A Doll's House: Annotated with Reviews from 1879-1900 recap

Nora Helmer appears to enjoy a comfortable marriage to Torvald, but she secretly owes money to Krogstad for the journey that once restored Torvald's health. She obtained the loan by forging her father's signature. When Torvald becomes bank manager and decides to dismiss Krogstad, Krogstad threatens exposure. Nora tries unsuccessfully to change Torvald's mind and delays him from reading the incriminating letter. Her widowed friend Kristine Linde reunites with Krogstad, but insists that the Helmers must face the truth. Torvald reads the letter and, instead of protecting Nora, denounces her because the scandal may ruin him. Although he reverses himself when Krogstad returns the bond, Nora recognizes that their marriage has denied her equality and independent judgment. She leaves her husband and children to learn how to live as an adult on her own terms.

At Christmas, Nora Helmer returns to the comfortable home she shares with her husband, Torvald, and their three children. Torvald has just become manager of a bank, promising greater security, but he continues to supervise Nora's spending and treats her as charmingly irresponsible. Nora's widowed school friend Kristine Linde arrives seeking work. Nora confides that years earlier, when Torvald was gravely ill, she secretly borrowed the money needed for a restorative trip abroad and has been repaying it ever since. The lender was Nils Krogstad, an employee at Torvald's bank, and Nora obtained the loan by forging her dying father's signature. Krogstad learns that Torvald intends to dismiss him and threatens to reveal the forgery unless Nora persuades her husband to keep him. Nora tries to influence Torvald, but he regards Krogstad as morally compromised and dangerous to his reputation. Nora is left fearing both public disgrace and Torvald's reaction if her secret becomes known.

Nora becomes increasingly desperate as she prepares to dance at a costume party upstairs. She asks Anne-Marie whether children can thrive without their mother and tries again to dissuade Torvald from dismissing Krogstad. Torvald refuses, partly because Krogstad's familiar manner threatens his authority, and sends the dismissal notice. Doctor Rank, the Helmers' intimate friend, tells Nora that he is near death and reveals that he loves her; this makes her abandon the idea of asking him for money. Krogstad returns and expands his demand, seeking not merely to retain a job but to rebuild his standing through the bank. He places a letter explaining Nora's forgery in Torvald's locked letterbox. Kristine offers to speak to Krogstad, with whom she once had a relationship. To prevent Torvald from reading the letter, Nora performs and rehearses the tarantella with frantic intensity, persuading him to postpone his correspondence until after the party. She expects that once the truth emerges, Torvald will take the blame upon himself, and she contemplates removing herself before he can make that sacrifice.

While the Helmers are at the party, Kristine and Krogstad meet. She explains that poverty, not lack of love, made her leave him for another man, and proposes that they build a life together. Reconciled, Krogstad offers to retrieve his letter, but Kristine insists the Helmers need honesty. After Nora and Torvald return, Doctor Rank signals that his death is near. Torvald finally reads Krogstad's letter. Rather than offering the protection Nora expected, he condemns her, worries about his career, and says they must preserve appearances while she is kept from raising the children. A second letter arrives with the bond, ending Krogstad's threat, and Torvald instantly declares that he forgives Nora. His reversal clarifies the marriage for her: neither he nor her father allowed her to develop independent judgment, and Torvald loved the role she performed rather than meeting her as an equal. Nora changes clothes, returns her ring, and says she must leave both husband and children to educate herself and examine society, religion, and morality for herself. Torvald begs her to stay, but she departs and shuts the outer door behind her.

After the masquerade, Torvald reads Krogstad's letter and learns about Nora's forged signature. He responds by condemning her and concentrating on the threat to his own reputation, declaring that their outward marriage must continue even though she cannot be trusted with the children. Krogstad then returns the bond and abandons his threat. Torvald immediately says the danger has passed and offers forgiveness, but Nora understands that the self-sacrificing rescue she expected from him was an illusion. She changes out of her costume and explains that first her father and then Torvald treated her as a pleasing possession rather than an equal adult. Concluding that she must educate herself and decide her own moral beliefs, she leaves Torvald, the children, and the household despite his pleas. She returns her wedding ring, takes her belongings, and closes the door behind her, leaving Torvald alone with only the faint possibility that their relationship could someday be transformed.