In the story of A Dollhouse by Henrik Ibsen, a society is depicted in which men are better than woman. Men lead and women follow. In this story, the woman, Nora, is looked at as a little girl that is not intelligent and can't have a serious conversation with her husband. Her husband Torvald, a lawyer and a bank manager, treats her this way because he believes that a woman's place is to stand by her man and do whatever he says which is exactly how it is in their house. Throughout the story, Nora begins as a woman living in a dollhouse, but changes to become an independent woman by the end of the play. .
In the beginning of the play, Nora is very happy with her role. Her husband Torvald takes care of her finances and she takes care of the house and their children. However, Nora never has to make any read decisions. In fact, she is treated and talked to like a little girl rather than Torvald's wife. Almost as if Torvald thought that Nora wasn't intelligent enough to have a serious conversation. When he refers to her, he is always using names that have the word "little" in them. For example, in the beginning of the play he says "Is that my little lark twittering out there?" (1132.1.4). And later he goes to call her a "little" squirrel. In the beginning we are made to think that Nora is mindless and is like a puppy dog to her husband, but as the middle of the play progresses we see that Nora is not so clean cut anymore. .
As more of the plot is revealed we start to see that Nora is starting to realize what's wrong with her life. We also learn that Nora is not as mindless as she is made out to be. By forging a check to save her husband she is shown to have taken some responsibility upon herself knowing the fact that such a crime had to remain a secret. By doing this, she not only broke the law but she stepped away from the role society had placed on her of being totally dependent on her husband.
