her husband's life. Since she could not get the money to pay for a much-needed and expensive treatment, she decided to borrow money from someone whom she would pay back in installments. Krogstad was willing to do the deal, but he is untrustworthy and lose by nature. This means that he was willing to help Nora only if he saw any collateral benefit that he could gain from making this unusual deal. 

This is what really terrifies Nora: Telling Helmer about what she did with Krogstad would have been the end of her. Helmer, whom the reader gets to identify as someone shallow, trite, and quite meek for a man, would cause a huge deal out of this only because, if the transaction between Nora and Krogstad became public knowledge, his reputation would be tainted. The audience will eventually witness just that, right before Nora finally wakes up and leaves Helmer.

Back in act 1, however, another reason why Nora is terrified is because, at this point, all that she knows about Krogstad are two things. First, that he is crooked and, according to Helmer, he has lowered to the point of "poisoning the minds of his own children.

Second, Noral learns also that, according to Helmer, who seems to have a deeply-ingrained low opinion of the female gender, Krogstad's bad nature is indicative of a childhood where his mother was negligent and careless. 

HELMER: It seems most commonly to be the mother's influence, though naturally a bad father's would have the same result. Every lawyer is familiar with the fact. This Krogstad, now, has been persistently poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation; that is why I say he has lost all moral character.

This notion is terrifying to Nora, who takes that personally. She now feels that she could be a bad mother, too, poisoning her children the same way Krogstad is doing with his own. After all, didn't she just ask them to keep Krogstad's presence in the house "a secret from papa"?

She now feels that her transaction with Krogstad automatically renders her a bad person. This is why she is so terrified and asks herself, without wanting to see her kids,

Deprave my little children? Poison my home? [A short pause. Then she tosses her head.] It's not true. It can't possibly be true.

At the end of act 1, Nora is unsettled by Torvald's comments regarding Krogstad's forgery. Torvald feels that because Krogstad got away with this misdeed (never giving himself up to be "punished"), he must be corrupt. In fact, he argues that a person who would commit such a crime, no matter the reason, is a corrupting influence on everyone around them, especially children. He even goes as far as to say such behavior can be blamed upon being raised by "a lying mother." Nora is unnerved by this because she illegally borrowed money for the Italian trip undertaken for the sake of Torvald's health. Though she did it for a noble reason, she fears both Torvald's judgment and the possibility that she is a bad influence on her children.

This uneasy mood lingers into act 2. The description of the Christmas tree with the burnt-out candles conveys a sense of desolation. The festive gaiety which seemed to characterize Nora at the start of the play has evaporated in the wake of her fears. Furthermore, the tree acts as a symbolic double for Nora. Like the Christmas tree, Nora's role in her household is largely decorative, but as her anxieties pile up, her commitment to role-playing a beautiful, childlike housewife wanes, and the tree accordingly loses its glamor.

Nora (pale with terror). Deprave my little children? Poison my
home? (A short pause. Then she tosses her head.) It's not true.
It can't possibly be true (Act I).

In Act I of A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen gives Nora the stage command "pale with terror" immediately following several speeches of Torvald's in which he berates Krogstad's character. Krogstad is guilty of a fraudulent crime, though he was never punished for it. Krogstad used his knowledge of law to legally clear his name of the crime, however, society still believed him to be guilt. Torvald argues that by conniving his way out of criminal responsibility, Krogstad is a hypocrite and a liar. Moreover, Krogstad must continue to lie to his family about his responsibility. In this way, Krogstad is poisoning his home and his children. Torvald further argues that as a lawyer he has observed that anyone who becomes a criminal has had "a deceitful mother."

At this point in the play the reader/viewer is already well acquainted with the parallels Ibsen has drawn between Nora and Krogstad. Both characters have engaged in fraudulent activity. Ibsen draws this parallel even closer when he shows us through Krogstad's lines in Act II, that just like Nora, Krogstad committed the fraud to save a loved one. Regardless, in Act I, Nora already senses the similarities between herself and Krogstad, thus, when Torvald argues that hypocrisy, lies, and especially lying mothers poison homes and children, Nora takes it very much to heart. Nora knows that she lied to get Torvald to Italy and lied in forging her father's signature on the loan. Nora grows "pale with terror" in Act I because she believes Torvald's comments.

