Milton Fernandes
Martin Leonard
English 1302_312
April 10, 2015
A Doll’s House: Do Women Sacrifice More and Is It worth It? The main theme of the drama, A Doll’s House, whether the women characters take more sacrifices than men in order to protect others around them regardless of their life positions. This rises as a theme because of the life changing decisions the main character, Nora Helmer, took in order to keep her family and life together although the sacrifice was kept a secret. Was this sacrifice necessary? And what impact did it have on her children and husband? In one’s opinion it can be seen that women take some sacrifices due to society views and gender roles. On the other hand it can be viewed as women taking sacrifices because the impact and cases to take those sacrifices are not the same with men. There is no discussing that the main reason for the high status living of Nora and her husband, Torvald, was a result to Nora’s sacrifice. She was forced to do an unorthodox decision and forge her father’s signature to get a loan from Mr. Krogstad, a bank clerk, in order to save Torvald’s life. It would seem that this decision that she took would be appreciated by her husband. In fact it is not because of the way that he treats her and in some circumstances degrades her, as if she is unworthy of understanding various things.
In the beginning of Act I Torvald calls her by some cute animal names such as his squirrel. In addition to this he complains about her spending, but she responds by stating that they could get a loan from the bank in order to continue their lavish spending. Unknown of her knowledge about loans, Torvald goes on and explains to her why they cannot do that. As mentioned before she knows this because of the loan she took from Krogstad.
Later in Act III, Torvald learns about the truth and the sacrifice that Nora has made about the loan, but once again instead of showing appreciation he is angered by it. This is because he believes that the society’s perception about him could ruin his future. This creates a bad climate in their house because Nora has to make another sacrifice which she sees a benefit to Torvald and her children but he does not see it the same way. Nora right away poses herself as sort of the victim when she says “when I’m gone from this world you’ll be free.” (1232). Nora then shows Torvald that her sacrifices are not only for him and the children but also for her because she believes that all her life she has been performing and acting as a good wife when in reality she was