Death of a Doll: Father and Mother Figures in Henrik Ibsen's “A Doll's House” Nora's last actions at the end of “A Doll's House” » by Henrick Ibsen have certainly been the subject of a lot of criticism. In fact, "it so disturbed audiences that a few well-known productions changed the ending so that it returned before the curtain fell" (Brooks). After all, why would a mother abandon her children and her husband without knowing clearly whether she would return? At the time, Nora's decision was considered shameful and virtually unheard of and continues to be a force, albeit less shocking, in contemporary analysis. A deeper understanding of why Nora seems to have abandoned her family requires, however. In Ibsen's play, "fatherhood, usually associated with the authority and stability of patriarchy, is associated with abandonment, illness, absence and corruption" (Rosefeldt). Torvald, Krogstad, Nora's father, and Mrs. Linde's father all display tendencies that conflict with Western stereotypes of patriarchal figures. Torvald, despite all his talk about the corruption that poisons homes, is ready to comply with Krogstad's demands when he learns of his wife's forgery. He blames Nora’s actions on “her father’s fragile values” (Ibsen 845) and tells her, “This matter must be silenced at all costs” (Ibsen 845). He believes that Krogstad's refusal to admit and atone for his mistakes destroyed his home and his children's lives and yet, right now, he is preparing to do the exact same thing. Throughout the play, she is shown to be intellectual and cunning, as well as a mother who clearly cares deeply for her children. As she removes her evening dress, which symbolizes the abandonment not only of her "doll clothes" but also of her childhood dependence, Torvald says that he will be "...conscience and will to both of you" ( Ibsen 847), two things that were dictated to him by someone else his entire life. Her feelings and actions of individuality were repressed by others, as well as herself throughout the play. She doesn't consider herself worthy of being a mother, a figure her children could learn from, when she is basically just a child. When Torvald wonders why she doesn't stay for the sake of the children, she