Ibsen's Surprise

At the end of A Doll's House, Isben surprises the audience. When Torvald learns that Krogstad is no longer threatening him, he offers to forgive Nora. Most people in the audience would expect the ending to be happy and for the family to live its life as it did before. Shockingly, Nora tells Torvald that she plans on leaving him and their children. She realizes that her life has not been happy and that Torvald does not really love her. Nora has many motivations for leaving Torvald. She feels that she has been treated like a doll her whole life, and does not like being treated that way. She also decides to leave when she finds out how upset Torvald was with her. She feels as if he would not defend her. Nora also knows that Torvald will not forget what happened, and he will hold it against her for the rest of her life. When Nora decides to leave Torvald at the end of A Doll's House, many readers seemed shocked that she would do such a thing, but she has many motivations that can be seen throughout the play.

As Nora is leaving, she tells Torvald that she has been treated like a doll her whole life. Her father treated her like a doll, and Torvald treats her like a doll. He always seems to baby her and call her his "skylark". Nora tells him that in the eight years that they have been married that they never once have had a serious conversation. A relationship can not be very successful without serious conversations. It is almost as if there is no meaning to the relationship and that it is all fun and games. Nora realizes this throughout the actions of the play. When they come home from the ball on the last night, Torvald's behaviors show that he is not really mature enough to be in a marital relationship. He seems to act like a child in front of Nora, and Nora has had enough of being treated like a child her whole life. Throughout the play, she seems to get more and more upset when he treats her like this. At the end of the play, this is one of the reasons why she decides to leave Torvald.

When Torvald learns about Krogstad's threat to reveal that Nora forged a signature, he becomes extremely upset. Not only is he upset about the signature, but also that she borrowed money behind his back. Torvald gets extremely upset and says that she has ruined everything he has going for him. He does not seem supportive or willing to help her get through it. After the letter from Krogstad is sent with the bond, Torvald tells Nora that they can live happily again. Nora can not believe his actions when only a few minutes before that he was yelling at her. She decides to leave him, based largely on his actions. She tells him that she wished that he would have told her everything was going to be alright and that he would take the blame for it. She thought he would be a loyal husband and stick up for her, but he did no such thing. Nora is hurt to know that he is not there for her in times of need. After she realizes this, there is no way she can continue living with Torvald.

After the threat is gone, Torvald rejoices and says that they can live their lives as they had done before. Nora knows