A Doll’s House Summary

At the com­mence­ment of Christ­mas Eve, Nora Helmer returns home laden with numer­ous pack­ages. She is wel­comed by her spouse, Tor­vald Helmer, who play­ful­ly mocks her for exceed­ing her bud­get dur­ing the fes­tive sea­son. Their con­ver­sa­tion unveils the finan­cial strain the cou­ple has endured, but Tor­vald’s recent advance­ment in his bank­ing pro­fes­sion promis­es a brighter future. Their house­maid, Helene, con­veys news of two vis­i­tors: their close acquain­tance, Dr. Rank, and an unex­pect­ed arrival, Kris­tine Linde, an old friend Nora has­n’t met for years. It emerges that Mrs. Linde, a wid­ow with­out chil­dren, is fac­ing severe dif­fi­cul­ties and seeks employ­ment. Nora assures her that Tor­vald might be able to assist and dis­clos­es a clan­des­tine act: she once acquired a loan unlaw­ful­ly, unbe­knownst to Tor­vald, to finance a jour­ney to Italy for his well-being. Through­out the years, she has been covert­ly repay­ing this debt, which is now near­ly set­tled. The indi­vid­ual who grant­ed Nora’s secret loan, Krogstad, an employ­ee at Tor­vald’s bank, arrives next, caus­ing Nora con­sid­er­able dis­tress. He fears los­ing his posi­tion and implores Nora to pre­vent this out­come. Upon her refusal, he men­aces to expose her illic­it loan and the fal­si­fi­ca­tion of her father’s sig­na­ture she car­ried out to secure it, a rev­e­la­tion that would shame both her and Tor­vald. Despite Nora’s entreaties, Tor­vald remains res­olute in dis­miss­ing Krogstad, repulsed by his lack of ethics. The sub­se­quent day, Nora, fraught with anx­i­ety and des­per­a­tion, endeav­ors to delay Tor­vald from stum­bling upon Krogstad’s damn­ing let­ter dis­clos­ing her secret. She even tries to divert his atten­tion with an impas­sioned dance for their forth­com­ing mas­quer­ade. Mrs. Linde, now aware of the sit­u­a­tion, pledges to con­verse with Krogstad. On the night of the fes­tiv­i­ty, Krogstad and Mrs. Linde reunite, and their pri­or roman­tic involve­ment is exposed. She had once aban­doned Krogstad for a wealth­i­er indi­vid­ual to sup­port her fam­i­ly but now, lib­er­at­ed from oblig­a­tions, desires to reunite with him. Krogstad is elat­ed and decides to retrieve his incrim­i­nat­ing let­ter. Nonethe­less, Mrs. Linde per­suades him to leave it, con­vinced that the truth must pre­vail. Upon Tor­vald read­ing the let­ter in a fit of rage upon his return, he inflicts severe insults upon Nora, even pro­hibit­ing her from car­ing for their off­spring. Sub­se­quent­ly, anoth­er mis­sive from Krogstad arrives, enclos­ing the returned con­tract and a con­trite note. Tor­vald breathes a sigh of relief and attempts to make amends, but it proves too late. Deeply wound­ed, Nora pro­claims that their under­stand­ing of each oth­er was nev­er gen­uine and that she had been manip­u­lat­ed as a mar­i­onette in his hands. Opt­ing to depart, she strides away, leav­ing a bewil­dered Tor­vald in her wake.

