A Doll's House Act 1

The beginning of, "A Doll's House" takes place during the Christmas season. The protagonist, Nora, is just arriving home with a Christmas tree. Right away we see symbolism in the Christmas tree, the festive decoration is symbolic of Nora and her role in the household. We then meet the character of Helmer at this time when he calls out, "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" Right away we get a feeling of the atmospere and the types of characters the husband and wife are. Helmer, is a business man and loves his wife very much. Nora is a bit flighty but also loves Helmer very much. Each, however, have there many problems in the relationship. Nora lies to her husband practically right away when she tells him she has not eaten any macaroons when in fact she has. We also see that she is very child-like, and we see that in the way Helmer treats her when it comes to money, calling her a spendthrift.

The rising of the plot starts to occur when Miss Linde comes over the house. The dialogue between Miss Linde and Nora shows how Nora is very niave, where Miss Linde has had a lot of life experience and has suffered much. Nora gets the feeling that Miss Linde thinks she has done nothing in life to be "proud" of. This insinuation persuades Nora to tell Miss Linde about her borrowing money to pay for her husband to go to Italy when he was ill. This secret is revealed and much comes from it as the story moves forward. The man to whom the money is owed is now about to be under Helmer in the bank. This turn of events makes matters very tricky because the antogonist, Krogstad tries to convince Nora to persuad her husband to keep Krogstad in the same position in the bank. She cannot do this, however, and we see that her sway isn't as powerful as one thought. We then learn that she has dealt wrongfully in the gaining of the loan in committing the crime of forgery.

When Krogstad leaves and we see Nora, once again talking to Helmer we see that the reason Krogstad is being demoted is because of forgery, this dramatic irony plays out through Nora, who has committed the same crime.