For all their delicateness and nurturing instincts, birds are also resilient and migrate to wherever conditions are better for them. And, in situations that are dangerous to them, they will abandon their nests since the survival instinct supercedes all others. Indeed, the use of the bird as symbolic of Nora is appropriate.

Nora is seen as an entertainer and comfort for Torvald, like a pet. 

Birds also are fragile creatures with hollow bones. They sing and are seen as merry, but they are also seen to need protection from harm. 

The household is also like a nest, a place to be "feathered" with comforts, in Torvald's view. Nora is the bird to do the feathering and give him comfort.

Nora sings like a bird as if she is happy. However, she is not happy. Like a bird which is kept as a prize in a cage, Torvald keeps his little songbird, Nora, in a cage. She has no freedoms. She has many restrictions on her life because she is a woman. Women in the nineteenth century were idolized but not respected, as the above post states. Torvald idolizes Nora, but he does not respect her. He calls her featherbrain and scatterbrain. These are not affectionate terms. They are insults.

We generally associate birds with flight and freedom, but Nora is like a pretty pet bird that is kept in her cage, her doll house.  The bird may be alive and well in the cage, but something essential in her nature is thwarted.  In the case of Nora, societal expectations have clipped her wings. The conflict of the story is whether Nora will break free of those restrictions and fly on her own, or stay within the safety of her life as it is.

Nora is symbolic of many things that have to do with gender roles in history. She is symbolic of a doll. Torvald has a pretty plaything that will perform for him—sing songs, flit about, and provide him amusement whenever he cares to play. Yet, when he tires of spending time with her, he puts her away—metaphorically. Torvald retreats into his study, where it is expected that his doll will not intrude until he wishes to play again.

Nora also symbolizes a caged bird, the "singing lark," that is treated as a beautiful and fragile pet. The cage she is kept in is her home and role as wife and mother, and it is confined to very well defined gender expectations that do not allow her to roam free and explore boundaries.

As a wife, Nora Helmer is extremely complaisant. She goes out of her way to please her husband, to the point of acting in a way that does not entirely concur with the way that she sees herself. Nora only thinks that she enjoys being Torvald's play thing. She thinks this way because in her society women are expected to do as the husband wishes. However, in the end, she realizes that she is far from the woman that she has portrayed as a doll. As such, she must remove that woman away in order to grow. 

Nora. As I am now, I am no wife for you.

Helmer. I have it in me to become a different man.

Nora. Perhaps--if your doll is taken away from you.

Helmer. But to part!--to part from you! No, no, Nora, I can't understand that idea.

As a mother, Nora is over-indulgent. She places their care entirely in the hands of their governess, but she brings them out from time to time to indulge and play with them. She does this because it is all part of the same charade that she unwittingly creates to satisfy the ego of her husband, as well as the image that she has created of herself. This image is based on the "feedback" she gets from her husband, where she gets love in exchange for trivial entertainment. This is when she gets called "lark", "squirrel", and other saccharine names. Again, she will come to realize this and feel horrid about herself in the last act.

I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile. (Getting up.) Torvald--it was then it dawned upon me that for eight years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three children--. Oh, I can't bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits!

As a woman, up until the end, Nora is self-deprecating. She has allowed for Torvald to take over her personality. The tragic problem here is that Nora knows this to a much familiar level, but she continues to deny it to herself. It is not until the end, when she recognizes that she will get no validation from Torvald-ever- that she realizes that such validation can only come from within.

 Helmer- No man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.

Nora. It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

Helmer. Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child.

Only she can empower herself. Only she can take charge of Nora. This is why, in a controversial move for her time, she leaves everything behind and moves on. 

