The Doll House: Nora's Coming out Party Many of our choices and the things one does in a lifetime can be directly based on what society perceives to be proper. The choices one makes based on society's views, may sometimes have no logic to support them. These choices are sometimes chosen because society would look down upon the person making the "wrong" decision. The values and morals upheld by a society may directly affect how one acts. This is held true for the character Nora in Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll House". Nora is the 19th century middle class wife of Torvald Helmer. She is a woman who is devoted to her husband and family. Nora minds her husband Torvald as a child would a father, and Torvald in return treats her as a child, or as his "doll". At the end of the play, Nora makes an epiphany realizing the way she acts and how Torvald really feels towards her. The causes for Nora's behavior can be attributed to her upbringing, society's views on what a woman's role should be, and also Torvald, who also helps Nora in her epiphany. The primary cause that affected Nora's behavior as an adult, was Nora's upbringing. Nora's father treated her as his "doll-child" (1186, "A Doll House"; all page references refer to the class text The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature 5th ed.) Her father told Nora all of his opinions, and in time these opinions became Nora's opinions (1186). Torvald explains to Nora "Exactly the way your father was" (1144). Nora has in essence become her father by not having a mind of her own. If her opinions differed, Nora would hide them because her father would not have cared for them (1186). Nora was sheltered from the world. Her father shaped Nora's ideas and gave her his knowledge of how the world works The treatment of Nora's father may have been a result from how society viewed women in t...