act 1 section 1

Upon her arrival on Christ­mas Eve, Nora Helmer brings back hol­i­day acqui­si­tions and a Christ­mas tree. She exces­sive­ly com­pen­sates the porter and indulges in some pas­tries. Her hus­band, Tor­vald Helmer, greets her affec­tion­ate­ly, endear­ing­ly call­ing her “sky­lark” and “squir­rel.” Although he jests about her spend­ing ten­den­cies, Nora asserts they can indulge due to Tor­vald’s upcom­ing lucra­tive role at the bank. Nev­er­the­less, Tor­vald reminds her that his post com­mences in the new year and advis­es against accru­ing debts. He argues that a house­hold reliant on debt is not authen­ti­cal­ly lib­er­at­ed, prompt­ing Nora’s reluc­tant con­cur­rence. Observ­ing her despon­den­cy, Tor­vald prof­fers her mon­ey for Christ­mas shop­ping. Euphor­ic, Nora reveals the gifts she pur­chased for their chil­dren. When Tor­vald inquires about her own desires, she hes­i­tates but even­tu­al­ly seeks funds to pro­cure some­thing for her­self. Tor­vald rebukes Nora for her extrav­a­gance, attribut­ing it to her father. Nonethe­less, he declares his affec­tion for his “beau­ti­ful lit­tle song­bird” as she is. Upon ques­tion­ing if she con­sumed any sweets that day, Nora denies it, even when he specif­i­cal­ly men­tions the pas­tries. Grat­i­fied with her response, Tor­vald dis­miss­es the sub­ject. They map out their Christ­mas fes­tiv­i­ties and dis­cuss invit­ing Dr. Rank for din­ner. Tor­vald main­tains that Dr. Rank is always wel­come and requires no invi­ta­tion. He pledges to extend an invi­ta­tion when he arrives that morn­ing. The duo then rev­els in the finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty Tor­vald’s employ­ment guar­an­tees. Recall­ing the pre­vi­ous Christ­mas, Tor­vald ref­er­ences how Nora spent evenings craft­ing Christ­mas baubles that were destroyed. Nora attrib­ut­es the destruc­tion to the cat, prompt­ing Tor­vald to express relief over their enhanced finan­cial con­di­tion. Their exchange is inter­rupt­ed by the entry of Dr. Rank and a female vis­i­tor announced by their maid, Helene.

act 1 section 2

Nora encoun­ters a female vis­i­tor with a hint of appre­hen­sion, requir­ing a moment to rec­og­nize the guest as her for­mer com­pan­ion Kris­tine Linde. Mrs. Linde, who arrived ear­li­er that day, appears altered to Nora, exhibit­ing a more pal­lid and gaunt demeanor. Nora regrets not reach­ing out to her friend upon learn­ing of Mrs. Lin­de’s spouse’s demise three years ago. Curi­ous, Nora inquires about Mrs. Lin­de’s finan­cial sta­tus sub­se­quent to her hus­band’s pass­ing and whether she has chil­dren. Upon dis­cov­er­ing that Mrs. Linde was left devoid of both finances and off­spring, Nora express­es sym­pa­thy and tran­si­tions the dis­course to her own famil­ial life. She imparts details about her spouse, Tor­vald’s nov­el posi­tion at the bank and their finan­cial secu­ri­ty. Nora recounts her past tribu­la­tions to Mrs. Linde, ref­er­enc­ing the peri­od when she and Tor­vald had to under­take mul­ti­ple employ­ments. Tor­vald’s infir­mi­ty had neces­si­tat­ed the fam­i­ly’s relo­ca­tion to Italy for his recu­per­a­tion. Nora divulges that the sojourn was prin­ci­pal­ly fund­ed by her late father, who per­ished around the same time. She reas­sures Mrs. Linde about her cur­rent con­tent­ment, with her spouse and chil­dren in good health. Mrs. Linde shares her per­son­al ordeals, unveil­ing that she wed a man she did not love for finan­cial secu­ri­ty to sup­port her bedrid­den moth­er and younger sib­lings. Regret­tably, she was left des­ti­tute fol­low­ing her hus­band’s busi­ness col­lapse post his demise. After toil­ing for years in var­i­ous roles to sus­tain her fam­i­ly, she now finds her­self soli­tary, ren­der­ing her exis­tence even more bleak. She con­fides in Nora regard­ing her inten­tion to secure employ­ment in the city. Nora oppos­es Mrs. Lin­de’s deci­sion to seek work, lead­ing to a slight alter­ca­tion. Mrs. Linde accus­es Nora of fail­ing to com­pre­hend her strug­gles but prompt­ly apol­o­gizes, attribut­ing her out­burst to her cir­cum­stances. She con­fess­es to becom­ing self-absorbed owing to her predica­ment. She express­es opti­mism regard­ing Tor­vald’s new occu­pa­tion and its poten­tial advan­tages for her. In return, Nora pledges to aid Mrs. Linde by broach­ing the top­ic with Torvald.