Nora seems to view motherhood as though it is a kind of game. She is constantly playing with her kids, but we rarely see her doing any serious child-rearing or disciplining. The kids seem to spend more time with their nursemaid than they do with their mother. When the nurse, Anna, returns from outdoors with the children, Nora says:

Did you have a game of snowballs? Oh, I wish I'd been there. No; leave them, Anna; I'll take their things off. Oh, yes, let me do it; it's such fun.

She wishes she'd been there for their game—a snowball fight. Then, when the nurse goes to take the kids away to remove their wet things, Nora says that she thinks it is fun to help them take off their clothes.

In other words, she likes to dress and undress them as one might dress and undress one's dolls. She calls her youngest child, a girl, her "sweet little dolly." Nora even expresses her wish to her friend, Christine Linde, about being free to "be able to play and romp about with the children." She does not seem to think of them as actual people but as playthings. She plays hide and seek with them, calling them "dear little dolly children," even hiding under the table herself.

Motherhood is a series of delightful interludes for her—a fun game—at least until Torvald tells her how mothers can morally poison their home and kids.

Nora’s decision to leave Torvald is not difficult to understand, considering how he betrays her when she most needs his understanding and protection, but how can she abandon her three children? Torvald reminds Nora that her responsibilities to her children are “sacred duties,” suggesting that he believes she does not take seriously her role as their mother. Nora, however, loves her children, understands for the first time the true responsibilities of motherhood, and now recognizes her deficiencies in meeting them. Nora’s leaving her children to pursue a new life is not a selfish act; it is a sacrifice.

At the beginning of Act I, Nora is introduced in Ibsen’s drama not as Torvald’s wife but as Ivar, Bob, and Emmy’s mother. Coming home from holiday shopping, Nora is happy and excited as she thinks of surprising her children that evening with the Christmas tree she has bought and will decorate and with the presents she has found for them. Showing the gifts to her husband, she eagerly anticipates their Christmas celebration. “And the children Torvald!” she exclaims. “They’ll have such a good time!” The children’s nurse attends to the daily tasks of looking after them, but Nora showers her young sons and little daughter with affection and takes delight in playing with them. In the play’s conclusion when Nora leaves Torvald, she doesn’t want to see her children, no doubt because telling them goodbye would be too painful.

Nora finds the strength to leave her children because she believes she is acting in their best interests. She knows she cannot be a good mother to them until she herself grows up, forges her own identity, and lives with integrity. She recognizes that her children have been her “dolls,” just as she has been Torvald’s “doll wife” and her father’s “doll child.” Preparing to leave the house for the last time, Nora speaks to Torvald about her children. “I know I leave them in better hands than mine,” she says. “The way I am now I can’t be anything to them.” Nora does not say that she can never be a good mother to her children, suggesting that she holds out hope that one day she can be more than their playmate. Until then, she will love them enough to leave them behind while she becomes someone who can be a stable, mature presence in their lives.

Nora is the "doll" of the title.  At the beginning of the play, she seems to be a simple character who is happy with her doll-like existence.  However, as the play progressess, she realizes more and more the inequities of her lifestyle.  We see the depth of her character develop before our eyes.  

Nora plays her games with Torvald - dancing for him, playing the little squirrel, etc - in exchange for his taking care of her.  The forged loan documents she has with Krogstad soon take away her carefree attitude, as she discovers that there is a limit to Torvald's sacrifices for her.   This is shocking to her and starts her down the road to self-discovery. 

She realizes that she was a doll in her father's house, taking on his beliefs, and that she now is a doll in Torvald's house, taking on his beliefs.  She only plays with her children as dolls, and is raising them to behave the same.  She recognizes that she must take the time to know and be her own self, in order to be the right sort of mother for her children, and thus leaves the house at the end of the play.

The door closing in the final moment of the play must have been enlightening for the audience (especially the women) in 1879, and still resonates today.

Nora is a complex and dynamic protagonist. In the beginning of A Doll's House, she sometimes bears her husband's outright insults. When she tries to explain that she is thrifty, he replies, "Yes, that's the truth. [You save] everything you can. But that's nothing at all" (1.48). She puts up with his childish and insulting pet names, such as "squirrel," "featherbrain," and "lark." But Nora is much more than the simple, flighty wife she initially seems to be.

