diminishes her as an equal adult and an individual. In forbidding her to eat sweets, he is treating her as a child. He is also belittling her desires as an adult. However, the fact that Nora is brave enough to rebel, even if it is behind his back, shows that Nora still respects herself as a person and still sees importance in her own desires.

A second symbol of independence is the knitting that Christine is seen doing later in the third act. Christine works on her knitting while waiting for Nora to return from the party in order to inform Nora that she was unable to convince Krogstad of informing Torvald of Nora's fraud. Torvald notices Christine's knitting and asks her about it. He actually even insults her about it, saying that she ought to take up embroidery because it is far more becoming than knitting, as we see in his lines:

But in the case of knitting--that can never be anything but ungraceful; look here--the arms close together, the knitting-needles going up and down--it has a sort of Chinese effect--. (III)

Christine's response is to curtly dismiss him, saying, "Yes, perhaps--" followed by, "Well--good-night, Nora" (III).
In Christine's mind, knitting is her preference, what she feels needs to be done, and Torvald has no right to criticize her for it. The fact that Christine continues to prefer knitting, regardless of what any man like Torvald thinks, shows us that knitting is a symbol of Christine's independence as a woman.  

Ibsen includes much symbolism in his play, A Doll’s House. The setting of the play, the Helmer’s residence, one portion of a multi-family dwelling, resembles an actual doll house. The setting of the Helmer residence also symbolizes the isolation experienced by Nora and women at that time in Norway. Since the action of the play never leaves the Helmer residence, the audience feels the isolation that Nora does. The costuming used in A Doll’s House, namely that worn by Nora, can be assigned multiple layers of symbolism; the multi-colored nature of Nora’s tarantella costume symbolizes the lively nature of the dance, her truly coming to life through this dance. The costume, in and of itself, stands as a symbol of Nora’s place in society. Torvald dresses Nora up as if she is a doll and requires of her this dance (the Tarantella), as if she is a marionette that he manipulates. Lastly, the ideas of disease and death relate to Nora and the Helmers’ marriage. Nora has brought disease into their marriage through her lies about money and the forgery. Through this disease she is bringing about the death of her marriage, as well as the death of a weak Nora, allowing for a strong Nora to emerge

Henrik Ibsen sometimes uses props to provide external symbols of characters' internal qualities.

For example, in the first scene, Nora is eating macaroons, which she keeps hidden in her pocket and out of her husband's sight. Dr. Rank later points out that Torvald has "forbidden" Nora from eating the treats. The macaroons therefore symbolize both Torvald's controlling nature and Nora's deceit. While Torvald believes that his wife obediently complies to all of his wishes, which includes rules for her food intake, Nora actually possesses a sense of independence which she keeps hidden from her husband. Of course, the audience also becomes aware that Nora has hidden matters of greater significance from Torvald, as well.

The Christmas tree is also used to symbolize internal qualities in both Nora and Torvald. When the tree is delivered, Nora is excited to make her home festive. The tree therefore symbolizes Nora's initial satisfaction in her traditional role as a mother. As her excitement grows, Torvald recalls the previous Christmas when Nora spent three weeks locked away "until long after midnight, making ornaments for the Christmas tree, and all the other fine things" that she hoped would surprise her family. Torvald concludes that it was the "dullest three weeks [he] ever spent." The Christmas tree therefore symbolizes Torvald's dismissal of Nora's efforts to be a good wife and mother, belittling her importance to their family.

Dolls are also used to symbolize manipulation and control. In Act 3, Nora reflects that she was simply a "doll" for her father to "play with," much as she manipulated her own toys. After growing up, she became Torvald's "doll-wife" and always considered it "great fun" with he "played with" her; she also recognizes that this role indicated that she was "brittle and fragile" and therefore needed to be taken care of. Dolls symbolize Nora's own willingness to submit to the patriarchal structure of her life until she finally decides to take Torvald's doll away from him in order to claim her own destiny.

As suggested by the title, dolls and related imagery such as play and a playroom are important symbols throughout the play. Nora’s life and her relationship to her husband are compared to playing with dolls or playing house. Another significant symbol that emerges in act 1 is the macaroons. These cookies represent Nora’s dissatisfaction as well as her deceptive behavior in other, more important aspects of their marriage.

Through most of the play, Torvald often behaves more like a father than a husband to Nora. He routinely uses the adjective “little” in addressing her—often in combination with animal nicknames or insults—and he also criticizes her behavior as immature and irresponsible. His behavior establishes a connection between his paternalism and her childish or doll-like status.

After Torvald is forced to confront Nora’s ongoing deception and the ramifications of her illegal actions, they argue about the future of their marriage. Nora explicitly evokes “dolls” and compares her husband’s paternalism to her father’s attitude when she was a child. She further connects her own parental behavior toward their children to Torvald’s treatment of her. Nora admits that she had a distorted perception of reality, thinking it was “fun” to play at being a wife. She also compares their home to a playroom.

Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll-child. And the children, in their turn, have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as the children did when I played with them.

Once Nora has been honest about the forgery and accepted the play-like falsity of their marriage, she can break free of that pretense.

The symbolism of the macaroons becomes apparent when Nora hides them and lies about them. She buys and eats the cookies because she needs a sweet treat, as the supposedly healthful substance of her marriage does not satisfy her. Nora not only eats the cookies in secret, keeping them hidden in her pocket, but flat-out lies to Torvald when he accuses her of sneaking the sweets and wasting money on them. Her deception and lies in this small matter represent the much larger deception and lies of committing forgery to get money and of actually being a frugal, budget-conscious household manager, not a spendthrift.

This poster of the 1922 theatrical performance of A Doll's House by Alan Hale and Alla Nazimova seems to be a very dramatic interpretation of the scene in which Nora is practicing the Tarantella before Torvald and Dr. Rank in Act 2. In this scene, Nora is dancing the Tarantella very fast and very wildly, and Torvald is not a bit impressed. He tells Dr. Rank to play the piano so he can give Nora better instruction. In the stage direction, Ibsen tells us that Helmer has moved near the stove and is giving her "frequent instructions" (II). Nora is dancing more and more wildly. Torvald comments that she is "dancing as if [her] life depended on it" (II). Finally he tells her to stop, calling her dancing "sheer madness" (II).

Where the poster differs from the original scene is that Nora seems to have fallen down while Torvald stands over her with his hands raised as if he is directing her like a conductor of an orchestra. In Ibsen's actual scene, Nora never falls down. In the poster, Nora also looks absolutely terrified of Torvald's instructions, which also never really happens in Ibsen's scene.

However, we do still see some symbols in this poster that are also used in the play. One symbol is the Neapolitan fisher-girl costume that we know Nora is wearing while she practices that Tarantella. The costume itself is symbolic of working class women, like Christine, and two social injustices presented in the play: 1) the fact that lower class women like Christine are only permitted to work low-paying jobs, thereby slaving their lives away; and 2) the fact that lower class women were permitted to work but not middle class women, like Nora. The Tarantella dance itself is also symbolic. The wildest Tarantella dance symbolizes a victim being bit by the wolf spider, or tarantula; it was believed that the victim had to engage in frantic motion in order to stay alive. In A Doll'sHouse, the Tarantella represents the poisonous marriage Nora, as well as other middle class women of that era, has suffered through.