act 1 section 3

Mrs. Linde insin­u­ates Nora’s naivety and seclu­sion, pro­vok­ing Nora’s rejoin­der that she has weath­ered life’s tri­als. She dis­clos­es how she clan­des­tine­ly amassed funds to sal­vage Tor­vald’s well-being when he fell ill. Physi­cians had rec­om­mend­ed a south­ern retreat for his health, a propo­si­tion Tor­vald dis­ap­proved of bor­row­ing mon­ey for. Con­se­quent­ly, Nora covert­ly arranged the finances, mis­lead­ing Tor­vald into believ­ing they orig­i­nat­ed from her depart­ed father. She retained this ruse to pre­serve Tor­vald’s mas­cu­line pride. Despite Mrs. Lin­de’s doubts regard­ing the secre­cy, Nora asserts that Tor­vald would feel humil­i­at­ed if he real­ized he was indebt­ed to her. Nora unveils her repay­ment of her con­cealed debt uti­liz­ing her per­son­al stipend and engag­ing in dupli­cat­ing tasks. She eager­ly antic­i­patesto a debt­less future where she can whol­ly con­cen­trate on her respon­si­bil­i­ties as a spouse and moth­er. A gen­tle­man named Krogstad arrives to con­verse about bank affairs with Tor­vald. Nora, rec­og­niz­ing him, dis­plays vis­i­ble unease. Mrs. Linde also seems sur­prised and acknowl­edges she knew him from her home­town. Nora describes Krogstad as an unhap­py wid­ow­er with many chil­dren. Mrs. Linde notes that he’s engaged in var­i­ous enter­pris­es, which Nora dis­miss­es as a dull sub­ject. Dr. Rank emerges from the study as Krogstad enters. He brands Krogstad as moral­ly cor­rupt and ref­er­ences his minor posi­tion at the bank. Dr. Rank and Nora have a brief con­ver­sa­tion, dur­ing which Nora offers him a mac­a­roon, a del­i­ca­cy Tor­vald has for­bid­den. She fibs that the treats were from Mrs. Linde. Upon Tor­vald’s exit from his study, Nora intro­duces Mrs. Linde to him and requests Tor­vald to help her find a job. Dr. Rank, Tor­vald, and Mrs. Linde leave, plan­ning to return for the night’s Christ­mas fes­tiv­i­ties. Nora envi­sions lib­er­a­tion, spend­ing valu­able time with her chil­dren, and main­tain­ing an order­ly and appeal­ing house that meets Tor­vald’s approval.

act 1 section 4

Nora’s off­spring enter with their nan­ny, Anne-Marie, and Nora engages with them. Sud­den­ly, Krogstad walks in, catch­ing Nora off guard. He clar­i­fies he’s there to see her, not her spouse, Tor­vald. Krogstad rec­og­nizes Mrs. Linde, who is with Tor­vald, and inquires about her new role at the bank, which Nora con­firms. He desires Nora to uti­lize her influ­ence to secure his posi­tion at the bank, but she denies hav­ing any sway over her hus­band. Krogstad hints at his sus­pi­cions regard­ing Nora’s aware­ness of his pre­car­i­ous job sit­u­a­tion, and Nora denies her influ­ence once again. Krogstad sug­gests that Tor­vald is per­suad­able, which irri­tates Nora. Nora pledges to set­tle her debts soon and implores Krogstad to cease both­er­ing her. How­ev­er, it’s more than just about the mon­ey for Krogstad; he’s attempt­ing to recon­struct his life and rep­u­ta­tion fol­low­ing a past error, and he requires his bank job for that. He then threat­ens to coerce Nora into assist­ing him. Nora main­tains that her hus­band will repay her loan, and Krogstad will lose his job. Then, Krogstad unveils that he knows about her forged sig­na­ture on the loan, a trans­gres­sion sim­i­lar to his own. Nora tries to ratio­nal­ize her actions and brush­es off Krogstad’s accu­sa­tions, but he cau­tions her about the con­se­quences and departs. Nora is vis­i­bly shak­en, but she attempts to adorn the Christ­mas tree. When Tor­vald returns, he remarks on Krogstad’s vis­it, sus­pect­ing he con­versed with Nora. She reluc­tant­ly con­firms it. Tor­vald cau­tions Nora against trust­ing Krogstad and being deceit­ful. Tor­vald elab­o­rates that Krogstad’s offense was forgery and his refusal to acknowl­edge his mis­take. He asserts that dis­hon­esty can cor­rupt chil­dren, prompt­ing Nora to fret about the impact on her own off­spring. She declines to see her chil­dren when asked by the nan­ny, ter­ri­fied by the idea of cor­rupt­ing them. How­ev­er, she prompt­ly dis­miss­es this fear.