We learn quickly that Nora is a devoted wife. Doctors told her that her husband needed expensive medical treatment in Italy, and she also knew that Torvald would never pay for it. So she took out a loan and committed forgery in order to obtain the funds and save his life, never mentioning this to Torvald. She's secretly been working side jobs and stashing some of her "allowance" to pay back her debt. And still, she listens without complaint as her husband accuses her of constantly wasting money, and she continues to endure his infantilizing treatment. She's faithful and willing to overlook his faults.

Yet, eventually, she realizes that the love she longs for doesn't exist. When her husband finally realizes the truth of her actions, his first priority is to save himself:

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! I should have suspected something of the kind. I should have known. All your father's flimsy values. (3.236)

Nora begins to see Torvald for what he is: another man who wants to rule over her.

That's the point right three: you've never understood me. I've been wronged greatly, Torvald—first by Papa, and then by you.

Nora realizes that she is strong enough to strive for more. She doesn't have to be boxed into the role of a doting daughter or a serving wife. She leaves in a quest of "absolute freedom" (3.360) in search of more.

Nora is willing to lose everything and walk away from her life completely empty-handed because she is strong enough to know that she will be okay.

At the opening of Act I of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora is introduced to the audience “humming contentedly.” Nora does, as will be evident, hum regularly, a habit that, to her controlling and demeaning husband Torvald, prompts him to compare his wife to a songbird. Throughout Act I of Ibsen’s play, the theme of Nora as songbird is repeated, as in the following exchange in which Torvald has established a pattern of comparing his wife to a series of innocent, harmless animals, specifically, a lark and a squirrel and, finally, to a songbird:

Nora: I wish I had inherited many of papa's qualities.

Torvald: And I don't wish you anything but just what you are — my own, sweet little song-bird. But I say — it strikes me you look so — so — what shall I call it ? — so suspicious to-day.

Torvald, the audience comes to understand, is using the animal monikers or comparison to emphasize his superiority over his wife. As noted, he is a controlling husband whose attitude towards his wife is disrespectful and demeaning. Note, for example, in the following comment by Torvald his continued practice of demeaning Nora and his use of the songbird metaphor to emphasize Nora’s seemingly innocent, helpless persona:

Torvald: Didn't you say that nobody had been here ? (Threatens with his finger.) My little bird must never do that again ! A song-bird must sing clear and true ; no false notes. 

The significance of Torvald’s comparison of his wife to a songbird is in its condescending approach toward the individual who is supposed, under more ideal conditions, to be his partner in life. Despite his best efforts, he has not yet destroyed Nora’s desire to be upbeat and considerate despite the secret regarding her financial status she seeks to maintain from her controlling, critical husband. Nora’s humming reminds Torvald of a songbird, but the animal metaphor is maintained to institutionalize her subservience to him.

Nora's role in the household is well-defined, at least from Helmer's point of view.

According to her husband, Nora is supposed to look after the children, give instructions to the hired help, and generally look after the home. She should defer to him when making decisions about money and should also adopt his opinions as her own (even in matters of child rearing, if it comes to that).

Interestingly, Nora's role as a woman in the household is largely defined by her husband and not by her own agency, sensibilities or speech. (This fact is what she eventually rebels against at the end of the play.)

These views are indicative of a social atmosphere characterized by a somewhat rigid morality (as also seen in the disapprobation heaped on Krogstad when he commits forgery), but they are made particularly concrete in Helmer.

"In the nineteenth century, women's lives were limited to socially prescribed behaviors, and women were considered to be little more than property; Nora embodies the issues that confronted women during this period" (eNotes).

Helmer stands as a figure painfully aware of social norms and or public opinion, afraid to lose his reputation and quick to judge others for failing to live up to generic social expectations. His relationship to his wife, in its many aspects of intellectual and social power, notably parallels the relationship that Nora shared with her father. The patronizing nature of the father-daughter relationship (justified, perhaps to some extent, by literal patronage/parenting) is repeated in Helmer's treatment of his wife.

