Characters
In Order of Importance
- Nora Helmer (Protagonist)
- Selfish
- Manipulative
- Childish
- Immoral
- Secretive
- Liar
- Self-Centered
- Torvald Helmer
- Miser/Financially Savvy
- Controlling
- Oblivious
- Full of pride
- Vain
- Intelligent
- Superiority Complex
- Cold towards children
- Nils Krogstad (Antagonist)
- Menacing
- Good Father
- Petty
- Social Climber
- Desperate
- Disloyal
- Sly
- Criminal
- Journalist
- Intelligent
- Untrustworthy
- Romantic
- Kristine Linde
- Romantic
- Jumps to Conclusions
- Moral
- Motherly
- Independent
- Loyal (Own Family)
- Selfless
- Strong Work Ethic
- “For the greater good” (Utilitarianism)
- Dr. Rank
- Sad
- Physically ill from birth
- Intelligent
- Insightful
- Romantic
- Disloyal
- Realist
- Dark sense of humour
- Honest
- Untrustworthy
- Morbid
Nora Helmer
Nora Helmer 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 reflect 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 finance a trip to Italy that was necessary to save Torvald’s life. When Torvald finds out about the debt and fails to forgive her until he is sure that his reputation is safe, Nora realises that her understanding of herself, her husband, her marriage, and even her society was all wrong.
Therefore, 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 find a sense of self and learn about the world. The play’s final image of Nora is of an embittered yet sophisticated, intelligent, and newly empowered woman boldly escaping the infantilising clutches of her old life.
Torvald Helmer
Torvald Helmer 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 finds out about Nora’s secret debt and instantly turns on her until he realises 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 first reacts by calling her mad and saying she is acting like a stupid child. However, when he realises 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 patronising and unjust treatment of her, Torvald really does love Nora (or at least the idea of her).
Kristine Linde
Mrs. Linde, 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 financial 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 finds 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 fitting 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 find out about Nora’s secret. Although this at first seems like a betrayal of Nora, it turns out to ultimately be a decision to Nora’s benefit as it is after Torvald finds out about the debt that Nora is able to see the true nature of her marriage. This twist confirms 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.
Nils Krogstad
Nils Krogstad 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 fired 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 difficult to find 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 first 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 behaviour. 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.
Dr Rank
Dr Rank 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 finds 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.