A Doll's House

What is the role of Nora in the play? Positive or negative?

What is the role of Nora in the play? Positive or negative?

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It is difficult to call Nora simply positive or negative. She is a complex character central to the conflict in the story. Nora is the protagonist and the wife of Torvald Helmer, she has never lived alone, going immediately from the care of her father to that of her husband. Inexperienced in the ways of the world as a result of this sheltering, Nora is impulsive and materialistic. But the play questions the extent to which these attributes are mere masks that Nora uses to negotiate the patriarchal oppression she faces every day. The audience learns in the first act that Nora is independent enough to negotiate the loan to make Krogstad's holiday possible, and over the course of the play, Nora emerges as a fully independent woman who rejects both the false union of her marriage and the burden of motherhood. So, is Nora a sort of feminist hero or self absorbed neurotic women? The answers are, like her personality, complex and both "positive" and "negative". If you absolutely have to use these terms, I'd go with both.

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http://www.gradesaver.com/a-dolls-house/study-guide/character-list/