Doll House Essay, Research Paper
ACT II
“A Doll House” represents Nora as the essential doll in the house. Nora is being threatening by krogstad, because she forged her father’s signature on the agreement they made. In order for him not to tell her husband about the transaction, she has to convince Torvald, to give him back his position at the bank. In order to convince him, she tells him, Krogstad is a dangerous man, he will try to hurt “our family.” She begs him to protect his family in everyway that she could possibly think, she even go as far as to be a doll try one of her “slippery tricks”, call herself those childish names he like to call her, but still Torvald is not convinced. This is something hard for her to do because her husband has made up his mind already, he does not want Krogstad to work at the bank anymore, because of his criminal background, and especially his character. No matter how hard Nora tries, there is no way she can change his mind about this. No matter how much she wants him to prove that she loves her. “If you love me you’ll to it for me.” The scene began to shift into dark, which symbolizes something unpleasant is going to take place.
In spite of Krogstads’ harassment, during a conversation with Dr. Rank, she found out, he is in love with her, and has been for a long time!! In addition, he is also dying due to his “innocent spine”–which has been passed on to him, from his father. I feel he felt Nora could handle his news (death) better than Torvald, so that is why he told her instead. In a way, both of them have something in common, so he felt secure enough to open up to her. Their father has corrupted both of their lives. Dr. Rank has inherited his father’s illness and Nora as Helmer say; “you are your father’s child” inherits all of her father’s abnormalities.
With all problems that are going on her mind right now, she is in no shape to hear this right now from Dr. Rank. If only he knew, then maybe he will try to help her. He would probably tell her to be honest with Torvald about the whole situation. She was going to tell him her secret, now that she found out he loves her too, she can’t tell him, she’s afraid what he’ll think of her.
Finally, Nora admitted to Mrs. Linde that is was Krogstad who lend her the money. Nora is terrified of what Krogstad is going to do, so she told Kristine. She only told her because Krogstad dropped a letter in Torvald’s mailbox, she needed someone to be there as a “witness” to help her just in case the situation falls apart. This is more frightening than ever because she has no idea what Krogstad wrote in the letter. She does not trust him. All of a sudden, he changes his mind about blackmailing her because he says it would not benefit him in anyway, but still she does not believe that he will not tell because he still kept the contract.
Nora who doesn’t know what to do, is tormented by this whole situation, so tell is Mrs. Linde; she is the only person who she can trust right now, she’s trustworthy, so far whatever they talked about, Mrs. Linde hasn’t betray her. As a true friend, she advises her to tell her husband, but she refused because, the worst part of this whole situation, she forged her fathers’ signature, if he found out he will hate her. Mrs. Linde tries to do her best to stop Krogstad from destroying Nora’s life. She knows that if she talks to krogstad, she can convince him to go ask Torvald for the letter, and forget about the whole thing.
Still, will Nora have the courage to tell her husband the whole truth? In that way, she will be free with herself–she will not feel like she is caring a ton of brick. She needs to stop acting like a “Doll” and face reality. She needs to grow up, be a woman, tell the truth about krogstad, and see what happens.
ACT III
Mrs. Linde without a doubt is a good friend to Nora. She is trying to convince Krogstad to stop with the threats against Nora. Reminiscing over their past when they used to be together, Kristine tells him he is a good person, he has a good heart, he should do the right thing. She also tells him, she never stops loving him, she had to marry her husband because he took care of her financially, in the same way, Krogstad could not take care of her, so she married her husband for the money. She tells him, she is the one that replaced him at the bank. She was straightforward about everything. Regardless of what people said about him, she feel she can change him for the best and she will risk everything for him if he is willing to give them a try. As a result, both of them concluded that they fulfill each other’s empty life. Kristine wants children and Krogstad have some so she will care for them, and Krogstad does not like to be alone. So the decision was made, Krogstad will finally have a life he has been waiting for the love of his life. In return, he will not continue with his threat against Nora, but there is a problem. The letter is still in the mailbox, and no one can get it out except the one person who has the key–Torvald.
After Nora and Torvald came back from the dance, as the play reach its climatic action, Torvald decided to go get all his mail from the box, it was too full, he found two shocking envelops, The first one was two calling card from Dr. Rank this is a way of saying he is going to commit suicide. Torvald was devastated to hear that his friend was going to take his own life away, even if he could stop him, he would be too late, and so he did not do anything. The second news was the letter from Krogstad. He was very angry, all he could think about was his reputation; he did not care about Nora’s feeling, he made her feel unimportant called her names; a hypocrite, a liar and worse, a criminal. All he can think of was his own feelings and what people will think about him. He will have to bribe Krogstad for him not to tell people about his “featherbrained” woman. However, to his surprise, she had already made up her mind about what she was going to do when Torvald reads the letter. She decides she is going to disappear because he will not understand why (in his mind), betrays him.
Surprisingly, the maid brings another letter from Krogstad. It was a letter to apologize for his behavior, included with the letter was the original contract, which means that he was sincere about his promise not to tell anyone about the money. Torvald was relief to read this letter, now he feels everything is all right because Krogstad is not going to tell nobody–Kristine convinced him! Now he was sorry for all the things he said to Nora, he told her he forgives her, but tragically, it was too late. She was going to leave him; since he agrees to pay him off not to tell, that is the reason why she is leaving. She realize she did not love him after all, he treated her like a “Doll” He could not convince her otherwise. Now she wants to be a woman, take control of her own life. She proves to him that she is strong enough to make up her own decision. In conclusion, Nora (protagonist) finds out it was her husband, Torvald (antagonist) who was stopping her from being her own person. She decides she is going to leave her children, all the fancy clothes, and jewelry to find who she is. She will go back to her hometown and never come back.