Part Two of Act Two

By the end of Act II, Nora's character has displayed more development.  This development is mainly centered around the tension between Nora and the secret she has been hiding from her husband.  According to an article discussing the theme of lies and deceit, in A Doll's House "The essential tension, running throughout A Doll's House comes from Nora's fear of a secret being discovered. Her absolute terror of this revelation leads her to tell lie after lie (http://www.shmoop.com/dolls-house/lies-deceit-theme.html). By this far into the play I have noticed one of the main elements of Nora's character is deceit.  For example, in the beginning of Act I, Nora tells her maid, "Hide the Christmas tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it till this evening" (Act I page 1).  Even though this may seem as a small surprise for her children, it is just one of many examples of how Nora hides things from people. Nora hides the fact that she eats macaroons from her husband and eats them secretly (Act I page 1).  These are two minor examples of how important deceit and secretiveness is to Nora.  However, the main deceit of the play is the secret of the loan.  When her husband was ill, a medical bill needed to be paid.  In order to keep her husband becoming healthier, she borrowed money from Krogstad and forged her father's signature since women were not allowed to borrow or loan money ("A wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent") (Act I page 4).  She hid the fact that she had done this from her husband for years.  In addition to the secret about the loan, she also deceived her husband concerning how sick he was. Nora claims that "It was necessary he should have no idea what a dangerous condition he was in" ( Act I page 4).  Due to all her lying and sneaking around, Nora has made up even more lies to cover up her secret.  For example, the part of the money that Helmer gives Nora, Nora uses it to pay off the loan.  Nora states that "Whenever Torvald has given me money for new dresses and such things, I have never spent more than half of it" (Act I page5).  Since she had lied about the loan and never told her husband she has to pay it off all by herself  which limits her from buying things for herself. Another way of how Nora keeps hiding the secret from Helmer is when Krogstad leaves a letter in the letter box only Helmer has the key to.  To prevent Helmer from reading the letter she lies again and makes Helmer watch her practice the dance for the party and critique her so he would not go outside and get the letter (Act II page 7).I believe Nora's character is very secretive, immature, and deceitful. My prediction for what will happen next is Krogstad will tell Helmer about the loan and their marriage will be corrupted.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/Writings/Drama/doll.html
http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll'sHouse/characterprofiles.html
http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/norahemler.htm