Question

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House
Love and care are the virtues that sustain a family. Using Nora in Ibsen's ADH, write an essay in support of the above statement.

Answer 1

1. Nora secretly, against all the legal odds, forges her father's signature and borrows money to help treat her husband. She chooses to help her sick husband instead of her father. -Loan
   (pgs 13, 17-20, 36-41)
2. Nora tolerates Torvald's decrees and condescension all the time for the sake of their family.  
   (pgs 2, 3, 6, 20, 57, 61, 95-97, 102-120)  -Tolerance
3. Nora must fight to hide her loan from her husband Torvald because she knows he would never bring himself to accept that a woman did all this for him. It would lower his self worth. And so she works in secret to pay off her loan because she fears to embarrass her husband since it is illegal for a woman to secure a loan without her husband's permission and therefore, with this she has to endure Krogstad's blackmail.  -Secrecy
   (pgs 12, 19-21, 48, 72-76) 
4. Nora keeps the family warm and protected for eight years despite her fears and tribulations.
   (pgs 13, 30-31, 49-51) 
5. Nora's abandonment of her children is act of self-sacrifice. Despite her great love for them - manifested by her interaction with them and her great fear of corrupting them - she chooses to leave them. Nora truly believes that the nanny will be a better mother and that leaving her children is in their best interest.  -separation (103-120)
6. She struggles to repay the loan and its accruing interests from her part-time work and house savings. -payments (pgs 13, 21-22)
7. Nora chooses to her husband over her father yet the latter's condition seems worse as he is critically ill. She tells Mrs. Linde that she did not want to bother her father with the bond. She therefore forged his signature. He dies a few days later, on 29th September. (pgs 19-22)
8. Treatment of the husband - having to take Torvald to Italy to ensure he recovers his health