Liberation in A Doll's House

Liberation is a theme in A Doll’s House and is attained by Nora in multiple ways. Nora liberates herself from her non-fruitful marriage and liberates herself from her own cluelessness that she has been a victim of for her entire life. Nora’s liberation is important because she makes a complete change in character and mindset and ultimately comes out of the play as a different and better person.

            How does Nora liberate herself from her marriage? She sits her husband down and tells him what has not been working in their relationship and why those issues are problems. Granted it takes Torvald practically disowning her for Nora to do this, but she does it nonetheless. The fact that Nora is able to realize that her marriage isn’t working and is able to have a serious conversation that isn’t about happiness or money is a big step for Nora developing as a person. As Nora says in reference to her marriage, “We’ve been married now eight years. Doesn’t it occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have ever talked about anything serious together?...We’ve never exchanged a serious word about a serious thing” (Lines 572-578). The whole business with the loan and Torvald finding out forces Nora to grow up and address the problems in her marriage with Torvald, as hard as that might be for her.

            Nora also liberates herself from her clueless state of mind at the end of the play. Nora realizes that she truly does not know how to do anything because no one has taught her and because she has allowed maids or her husband or her father handle anything of importance for her entire life. As Nora says, “I went from Papa’s hands into yours. You arranged everything to your own taste, and so I got the same taste as you—or I pretended to…Now when I look back, it seems as if I’d lived here like a beggar—just from hand to mouth…It’s a great sin what you and Papa did to me. You’re to blame that nothing’s become of me” (Lines 600-608). Torvald gets irrationally angry with her, Nora realizes how helpless she is and takes it upon herself to fix herself so that she can become a competent human being. Leaving her husband and her children takes a lot of courage and Nora’s liberation from her old self gives her the courage to become self-sufficient person.