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He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth.

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He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth.

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The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul.

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The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul.

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It descended on him again, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna.

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It descended on him again, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna.

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A vague chill had descended on him and his head has seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way.

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A vague chill had descended on him and his head has seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way.

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As soon as his father walked in Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow.

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As soon as his father walked in Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow.

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"Dazed with fear, Okonkwo cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak."

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"Dazed with fear, Okonkwo cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak."

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The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart. It throbbed in the air, in the sunshine, and even in the trees, and filled the village with excitement.

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The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart. It throbbed in the air, in the sunshine, and even in the trees, and filled the village with excitement.

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The air, which had been stretched taut with excitement, relaxed again. It was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum.

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The air, which had been stretched taut with excitement, relaxed again. It was as if water had been poured on the tightened skin of a drum.

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Okonkwo moved his feet to the beat of the drums. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. He trembled with desire to conquer and subdue. It was like the desire for woman.

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Okonkwo moved his feet to the beat of the drums. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. He trembled with desire to conquer and subdue. It was like the desire for woman.

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Okonkwo did as the priest said. Inwardly, he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbours that he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan

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Okonkwo did as the priest said. Inwardly, he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbours that he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan

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And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.

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And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm.

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 “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

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 “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

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But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo's first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him…It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul – the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed.

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But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo's first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him…It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul – the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed.

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It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years…

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It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years…

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But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed.

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But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed.

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as she is generally known to the other characters, is an old friend of Nora's. She is a woman whose marriage was loveless, and based on a need for nancial security, and who doesn’t have any children. She and Krogstad had been in love at the time, but he was too poor to support her family. She arrives in town in search of a job in order to earn money and survive independently. In this way, she is a fairly modern woman; towards the end of the play, she explains to Krogstad that she nds joy and meaning in work. However, in other ways she is more traditional. She tells both Krogstad and Nora that she is miserable without other people to take care of, thereby tting into the traditional role of women as caretakers and nurturers. It is this conviction that causes her to marry Krogstad towards the end of the play. She believes very deeply in honesty and stops Krogstad from taking the letter he wrote to Torvald back, thereby ensuring that Torvald nd out about Nora’s secret. Although this at rst seems like a betrayal of Nora, it turns out to ultimately be a decision to Nora’s bene t as it is after Torvald nds out about the debt that Nora is able to see the true nature of her marriage. This twist con rms Mrs. Linde’s belief that honesty is always better than deceit, even if Mrs. Linde's expectation was that it was Nora's deceit that needed to be exposed, not the shallowness of Torvald's feelings.

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Nurse to both Nora and Nora's children, the nursemaid, whose name is Anne Marie, is a kind woman who was forced to give up her own child, who it is suggested was born out of wedlock. The nursemaid is an example of a woman in bad circumstances forced to do anything in order to survive. When Nora rst thinks of leaving she considers the fact that her children will be raised by the nursemaid and, remembering what a good mother the nursemaid had been to her, decides that she would also raise Nora’s children well.

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is a doctor who is best friends with Torvald and Nora, who he visits every day. Dr. Rank suffers from spinal tuberculosis, a condition he believes was caused by his father’s vices, which included having extramarital affairs and consuming too much luxurious food and drink. Dr. Rank is unmarried and lonely, and over the course of the play it is revealed that he is in love with Nora. Cynical about life, he rejoices when he nds out that his illness is terminal, and insists that neither Torvald nor Nora visit him in his dying days. As he predicted, he is not particularly missed by the other characters.

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is, at least at the beginning, the antagonist of the play. Known to the other characters as unscrupulous and dishonest, he blackmails Nora, who borrowed money from him with a forged signature, after learning that he is being red from his job at the bank. In the past, he too committed the crime of forgery, an act that he did not go to prison for but that nonetheless ruined his reputation and made it extremely dif cult to nd a respectable job. Later in the play it is revealed that he was once in love with Kristine Linde, who ended up marrying another man in order to have enough money to support her dying mother and young brothers. This left Krogstad lost and embittered, unhappy in his own marriage, and is presented as the reason behind his moral corruption. At rst he treats Nora without mercy on the basis that no mercy has been shown to him in life; however, after he and Mrs. Linde decide to marry, he becomes happier and rescinds his threats to Nora, saying he regrets his behavior. He is one of several examples in the play of a person being forced into morally questionable action as a result of the rigid and unmerciful forces of society.

