The protagonist Nora Helmer abandons her three children without much thought or doubt. Apparently this was considered avante-garde feminist behavior in 1879, but it still leaves me viewing her as even worse than her bad-tempered husband.
shareShe doesn't abandon her children, she leaves them with her Nurse, a woman who also looked after Nora herself as a child. She says that she cannot possibly be a good mother with anything to teach her children if she doesn't know things herself. She goes off to discover herself, making herself a better person, as well as a better mother.
Also, Nora makes reference to how she treats her children as dolls. She feels that they deserve better, just as she deserves to be treated better by Torvald. She wants to break the mould and let them grow up properly, not in the fake 'doll's house' environment.
What bugs me is the fact that Torvald really is willing to change. The thought that his behavior is wrong is completely foreign to him. The fact that he is willing to buck tradition and change for Nora's sake is one of the truest expressions of love. The least she could do is allow herself to be helped by Torvald. She is just as selfish, if not more so than, Torvald was.
shareTorvald is only willing to change after he realises his own reputation is safe (Krogstad taking back the letter). Only seconds before he had slapped his wife for her actions, which makes Nora realise that he does, in fact, have no love for her. Torvald's willingness to change isn't motivate by love, but his desire to maintain his perfect 'Dollhouse' family. Even then, he is only willing to 'start over' their marriage; he doesn't want to change the facade he has come to love, nor will he risk damaging his reputation by yeilding to a woman. As Nora says, for Torvald to completely change would be "the greatest miracle of all".
SALAD PRODUCTIONSshare
Tossed for the very first time!
you forget of course that he was willing to help her even when he was sure that she was going to leave. he asked her if he could write and/or send money but she wouldn't let him. if he was only motivated by keeping his reputation he wouldn't have lent help to the woman who'd be ruining it.
shareHe wouldn't have lent help to the woman who'd be ruining it.Precisely. He was only helping Nora because her leaving, an act unprecidented at the time, would ruin his reputation. He was desperate by then, but as Nora knew, only looking out for his own interest, so she left. I'm not being cold-hearted or anything, I do sympathise with Torvald (especially in this film because I found Nora very unlikable), but I'm just clarifying Nora's motivations.
SALAD PRODUCTIONSshare
Tossed for the very first time!
I certainly can sympathize with Nora, although I disagree with her actions. I just sympathize more with Torvald. Never in his life has he ever been told that his behavior was wrong, and when it's brought to his attention instead of blowing a fuse and doing something rash, like locking Nora in her room for instance, he instead tries to understand her actions more fully. I think that Nora really does get through to Torvald, and that his actions at the very end of the play reflect his love for her, not worry for his reputation (although his outburst was definatly fueled by his concern for his reputation).
shareNah, he's a total monster (and Hopkins does this so well). The main reason Nora has to go is because if she stayed, by the end of the next day the status quo would be restored. What we see in Torvald is not a willingness to change but the terror at being exposed. We see the real Torvald when he is tested under pressure, and here he fails. The end is no "Road to Damascus" conversion, it is just a very manipulative and devious attempt to reapply the same veneer of bourgeois respectability.
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Glad to know I'm not the only one who was bothered by the ending of the play.
I can't decide who I sympathize with more, Torvald or Nora.
I sympathize with both. I don't believe Torvald is a bad person, only somewhat misguided. I do believe he really loves Nora, but he has a lot to learn and her leaving him for a bit is a smart idea. I do not agree with abandoning her children, but I think the ending is meant to say there is hope. I don't believe she abandoned them forever.
She's supposed to be really beautiful, but really mean. Like Diana Ross.
I find the breakup inevitable. Torvald doesn't understand Nora and it's doubtful that a man of his conventional character would ever want to, much less really try to. After the shock wears off, he'll put all the blame on her to salvage his reputation at the bank. Later he'll find a more suitable banker's wife. Men like himself do what it takes to make sure they succeed socially.
It's Nora that we should worry about. Without money and reputation, she's in trouble in that straight-laced Northern society. I like to think that the dying Dr Rank, when he learns of her predicament, will provide for her in his will. Then she'll move to London or Paris, some large city where she has a chance to earn a living and get a life of her own.
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