In these ways, one meaning of the title of the play becomes clear. Nora is Helmer's doll. She is to do what he says, dress nicely in the clothes he buys for her and so perform his ideal of feminine passivity and beauty. The dynamic between Nora and Helmer (again from his point of view) is repeatedly made overt through his many diminutive nicknames for his wife.

Nora is his “singing lark,” his pretty “little squirrel,” and his “little spendthrift" (eNotes).

Although she is expected to be passive and obedient, Nora acts rashly and takes charge of decisions for herself. Her rashness can be seen, perhaps, as a response to the knowledge that she must always assert herself secretly and avoid letting her husband know that she has acted decisively on her own.

In choosing to forge a signature, Nora commits a crime and also saves her husband's life. He was ill and failing to recover and so she took matters into her own hands to rescue him from illness. This act also demonstrates her power - - the power to be the strong one in the relationship, the power to make up her own mind. Due to her husbands strong and narrow views on the role Nora is supposed to play, Nora must keep her power a secret. Thus she tacitly agrees to be powerless in the relationship. Only by breaking from her husband can she claim authority over her own identity.  

In the context of the origins of the name "Nora," several sources report that it is short for "Eleanora" meaning "light," and "Honora" meaning "honor."

I have not found anything to indicate that that the author purposefully chose this name for the protagonist. However, in Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, these meanings may be used to contemplate a deeper side of the character of Nora.

Nora can be seen as the light in several ways. It is Nora's bustling and energetic personality that brightens up the room upon her arrival in the opening scene. We see this when she is returning from Christmas shopping. Torvald also might, arguably, be drawn to the light in her: he would not refer to her in such childish terms (i.e., little bird, songbird) if she was something that was not bright and cheerful. Even the dying Dr. Rank is attracted to Nora, much like an moth to a flame. There is warmth and comfort to be found in her presence. When Nora leaves in the end, it is very much as if the light has gone out of the house and Torvald's life. He laments:

Empty. She is gone.

In terms of honor, we see clearly that Nora is an honorable woman. She took money illegally to save Torvald's life. She is extremely agitated when she believes that she might be a poor mother to her children because of this act. Nora is worthy in her respect of Dr. Rank's wish that he be left alone at the end to die. (Torvald, Rank's "best friend," secretly infers he has little regard for the other man.

[in a fretful whisper]. Oh, what does [Rank] want now? (Act III)

Rank knows death upsets Torvald and doesn't want him around, and Torvald agrees without hesitation.) Nora is noble with regard to her commitment to be a good wife, loving and caring for family even before her own good. She wants very much to protect Torvald from any repercussions based on her business dealings with Krogstad, even contemplating suicide, insisting to her husband:

Let me go. You shall not suffer for my sake. You shall not take it upon yourself. (Act III)

Finally, we might argue that Nora's decision to leave at the end is a exercise as she honors herself, and all that she can be.

Keeping in mind the great significance of the title of Ibsen's play which has been written as both A Doll's House and A Doll House, the position of Nora is one that is, indeed, minimal and objectified as the "doll" which Torvald Helmer possesses. And, since the play was written during the Victorian Age, the set would include rooms decorated in the Victorian style; that is, doors that slide open, hardwood floors with decorative wool rugs covering much of the floor, wood-burning stoves in each room, armchairs and sofa in the living room, covered with tufted upholstery in a solid, dark color such as burgundy. The rooms reflect the traditionalism of Helmer, who wishes to appear dignified. There should be a certain darkness to the room, relieved only by gaslights, with a stuffiness to the air. Many of the scenes would be outside the doors or in doorways, signifying how Nora is closed out from the inner life she wishes to share with her husband as, for instance, in the opening scene, in which Helmer is in his study with its leather bound books and calls through the door to Nora in his patronizing manner,

HELMER Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA (opening some packages). That's right.[Notice that she does not attempt to open his door.]

