A Doll House; Kramer Vs. Kramer

Even though "Kramer vs. Kramer" came out a hundred years after "A Doll House" there are some similarities, along with a few differences, between the play, "A Doll House", written in 1879 and the movie, "Kramer vs. Kramer", which was written in 1979. There are many things that have similarities between the movie and the play, but the main similarities are between the main characters of the play and the film. Torvald and Ted share many similar qualities and Nora and Joanna both do the exact same thing in the play and the movie.

In the play "A Doll House" from the beginning you can see that Torvald likes to control Nora. Also from the beginning of the play you can see that Nora does not have a problem with lying, when she says the macaroons were Christine's, when in fact they were hers. As the story goes on we learn that Torvald was once very sick and near death. We then learn that Nora borrows money from Krogstad to go south to save Torvald. Nora has been telling her husband that she borrowed the money from her father that had died around the time that Torvald was sick. Krogstad confronts Nora and she confesses that she forged her father's signature. Torvald then tells Nora that lies can corrupt the children, which makes Nora scared that she has done so. When Nora finds out that Krogstad is going to tell Torvald that she forged her father's signature and that she got the money to go south from him, she begins to think and contemplates committing suicide.

Nora now has a lot going on and she doesn't know whether she should let Torvald know herself, if she should allow Krogstad to tell Torvald or if she should just avoid the whole thing and commit suicide. The only other person other than Nora that knows about this situation is Christine, whom Nora tells. After Krogstad puts the letter in the letter box, Nora doesn't know what to do. Christine has a chance to get Krogstad to take away the letter, but she then realizes that Nora and Torvald need to work things out and that all of the lies in their marriage are not good. When Torvald reads the letter form Krogstad he gets mad because he starts to think of what other people will think of him, because all he cares about is appearance, which has been hinted all throughout the play. Then Torvald says that he can forgive Nora, but Nora says that she want to leave. Nora leaves and the play ends with the slamming of the door.