Mickala Stewart
7th Period/ Gassett/ AP Lit

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is filled with many instances of irony, mainly dramatic. Dramatic irony is when a situation is understood by the reader or audience and not by the characters in the play. Examples can be found in the most famous plays by William Shakespeare. Throughout the play, dramatic irony is mainly displayed in the conversations between Torvald and Nora, with Torvald portraying the character that is “out of the loop.” Irony is sometimes made obvious to readers and sometimes you have to read a little deeper. For example, in the beginning of the play when Krogstad threatens to tell Nora’s secret, Nora tells him that it is her “pride and joy.” Its funny how her pride and joy is something that her husband would despise. Then later on in the play when Nora finally tells Torvald about the debt she owes, Torvald describes her as what used to be his “pride and joy” just as Nora described her secret. Another example would be when Torvald tells Nora “No debts! Never borrow! There’s something inhibited, something unpleasant about a home built on credit and borrowed money.” What Torvald doesn’t know is that the home he described, was his own. Nora, in fact, has borrowed a significant amount of money and is deeply indebted to Krogstad and because of Nora’s forgery he is also now living in that “home built on credit and borrowed money.” Nora feels very accomplished because she has borrowed money on her own. In that time period it was frowned upon to not get a man’s signature before borrowing money. She also builds on the fact that she is now paying back her loan from money she earned working, Torvald is giving his little “spendthrift” money so he is really paying off a part of the debt that Nora feels “saved Torvald’s life.” It seems as if Torvald is always the one left out of what’s going on behind the scenes.