Analysis - first three pages of the dolls house

I am looking at the dolls house a play by Henrik Ibsen. The first thing we find out in the first paragraph is that a Dolls House is a play. We are led to believe this through the description of the house being something you can base a play on and also the second paragraph gives us a small outline of how the scene begins.

As the text begins we start to see the kind of relationship that is shared between Nora and Helmer. Even before we meet both characters in a face to face conversation we are given the impresion the marriage is not fully open as Nora hides a packet of Macaroons from Helmer. From the first few lines of dialogue shared between Nora and Helmer we see dominance from Helmer over Nora as he is referring to her in a diminutive way refering to her as "my little skylark". This also shows a possessiveness over Nora, In an equal relationship people would not be referring to owning one or the other which also can represent strain. We also learn that Helmer does not believe in borrowing money to spend because it is not earned yourself and portrays you as a lower status to the rest of society.

Individually we can see that Nora already early on in the book as a woman who makes her self out to be more child like than Helmer. We see that Nora is hiding things from her husband from the start of the book. We learn from this short look into the character of Nora that she easily has the capacity to lie.

The character of Helmer individually we see has a life that revolves around work and also his position in his works hierarchy. We also see that he believes that he is emotionally and intellectually above the ones around him especially his wife, as-well as the fact that Helmer likes to control the money earned within the household.