One little white lie, turns into two, three, four more until the the lie becomes so intricate that even the teller is unable to keep their facts straight. Unless they are a crazy pathological liar, the deceiver will always get caught in their lie. Nora and Torvald in A Doll House demonstrate that telling the truth in the beginning is always better than lying, even if in the moment lying seems like the better thing to do.
When Nora borrowed money from Mr. Krogstad in order to save her husband’s life, she didn’t know she would have to pay a bigger price than repaying the loan itself. She starts out by forging her father’s signature when she could have easily just asked him to sign. The she realizes she can’t tell Torvald that she borrowed money for him, so she lies again and tells Torvald that her father gave her the money for the trip. Nora thinks that her actions are completely justified. She feels she has saved her own husband’s life by lying to him. She never pays off the price of deceiving her husband though.
Soon, Torvald decides he wants to fire Mr. Krogstad from his position in the bank. Consequently, Mr. Krogstad threatens to expose Nora’s lies and writes and delivers an explanation letter to Torvald. Nora tries everything to keep her secret under wraps, but secrets never stay secret forever. Torvald eventually reads the letter that uncovers Nora’s lie. Nora keeps her lies undercover for so long that over time she ruins her relationships with her husband and her children. To escape from the allusion she builds up, she ultimately decides that leaving her family and starting over fresh is the only right thing for her to do.
If Nora would have just had her father sign the papers or would have just told her husband the truth, her life would not have been so disastrous. She loses her whole family over the lies she felt she were necessary to tell. Nora shows that lying is never the answer. Truth will always shine through a lie’s fractured design.
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