March 2014
Character Analysis: Nora Helmer
At first the protagonist, Nora, seems a little bit off. When her husband, Torvald, calls her things like his "little squirrel," "featherhead," she doesn't seem to mind. In fact she seems to not mind it or just be into it. When Torvald first calls her a spendthrift, we're pressured to agree. So far, we've seen her give the porter a good tip, come in with tons of Christmas presents, and not take into account the idea of debt. Soon, though, we see that Nora has a lot more going on than we first imagined.
When Nora's old friend Christine arrives, Nora tells a little secret. She's not just leaching off her husband it seems she also saved his life. Unknown to Torvald, Nora borrowed money so that they could afford a year long trip to Italy. Doctors said that Torvald would die without it. Rather than being the financially irresponsible person that both Torvald and Christine accuse her of, she's actually quite thrifty . She's been secretly working odd jobs and even skimming money from her allowance to pay back the debt. Later on we learn that Nora was so determined to save her husband that she committed fraud to do so. This choice shows that Nora is both daring and clingy. She is so in love that she disregards anything having to do with the law. When her secret is revealed we know that, other than the foolish character she plays for her husband, there's a whole other Nora waiting to come out and show a different view of her own