An Order of True Love, Hold the True

General Question #3: What dramatic question does the play embody? At what moment can this question first be stated?

The play, I think, poses a number of dramatic questions, all of them equally significant in meaning. However, the question that interests me the most is the most basic and human of the questions (in my opinion): how far would you go for someone you love?

In the contextual background of Ibsen’s background, Nora commits fraud in an attempt to save Torvald’s life and her family. When Krogstad threatens to expose Nora’s crime, she becomes frantic. She turns to self-sacrifice as a possible saving grace. Nora loves—or thinks she loves—Torvald and is willing to disappear so that her husband can remain untainted from corruption or crime. The question most often arises in the conversations between Nora and Kristine and Nora and Krogstad. Especially at the end, however, this notion of genuine, powerful love yelled to me in the final moments with Nora and Torvald—the man she saved. During their confrontation, the husband and wife talk about the nature of their individual love:

Helmer: I would gladly toil day and night for you, Nora, enduring all manner of sorrow and distress. But nobody sacrifices his honor for the one he loves.

Nora: Hundreds and thousands of women have.

Helmer: Oh, you think and talk like a stupid child. (1733)

Torvald’s love is very limited and exists as long as his honor remains intact. On the other hand, Nora’s love is boundless, until she realizes that she hardly knows her husband and that she could not love someone who could not reciprocate equally.
I have always wondered, “Would you or I do anything for a person we love, even if it meant breaking the law?” Usually, I can answer steadfastly, “Yes.” Sometimes, however, I am forced to reconsider my answer when faced with extreme actions, such as killing or dying, because the answer is not as clear. In Nora’s case, I am sure that I would do just as she did, forge her father’s signature. Nora’s love, in my mind, is admirable and profound and rare. People who have share Torvald’s perspective are, I’m sorry, truly unloving. Nora did what she felt was necessary to save her husband. Torvald is ungrateful and superficial in response, and if I were Nora, I would have hit him. I would have hit him with a bat. I would have taken him outside, tied him up to my car, and dragged him down Tatum at 100 miles per hour. Anyway…

Thoughts?