In fact, when she asks him to come out because she wishes to show him something, Helmer refuses, saying he is busy. Finally, he looks out, but yet has a pen in his hand, then calls Nora his "little wastrel" as he looks at what she has purchased.

As a married woman in this Victorian Age, Nora would be attired appropriately for the wife of a banker:  dark stockings worn during the day, a corset, a wire crinoline, which kept the shape of the dress, and a dress with a high neckline for daytime wear. When Nora first enters in Scene 1, she removes her coat and takes from the pocket a couple of macaroons and eats them surreptitiously as she has been forbidden them. This action mimics that of a child, who steals some cookies or delicacy from the kitchen.

As the play continues, Nora continues to be objectified, so the Victorian costuming should remain on her and be in grey tones to symbolize her receding position except for the fact that she is dressed vibrantly in her costume when she dances and performs as Helmer's "living doll."

Nora is Torvald's "doll" in their house. He refers to her by diminutive pet names such as "little squirrel," "little spendthrift," and "singing lark." The macaroons he forbids her to eat represent her deception: she lies to him, forges her father's signature, etc. Playing hide-and-seek with her children, whom Nora regards as "dolls," is also symbolic of her relationsihp with her husband. The tarantella that she dances is a dance meant for couples, but she performs it alone, suggesting the deterioration of their marriage, just as the Christmas tree, which is fresh at the beginning of the play on Christmas Eve but on Christmas Day is already bedraggled. Even the hairpin she breaks by trying to unlock the letter box to retrieve Krogstad's letter shows her desperation and perhaps the loss of her traditional femininity, eventually revealed when she abandons her family. Such an ending was shocking to Ibsen's audiences who believed that a woman should place husband and children above her own needs and desires. That slammed door symbolizes her break with tradition in her quest to discover who she is as an individual.

Nora is the "doll" of the title of this excellent play, kept in her "house" by her husband Torvald. It is clear from the very beginning of this play that her main preoccupation in life is being the "perfect wife" and charming her husband with her youthfulness, naivety and supposed innocence. What is notable in the first Act is how she receives and even welcomes her husband referring to her variously as a "rustling squirrel," a "twittering skylark" and a "little squanderbird." Each of these titles seem to demean Nora's character and places her in the role of a little child to her husband, but she accepts them and even appears to delight in them.

However, apart from playing this "role" she also has her secrets that she keeps from Torvald even when it appears there is little advantage in doing so. It appears that we are presented with a central character who practices deception naturally and almost as if it has become second nature for her. Let us consider her secrets: she lies to Torvald about the housekeeping money, conceals the jobs she takes to earn a little extra and forges her father's signature on a loan. It is clear that she is regarded as the "doll" that is referred to in the title: a child, an object or toy, and yet she is never regarded as a fellow human being equal in intellect. She feels she is totally dependent on Torvald for all her needs until she realises her own self-sufficiency and inner-strength that becomes apparent at the end of this memorable drama. As Norma herself describes her life to Torvald:

You've always been very kind to me. But our home has never been anything but a playroom. I've been your doll-wife, just as I used to be Papa's doll-child. And the children have been my dolls. I used to think it was fun when you came in and played with me, just as they think it's fun when I go in and play games with them. That's all our marriage has been, Torvald.

It is this epiphany that Nora experiences about her character and her desire to finally exit her doll's house and become a human that marks this play as such a masterpiece.

Nora's predicament can be seen as representative of a situation that many women have had to experience and, perhaps, still endure.

There is a great deal in Nora's situation that can apply to many women.  For example, Torvald patronizes Nora.  He refers to her in terms such as “singing lark,”  “little squirrel,” and “little spendthrift.”  These expressions do not validate her voice.  For example, Torvald never probes into why she might be a "spendthrift." His characterizations of Nora are reductive.  They take away her intricacy as a human being by placing her in a context familiar to him. The patronizing way that Torvald perceives Nora is representative of what many women have experienced.  

