble. Still, Nora believes that her large lies are an act of love and necessity; she wants to protect her husband from the truth, claiming:
It was necessary he should have no idea what a dangerous condition he was in. It was to me that the doctors came and said that his life was in danger.
This hidden knowledge of the gravity of her husband's illness is what drives Nora to commit her next act of fraudulence: forging her dead father's signature in order to take out a loan to finance a trip to Italy where Torvald may properly recuperate... and lying to Torvald that she received the money directly from her father.
Torvald later chalks up this lie to a woman's child-like dependence on her husband, but it is here that Nora's true personality comes out: she is not a child and does not wish to rely on Torvald. She longs to develop her own identity, a sense of her "self," and a purpose for her life beyond marriage and motherhood. Although her larger lies were truly acts of sacrifice on her husband's behalf, she can now see that this is not the type of thing he values or appreciates, and that their marriage itself has been an act of mutual deception.
Broadly speaking, there are two different kinds of lies Nora tells. There are the petty, immature lies, about eating macaroons. These lies tell us about the role she plays before Helmer: his little lark, squirrel, etc.
Then there are the lies made about the big things: money, its origins, what she knows about Dr. Rank. These are signs of a much larger, deeper Nora hidden behind the bright and cheerful façade of the little lark.
Together, they indicate a clash of selves. At the play's end, the deeper Nora emerges, and the lies disappear.
In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, what kind of lies does Nora tell? Do the lies indicate that Nora cannot be trusted, or are they a sign of something else about her personality?
In Henrik Ibsen’s play, Nora Helmer has developed the habit of lying almost constantly to her husband, Torvald. Although in the early years of their marriage, she might have been truthful with him, at a certain point she made a decision to commit the crime of fraud, which led to her telling a huge lie to cover up that illegal act. Ever since then, she has been trying to correct the situation that she created with the original crime. Nora also lies to other people about events and actions related to the fraud and its repercussions. The fact that Torvald has a low opinion of Nora’s capabilities makes it easier for him to hide the truth from him; in that respect, he is an enabler whose behavior encourages her to continue along her established path.
Nora does not lie to everyone, however; Ibsen draws a sharp distinction between Nora’s behavior with her patronizing husband and her friend Kristine Linde, whom she considers her peer and equal. In fact, Nora seems relieved to unburden herself in her conversation with Kristine. Hiding behind lies has proven exhausting for Nora, and by the time she decides to be honest with Torvald, it is too late. She had thought that he was an upstanding, honest person and felt guilty for being a criminal and a liar—although she rationalized her actions as being for his benefit. Once she is confronted with the truth about her husband’s hypocrisy, Nora shows herself to be a fundamentally honest person who can no longer tolerate living a lie.
In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, what kind of lies does Nora tell? Do the lies indicate that Nora cannot be trusted, or are they a sign of something else about her personality?
While a lying character is often indicative of a flaw in personality, care should be taken in plot analysis to consider the reasons for any character's dishonesty. In A Doll's House, Nora's lies stem from the demeaning treatment she receives from her husband.
The most significant lie she tells is actually constructed in an effort to save her husband's life. Because women in her society are not considered capable of managing finances, Nora has to forge her father's signature in order to obtain a loan so that she can finance a trip to Italy to save Torvald's life. Forgery is illegal, but Nora is devoted to her husband and risks the possibility of consequences associated with this lie in order to obtain the best possible treatment for him, as he won't spend the money himself.
Later, Krogstad (from whom she borrowed the money and forged the needed male signature) threatens to expose her and attempts to blackmail her. Nora is living in a society with few opportunities for independence for women and with men controlling her life at every turn.
Her lies, then, do not expose an innate moral flaw but are the manifestation of a woman desperate to rise above the patriarchal society which confines her. Even her husband doesn't truly appreciate her efforts, though he would not be alive without her. In the end, Nora finds the courage to be honest with herself and her husband, and she leaves her family in search of a life where love is real.
In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, what kind of lies does Nora tell? Do the lies indicate that Nora cannot be trusted, or are they a sign of something else about her personality?
The lies that Nora tells throughout Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House stem from living a life of being protected, and not being taken seriously, being treated with little respect by both her father and husband, as many women in her society were treated. Nora's lies are less a reflection of her own character, or personality, and more a reflection of the characters of the men surrounding her. Nora lies to not only protect herself from ridicule, but also to protect the one's she loves, such as her husband.One instance of Nora telling a lie to protect her own dignity and prevent ridicule takes place in Act 1, Scene 1. In the very beginning of this scene, Nora lies to her husband about eating macaroon's. Torvald has forbidden Nora to eat sweets because he feels they will spoil her teeth, but she treats herself to macaroons while shopping on Christmas Eve and lies to Torvald by saying that she has not been eating macaroons. This scene is proof that Torvald feels no respect for Nora's adulthood. He treats her like a child, thereby showing her very little respect. Nora lies to Torvald about the macaroons because she feels the need to maintain her dignity and self-respect, while catering to her own desires.Nora also lies about spending three weeks locked up in a room the previous Christmas. Nora tells her husband and children that she is making Christmas gifts and ornaments for the tree. When at the end of the three weeks she has no gifts or ornaments to present, she lies again, saying that the cat tore them all to pieces. The truth is that Nora spent those three weeks making things to sell to pay off her dept. It is necessary for Nora to keep her dept a secret from her husband because he became very angry with her when she asked him to sign a loan, therefore she must continue to lie to her husband about her need to pay off the dept. The fact that Nora feels a need to lie about a dept that saved her husband's life shows how little her husband respects her ideas and the solutions Nora comes up with for life's problems. Again, this instance of Nora's lies proves how trapped she is by the opinions of the men she is surrounded by.A third instance, is that Nora lies to her husband about the reason why she wants to travel to Italy. Nora believes that since the doctors told Nora about how ill her husband is, that if he learned how ill he is, he would loose all hope of recovering. Nora pretends to desire to go abroad out of whimsy because she believes she is protecting her husband. This third instance of Nora's lying, does not show any deceitfulness in her character, but rather shows that she has the desire to protect. But since she lives in a society that reduces a woman's ability to act on her own accord, she is reduced to lying to achieve her goals.