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is the heroine of the play. Still a young woman, she is married to Torvald Helmer and has three children. At the play’s outset, she is bubbly and carefree, excited about Christmas and her husband’s recent promotion. Although she is frustrated by the fact that the other characters believe she is a “spendthrift,” she does not seem to really mind, and happily plays along with Torvald’s pet names for her, which include “skylark,” “songbird,” “squirrel,” and “pet.” Torvald also regularly refers to her and treats her as a child, for example, by forbidding her from eating macaroons, something she does anyway despite her promises of total obedience to him. The animal and child imagery both re ect Nora’s apparently innocent, carefree nature, and suggest that her husband does not think of her as a proper adult because she is a woman. As the play progresses, it is revealed that Nora’s disobedience consists of more than simply eating the occasional macaroon: at the beginning of her marriage, she secretly borrowed money from Nils Krogstad and forged her father’s signature in order to nance a trip to Italy that was necessary to save Torvald’s life. When Torvald nds out about the debt and fails to forgive her until he is sure that his reputation is safe, Nora realizes that her understanding of herself, her husband, her marriage, and even her society was all wrong. She decides that she can no longer be happy in her life and marriage, and resolves to leave Torvald and her home in order to nd a sense of self and learn about the world. The play's nal image of Nora is of an embittered yet sophisticated, intelligent, and newly empowered woman boldly escaping the infantilizing clutches of her old life.

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is a lawyer who at the play’s outset has recently been promoted to Bank Manager. He is married to Nora Helmer, with whom he has three children. He does not seem particularly fond of his children, even once saying that their presence makes the house “unbearable to anyone except mothers.” Straightforward and traditional in his beliefs about marriage and society, he loves and is very affectionate towards Nora, but often treats her more as a pet, child, or object than as a real person. His best friend is Dr. Rank, who visits him every day. However, towards the end of the play this friendship is revealed to be something of a façade, as Torvald seems untroubled and even a little relieved at the thought of Dr. Rank’s death. A similar occurrence happens when he nds out about Nora’s secret debt and instantly turns on her until he realizes that his reputation is safe. Torvald's focus on status and being treated as superior by people like Nils Krogstad, highlights his obsession with reputation and appearances. When Nora tells him she is leaving him, Torvald at rst reacts by calling her mad and saying she is acting like a stupid child. However, when he realizes how resolute she is in her decision, Torvald offers to change and desperately searches for a way to stay with her. His despair as Nora exits at the very end of the play suggests that, despite his patronizing and unjust treatment of her, Torvald really does love Nora (or at least the idea of her).

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This thing must be hushed up at all costs. And as far as you and I are concerned, things must appear to go on exactly as before. But only in the eyes of the world, of course… There can be no question of happiness. All we can do is save the bits and pieces from the wreck...

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"Oh, sometimes I was so tired. But it was tremendous fun, sitting there working and earning money like that. Almost like being a man."

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"I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you are—or at least I’m going to try to be. I know most people agree with you, Torvald, and that’s also what it says in books. But I’m not content anymore with what most people say, or what it says in books. I have to think things for myself, and get things clear."

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"I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Daddy’s doll child. And the children in turn have been my dolls. I thought it was fun when you came and played with me, just as they thought it was fun when I went to play with them. That’s been our marriage, Torvald."

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"I wouldn’t be a proper man if I didn’t find a woman doubly attractive for being so obviously helpless.

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"All my life I have worked, for as long as I can remember... But now I’m completely alone in the world... There’s no pleasure in working only for yourself."

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"Was there anything else to understand... a heartless woman jilts a man when a more lucrative chance turns up?"

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"But my dear darling Nora, you are dancing as though your life depended on it."

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"If it ever got around that the new manager had been talked over by his wife… As long as the little woman gets her own stubborn way…! Do you want me to make myself a laughing stock in the office? Give people the idea that I am susceptible to any kind of outside pressure?

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"When a poor girl’s been in trouble she must make the best of things."

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"Just think how a man with a thing like that on his conscience will always be having to lie and cheat and dissemble; he can never drop the mask, not even with his own wife and children. And the children—that’s the most terrible part of it, Nora… A fog of lies like that in a household, and it spreads disease and infection to every part of it. Every breath the children take in that kind of house is reeking evil germs."

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"Nora! Just like a woman. You know what I think about these things. No debts! Never borrow! There’s always something unpleasant, about a home built on borrowed money."

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+ Story events and main idea

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In Germany, Ibsen was pressured into writing a happy ending, with Nora, faced by the sight of her children, unable to walk through the door and fainting on the threshold.

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In Germany, Ibsen was pressured into writing a happy ending, with Nora, faced by the sight of her children, unable to walk through the door and fainting on the threshold.

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The Christian idealist right desired for a noble and maternal Nora for the audience to aspire to.

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The Christian idealist right desired for a noble and maternal Nora for the audience to aspire to.

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Ibsen exposes society’s discrimination towards, and expectations of, women in 1880s Norway.

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Ibsen exposes society’s discrimination towards, and expectations of, women in 1880s Norway.

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In 1880s Norway, women could not legally borrow money nor own property without their husband's consent.

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In 1880s Norway, women could not legally borrow money nor own property without their husband's consent.