act 2

On Christ­mas day, Nora wor­ries about her predica­ment, inquir­ing with the nan­ny about the hypo­thet­i­cal sce­nario of her dis­ap­pear­ance. Mrs. Linde arrives and aids Nora with her cos­tume. Nora dis­clos­es Dr. Rank’s ail­ment, inher­it­ed from his phi­lan­der­ing father, but refutes Mrs. Lin­de’s sus­pi­cion that Dr. Rank is her covert lender. She ush­ers Mrs. Linde away when Tor­vald returns, cit­ing his aver­sion to sewing. Nora endeav­ors to secure Krogstad’s job with Tor­vald once more, but he divulges that Mrs. Linde is Krogstad’s replace­ment. Tor­vald deems Krogstad an embar­rass­ment and dis­patch­es a let­ter ter­mi­nat­ing him before retreat­ing to his study. Once Tor­vald departs, Dr. Rank enters and cryp­ti­cal­ly alludes to an impend­ing cat­a­stro­phe relat­ed to his health. Nora is relieved that his predica­ment isn’t hers. Dr. Rank indi­cates he’ll dis­patch a black cross call­ing card as a sig­nal of his impend­ing demise. Nora endeav­ors to manip­u­late Dr. Rank into aid­ing Krogstad, but he avows his affec­tion for her, unset­tling Nora. She insists he should remain friends with Tor­vald, but declines his assis­tance. She artic­u­lates that those she enjoys being around aren’t always the ones she loves. The maid hands Nora a vis­it­ing card, and she hasti­ly implores Dr. Rank to occu­py Tor­vald. Krogstad arrives, per­turbed by his job loss. He pro­pos­es a pro­mo­tion could resolve their con­flict, but Nora declines, even allud­ing to self-destruc­tion to shield Tor­vald’s igno­rance of the agree­ment. Krogstad warns her that her rep­u­ta­tion is still in his con­trol and leaves a let­ter unveil­ing her secret. When Mrs. Linde returns, Nora con­fides her anx­i­eties about the let­ter and admits her forgery to Mrs. Linde, who pledges to shoul­der the blame. Mrs. Linde dis­clos­es she was once involved with Krogstad and departs to con­verse with him while Nora dis­tracts Tor­vald to pre­vent him from perus­ing any mail. Nora per­suades Tor­vald to aid her rehearse the taran­tel­la for the upcom­ing soirée and dances fre­net­i­cal­ly to his coach­ing. Upon Mrs. Lin­de’s return, din­ner is served. She informs Nora that Krogstad will return the fol­low­ing evening and she has left him a let­ter. Alone, Nora cal­cu­lates she has mere­ly thir­ty-one hours before Tor­vald reads the letter.

