In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles to tell her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan that receives to send them to Italy when he was ill. As a result, when Torvald hears the news he immediately insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to brush off her insults after receiving a note that her contract has been revoked, she does not accept his apology and decides to leave Torvald and his children to "make sense of [herself] and everything that surrounds [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but there are some other characteristics that make her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora displays in the story are her dishonesty, her individualism, and the unfortunate failures of her father figures throughout her life. In the story, Nora finds herself in a troubling situation because she borrows money from Krogstad, Torvald's employee at the bank. , to pay for a trip to Italy so that Torvald could recover from an illness and is now being blackmailed by Krogstad because Torvald wants to fire him. Not only does she borrow the loan, which her husband is completely against, but she lies to Torvald that she gets the money from her father. Borrowing the money without her husband's approval and lying that it comes from her father are two dishonest acts on Nora's part, acts that a wife should not do. In a review produced by Fabienne Oguer, she calls this situation a “confidence game” (Oguer 85). Both characters, Torvald and Nora, hypothetically play a game where one might have to trust the other. At the beginning of the story, Torvald is forced to make the decision to trust Nora and marry him... middle of paper... terrible decision to leave Torvald, trapped in his dollhouse. Works Cited Drake, David B. "Ibsen's A Doll's House." The Explicator 53.1 (1994): 32-34. Research Library, ProQuest. Network. December 2, 2011.Ibesen, Henrik. A Doll's House: A New Version by Frank McGuinness. New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. Print.Oguer, F. “Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” as a Psychological Trust Game with Guilt and Reciprocity.” European Studies Review 2.1 (2010): 84-90. Research Library, ProQuest. Network. December 2, 2011. Rosefeldt, Paul . "Ibsen's A Doll's House." The Explicator 61.2 (2003): 84-85. Research Library, ProQuest. Network. December 1, 2011. Yuehua, G. “Gender Struggle Over Ideological Power in Ibsen's A Doll's House/LA LUTTE DES SEXES SUR LE POUVOIR IDEOLOGIQUE DANS MAISON DE POUPEE D'IBSEN.” Canadian Social Sciences 5.1 (2009): 79-87. Research Library, ProQuest. Network. December 1st. 2011.