The Importance of Money in A Doll's House

A woman in Nora's era had little opportunity for self-expression unless they did lead a cloak-and-dagger existence as Nora does when she takes jobs to save money and forges her father's signature. So withal they seldom enjoyed domestic harmony without acting in the musical mode prescribed for them by staminate constructed, Victorian era norms and roles for women. In his preliminary notes to A Doll's House, Ibsen stated "A woman gitnot be herself in contemporary society, it is an exclusively male society with laws drafted by men, and with counsel and judges who judge feminine conduct from the male point of view" (McFarlane 1970, 90).

Such male exclusivity also extend itself to the world of economics. A woman's place was in the home and fuss and wife were the boundaries of her kind and domestic roles. Nora has passed from the hands of one prevalent male to another. In large measure, women of her era did not gift a great deal choice but to adopt such roles if they evaluate to afford a living for themselves and their children. In return for a husband who believes he has the right to tell her how to feel, think, and act, Nora receives food and deglutition and social approval. She also performs tricks for the delight of her husband and other males as a means of pleasing them to get what she wants. After moving from the dependency on her father to the dependency on Torvald, No

ra once again finds herself in a subservient position in which she must sublimate her own desires for the saki of her husband's. Economics confine her as much as part of her world of male domination. Nora sees this exchange as a form of prostitution. She has lived from hand to mouth, performed tricks for men, and sublimated her own desires for the sake of sustenance. Thus Nora leads an inner life in the midst of social confinement.

She chastises Torvald at the end of the play for never trying to coquette her thoughts or likings throughout their marriage, "During eight whole years, no more than than that ever since the first day we met we have never change so much as one sedate rallying cry about serious things" (Ibsen 1972, 103). Money matters are among such "serious things", which is why Nora leads a secret inner existence charm performing as "expected" socially and in her face-to-face relations with men.

Ibsen, H.(1972). A Doll's House. In J. Hurt, (Ed.). Cataline's Dream. Champaign, Ill: Univ. of Ill. Press.

The exposure of Nora's financial duplicity is the catalyst that moves her out of dependency and toward freedom. The cost of this progression is enormous, for she must abandon her children, but it is the only way she can be free to express herself in her own right. Nora makes whatever effort to express her desire to help Torvald economically when she promotes the idea of traveling to Italy, but Torvald writes this idea off as silly "female" extravagance. She does not want to impose on her terminally ill father, so she forges his name as security for a loan to eas
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