The way Torvald refers to Nora places her in a situation he controls. This denial of voice is something that women have had to experience in marriage. Torvald controls Nora's identity as a wife.  In this way, marriage is shown to be a repressive institution.  Many women can relate to this condition.  The rise of feminism and the emergence of gender-based identity politics reflected a desire to change the branding of women at male discretion. The presence of feminism today reflects how many women around the world continue to experience this reality.

Nora's breaking away from Torvald is also an experience representative of women.  Many women have broken free from a situation where they were controlled or where they felt their voice was not validated. When Torvald rejects Nora, saying that she can stay for appearance, she finally gets him.  She leaves him because she knows she deserves better. Torvald is shocked that he is no longer able to control her. This experience of breaking free, asserting one's own voice, and finding a new identity are all representative of what women have done and what women continue to do today.

I think that there is always a danger in saying that a particular character represents an entire group of people.  Nora is representative of what many women have experienced.  While it is important to underscore that she does not represent every single woman, there are aspects of her experience to which many women can relate.

Nora is of course the protagonist of this excellent drama, and also she is the "doll" in the title. Key to understanding her character is realising how she has allowed herself to be treated, by both Torvald, her husband, and in the past by her father. It seems that throughout the play, until the final Act, when she comes to some inner-understanding of her own identity and worth, she is playing a part that has been given to her by other people, which she does with aplomb. From her first entrance, she appears girlish, immature and flighty. Her efforts are engaged in charming her husband and keeping him happy whilst trying to be the perfect wife. Yet, in spite of this, she also tries to conceal various secrets and ways in which she has been acting behind Torvald's back. It appears that deceit is something that Nora has grown into - it is a habit that she persists in even when there is no perceivable benefit to herself. She believes that she is in a position of complete dependence on her husband, and this is a myth that she only realises isn't true by the final act. However, at the end of the play, she shows great resilience and inner-strength with her determination to seek a new life for herself:

When a wife leaves her husband's house, as I'm doing now, I'm told that according to the law he is freed of any obligations towards her. In any case, I release you from any such obligations. You mustn't feel bound to me in any way however small, just as I shall not feel bound to you. We must both be quite free. Here is your ring back. Give me mine.

It is this inner-strength and determination to seek her own life on her own terms that we remember Nora for, not the childish names that her husband bestows on her. Our lasting impression of her character is characterised in the sound of the street door being slammed shut as she leaves all she has ever known to seek out a new life.

Nora is the "doll" wife of Torvald. She is sensitive, sensible, and completely unaware of her own worth until the last act of the play. She initially appears flighty and excitable. Nora is most concerned with charming her husband and being the perfect wife; she is also secretive and hides her thoughts and actions from her husband even when there is no real benefit in doing so. Rather, deception appears to be almost a habit for Nora. Her husband constantly refers to her with pet names, such as "singing lark," "little squirrel," and "little spendthrift." He pats her on the head much as one would a favorite puppy. She forges her father's signature on a loan, lies to her husband about the source of the money, lies about how she spends the household accounts, and lies about odd jobs she takes to earn extra money. She is viewed as an object, a toy, a child, but never an equal. Her problem is that she is totally dependent upon her husband for all her needs; or she deceives herself into thinking so until the end of the play.

This play play was written in 1879, in a completely different era for women's rights. Women in Norway did not yet have the right to control their wealth, to go to college, or to vote. Often, this play is unofficially referred to as "the woman's play" because it is so forward-thinking in terms of Ibsen's sympathetic treatment of Nora. She loves her husband, Torvald, and she maintains at least the appearance of obeying him; she even took out a loan to save him without his knowledge, and she knows he would be livid if he were to find out, but she did it because she is devoted to him. Torvald, however, does not feel the same devotion to Nora. When he learns that she took out a loan without his knowledge, forging her father's signature, he fears exposure and treats her cruelly. He is well within his legal rights to limit her contact with their children, to make her a stranger in her own home. Nora's lack of real independence and the expectation that she be devoted to her husband (despite his lack of devotion to her) is typical of women of her time. In almost all ways, she fulfills those societal expectations.