At the beginning of the play, the language used between Torvald and Nora is very playful, "Is that my skylark twittering out there", "it is!", "Is that my squirrel rustling?", "Yes!" Henrick Ibsen has achieved this by Torvald calling Nora by pet names such as "Skylark" and his "Songbird", by doing this Henrick Ibsen is portraying to the audience what sort of marriage they have, and shows how Torvald treats Nora by the way he speaks to her. He is clearly very patronizing towards Nora and talks down to her as though she is a child "Has my little squander bird been overspending again?".
You can clearly see how the characters have developed throughout the play by the language which they use. At the beginning Torvald is very much the more dominant character, undermining and talking down to Nora, whereas in the end of the play Torvald no longer speaks to Nora in this way, and Nora begins to speak in a way which has not been shown to us before. She talks of religion and how she longs to find out what that means, on her own. "When I get away from all this and can think things out on my own, that's one of the questions I want to look into". Nora starts to show independence and we realise that their marriage is no longer a game for them, and they are talking like adults on the same level "And you feel quite sure about this, too?", "Yes absolutely sure. That's why I can't go on living here any longer". By this dramatic change in the language this emphasises to us the change in the characters.
Symbolism and metaphors are shown frequently though the text, and make a big effect upon the language. The macaroons are used as a metaphor for Nora's big "secret". Nora deceives Torvald by eating the macaroons, when she knew that he would disapprove, just like she deceived him by taking the loan. Henrick Ibsen was perhaps suggesting to the audience that even the smallest deception e.g. the macaroons can still be harmful and one thing leads to another.