act 3 section 1

Mrs. Linde awaits in the Helmers’ quar­ters when Krogstad shows up, hav­ing received a note from her. It’s unveiled that they were once roman­ti­cal­ly entwined, but Mrs. Linde chose to wed Mr. Linde for his afflu­ence. Nev­er­the­less, she con­fess­es her regret and her wish to reunite with Krogstad to care for him and his off­spring. As the music from upstairs ceas­es, Mrs. Linde antic­i­pates the return of Tor­vald and Nora. She informs Krogstad about his incrim­i­nat­ing let­ter in Tor­vald’s mail­box, which arous­es Krogstad’s sus­pi­cion of her inten­tions. How­ev­er, she reas­sures him and insists that Tor­vald should unearth the truth about Nora. They then part ways, plan­ning to recon­vene lat­er. Mrs. Linde, exhil­a­rat­ed for her new com­mence­ment, pre­pares to depart. Nora and Tor­vald enter, and after Tor­vald momen­tar­i­ly exits, Mrs. Linde divulges her con­ver­sa­tion with Krogstad to Nora and advis­es her to come clean to Tor­vald. Nora resists, and after a brief exchange about embroi­dery and knit­ting, Mrs. Linde departs. Tor­vald exhibits relief at Mrs. Lin­de’s exit and pro­ceeds to flirt with Nora, who rejects his advances. Dr. Rank inter­rupts by knock­ing at the door and, through veiled lan­guage, noti­fies Nora of his impend­ing demise. Tor­vald, how­ev­er, dis­miss­es this as ine­bri­a­tion. Tor­vald dis­cov­ers the mail­box has been tam­pered with and that Dr. Rank has left two por­ten­tous call­ing cards. Nora elu­ci­dates that Dr. Rank’s depar­ture sig­ni­fies his immi­nent death. Tor­vald’s response is a mix of sor­row and a pecu­liar sense of relief. Nora endeav­ors to per­suade Tor­vald to peruse his let­ters, and after some resis­tance, he acqui­esces. Alone now, Nora con­tem­plates self-destruc­tion just as Tor­vald storms out after perus­ing Krogstad’s let­ter. Nora con­fess­es the truth of Krogstad’s accu­sa­tions, incur­ring Tor­vald’s wrath and cen­sure. He pro­hibits her from depart­ing and asso­ci­at­ing with the chil­dren but insists on uphold­ing the fam­i­ly’s facade. Nora’s com­pre­hen­sion of her union deep­ens, prompt­ing her to become com­posed and detached. An unfore­seen let­ter from Krogstad arrives, which Tor­vald snatch­es and reads, only to dis­cov­er Krogstad no longer intends to extort them. Relieved, Tor­vald annuls the con­tro­ver­sial promis­so­ry note, pro­nounc­ing that life can revert to nor­mal after this “night­mare.”

act 3 section 2

Tor­vald endeav­ors to calm Nora, indi­cat­ing he has for­giv­en her acts born out of affec­tion, and that he loves her even more for her reliance on him. He believes he has fur­nished her with a new begin­ning, deem­ing her both his spouse and child. Nora, don­ning reg­u­lar attire, rebuts Tor­vald’s reas­sur­ances. She artic­u­lates that they have nev­er gen­uine­ly com­pre­hend­ed each oth­er and for the first time, they are engag­ing in a seri­ous dia­logue. She reflects that she has been adored for the roles she has enact­ed, not for who she gen­uine­ly is. She iden­ti­fies her­self as a pup­pet for her father and Tor­vald, acknowl­edg­ing her dis­con­tent in Tor­vald’s doll­house. Tor­vald acknowl­edges the verac­i­ty in Nora’s words and pledges to regard her and their chil­dren as pupils, not play­things. Nora rebuffs his pro­pos­al, con­tend­ing that he can­not instruct her or the chil­dren. She insists on edu­cat­ing her­self and declares her inten­tion to depart from him. Tor­vald’s efforts to dis­suade her fal­ter. Nora’s dis­missal of soci­etal con­ven­tions and her argu­ment of self-oblig­a­tion counter Tor­vald’s asser­tions of her duties as a wife and moth­er. Nora admits her naïveté and her detach­ment from reli­gion and the law. She con­veys her yearn­ing to explore the world to val­i­date her estrange­ment. When Tor­vald accus­es her of no longer lov­ing him, she affirms it. She unveils her real­iza­tion that she did not love him when he refused to assume respon­si­bil­i­ty for her, con­tra­dict­ing her antic­i­pa­tion of his sac­ri­fice. She con­fess­es she had con­tem­plat­ed sui­cide to shield him. Nora asserts her resolve to depart from Tor­vald, declin­ing his propo­si­tion of them exist­ing as sib­lings. She returns their wed­ding bands and house keys, absolv­ing him of any oblig­a­tions toward her. She arranges for Mrs. Linde to gath­er her belong­ings the fol­low­ing day. Though she agrees to pon­der Tor­vald and the chil­dren, she pro­hibits any cor­re­spon­dence from him. Nora express­es that a mirac­u­lous occur­rence would be req­ui­site for a gen­uine mar­riage between them but acknowl­edges her skep­ti­cism in such events. She departs, leav­ing Tor­vald to con­tem­plate the sce­nario as a resound­ing door slam rever­ber­ates in the background.