as the main character, Nora, seeks to become herself at the end of the story by seeking
freedom from the constraining lifestyle created by her husband. At the start of the novel Nora is depicted as an immature self-centered house wife, who understands nothing of the toil and strife of working or the pains of poverty as she spends her days playing with her children and shopping " Especially from you who know so little about the troubles and hardships of life". Nora also seems to be very greedy and decried as a "terrible spend drift", when her husband asks her what she wants for christmas she replies "money". Although as the play progresses we discover that Nora needs the money to repay a debt to the bank, as she borrowed money to save her fiancees life by taking him to Italy. She also shows that she can be kind and caring, as she tries to help her old friend find a job, even though they haven't seen each other in 10 years. The setting is in a middle class home in Norway, which is decribed as "A comfortable room furnished inexpensivley". This shows that although the family has taste in designing a comfortable house for everyday comfort, no money is wasted on excess decoration. This reflects the character of Helmer, the husband, in the play, as he is constantly trying to save money as he doesn't want to become in-debt. Emphesizing that Helmer controls the family's lifestyle in the play and their spending.Helmer treats her as a child calling her "scatter brain" and "my lost squirrel" and constantly telling her that "he will teach her" and that he is "always right in everything he does". He believes he is superior and that he must "protect her" as she is so delicate and unexperienced that he must decide all of the aspects of her life without consulting her. Helmer depicts her as a lover and yet he is unable to consult with her the issues of their married life, leaving her no concerns and no knowledge of law or the world around her. However at the end of the play, when Helmer receives the letter discussing Noras breaking of the law, she quickly discovers that he is not the man that she believed he was, and that they both had no knowledge of each other, he appears as a 'stranger' to her, as the miracle of him saving her doesn't infect come true and that all of their marriage has been based on his decisions. Nora realizes that she is just like a doll 'playing' in her husbands house and that her life revolves around performing 'tricks' for her husband, such as singing and dancing to please him, and that her role in their lifestyle has no importance as Helmer decides what happens in their life and she simply follows. "i went straight from playing in my fathers house to playing in your house". She has never been able to speak her own mind and has adapted to the decisions and beliefs of both her father and her husband, so that she has no understanding of her own life. The play ends with her leaving his house as she tries to discover herself and the life taking place around her without the constraints of her marriage and stifling confines of being dictated to and adapting to her husbands views.
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