During the time in which the play took place society frowned upon women asserting themselves. Women were supposed to play a role in which they supported their husbands, took care of their children, and made sure everything was perfect around the house. Nora Helmer is portrayed as a doll throughout the play until she realizes the truth about the world she lives in, and cuts herself free.
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Nora is a delicate character that had been pampered all of her life, by her father, and by Torvald. She really does not have a care in the world. She does not even have to care for the children. Nora never leaves the house, mostly because her husband is afraid of the way people would talk. It really is not her fault she is the way she is; the blame is mostly Torvald's for spoiling her.
Nora relies on Torvald for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet that is dependent on its puppet master for all of its actions. Her carefree spirit and somewhat childish manners are displayed throughout the play with statements that Torvald makes such as, "Come, come, my little songbird mustn�t droop her wings�Can�t have a pouty squirrel in the house�� (Ibsen 1081).
Torvald also refers to Nora as a lark. A lark is a happy, carefree bird, and a squirrel is quite the opposite. If you are to squirrel away something, you were hiding or storing it, kind of like what Nora was doing with her bag of macaroons. It seems childish that Nora must hide things such as macaroons from her husband, but if she does not and he finds out, she would be deceiving him and going against his wishes which would be socially wrong.
As the play goes on, Nora seems to transform from her delicate little character into something much more. At the end of act one, Krogstad goes to Nora for the recollection of the money she had borrowed from him. Since Nora was wrong in doing so socially, she cannot tell Torvald or anyone else about her problem. She says to Krogstad, �You don�t mean that you will tell my husband that I owe you money?� (Ibsen 1097). Not only would that affect their social standard but also Torvald's ego, which inevitably would happen anyway.
After Krogstad threatens to expose Nora for forging her father's signature, she realizes that no matter what she does, Torvald was going to find out the truth. The flaw within this patriarchal framework becomes apparent when Nora discovers that she has no legitimate name of her own. She can use neither her married name nor her maiden name to borrow money.