Effects Of Wealth In A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

Wealth can come in a variety of different ways. Whether it is financial wealth, or emotional wealth, it can deeply affect a person’s character and way of thinking and living in general. Money and wealth affect the Helmers in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House by robbing the two characters of their moral and emotional values. This is shown through Nora and how she talks about her life, and it is shown through Torvald’s character.
Nora is greatly affected by wealth throughout the course of the play. Looking at the first act of the play when Nora confesses she borrowed money and forged her father’s signature, she falsely leads Mrs. Linde to believe she has a secret admirer that gave her the money. Because of the forged signature, and the raise in income

Torvald is soon to receive, Nora begins to believe that she is superior to Mrs. Linde, who does not have a stable source of income. When Nora feels superior, she tends to over exaggerate certain details, such as her alleged secret admirer. She even says, “When anyone is as attractive as I am,” (pg. 13) which further displays her ignorance, implying that she could have many men offering her the money with ease. Another example of an effect wealth has had on Nora is when Krogstad tell her he is going to tell Torvald everything about the forged signature if she does not ensure that he can keep his job. All she cares about from this point on in the play is that she keeps herself protected. Throughout the entire play, she only cares about her own reputation, not the reputation of her entire family which will be affected by Krogstad’s letter. She further proves this at the very end of the play when she leaves Torvald. She has the desire to protect her own dignity, and she does not care about the rest of her family. Wealth has affected Nora in a very negative way, and she becomes shallow and ignorant. Compared to Mrs. Linde, who has lived a harder life with no wealth, this makes her look very bad. Mrs. Linde is kind, sensible, and rather forgiving and trustworthy, while Nora is unlike her in many different ways. With this new feeling of being “better off” in a sense, Nora ironically becomes emotionally and morally bankrupt, as she goes to all lengths to protect herself from the negative consequences that will fall upon her because of the forged signature.
Although wealth does not affect Torvald as much as it does Nora, it is still prevalent throughout the play.

Torvald begins to treat Nora differently after he gets his promotion, as he knows he will need to control her as he believes she is a “spendthrift,” and will put them in financial trouble if she continues to spend like she currently is. But, meanwhile Nora has already put them in financial trouble, and put their whole lives in trouble by forging her father’s signature. When Nora leaves at the end of the play, Torvald wishes for her to stay the night and he still cares about her as she leaves, whereas she does not. This shows that wealth has not affected Torvald in the same ways that it has affected Nora. Although they are not affected in the same ways, there are some similarities as they both seem very shallow and ignorant. The first thing Torvald says when he sees the two cards from Doctor Rank in his mailbox is, “It looks as if he were announcing his own death.” (pg. 61) Although he does not know any better, and he does not know that is exactly what Doctor Rank was doing, it is an extremely shallow thing to say as death is not a subject to be lightly joked about. Wealth affects the way Torvald treats, controls and converses with Nora, and it affects his reasoning and thought

processes.
Wealth affects the Helmers greatly throughout the length of the play. Torvald and Nora become extremely distant, and they are essentially emotionless, ignorant and bankrupt of any moral values they may have once had. Nora becomes extremely obtuse, and she believes she is superior to those who are not as well off as her and her husband plan to be with his promotion. Although Torvald is a bit more reasonable than Nora, he becomes shallow and only cares about doing his job well and salvaging his marriage with Nora as she leaves at the end of the play. But the two have come to their end, and they will have to live in a further emotionless world separately. Because of Torvald’s promotion and the signature that Nora forged, the two lose their moral and emotional qualities and this comes to tear them apart in the end.