In the final act of A Doll's House by Ibsen, the main character Nora slams a door in her husband's face and leaves the house and subsequently leaves their marriage and family behind. Nora's action of slamming the door brings with it a lot of significance both in the plot line of the book in general and also in Nora's character development individually.
The significance of Nora's final action in the story takes the plot line to a whole other level when considering Nora's leadership position in her relationship with Torvald, her husband. In the beginning of the book, Nora was the "socially-expected" subservient wife to Torvald. Her life was dictated by the superior role her husband and her father had and her "meek" nature. Torvald told Nora how much money she could spend, what she could eat, how to dress, and basically outlined her entire life for her. He always thought that he had Nora under control and that he had the upper hand in the relationship. In today's terminology, Torvald thought he was wearing the pants in their relationship. However, throughout the book, we learn that this is simply not the case. Nora was the one who had spent money under Torvald's nose in order to save his life. She had a secret job and secret debt. Torvald was the one who was under Nora's leadership in a certain way because SHE had saved HIS life. She had taken action in their relationship where Torvald hadn't. Nora slamming the door played into A Doll Houses' plot line development because it shows that Torvald, even at the very end when he tried to regain the upper hand in their relationship, was unable to do so. He was left dumbfounded on the other side of the door (which very well could have been an iron and locked prison door for all that mattered). Nora had made her decision and Torvald was "locked" into a place where he no longer had control over Nora because Nora was solely in control of herself.
Nora's character developed hugely over the course of this book. She went from being a subserviant person to literally slamming doors in peoples faces. The slamming of the door is almost relatable to the saying, "when one door closes another door opens". Nora not only closed one door, she basically nailed it shut. The slamming of the door made her decision permanent. She was through with her life with Torvald and on another path. Nora has always been under someone else's authority in her life, whether it being her father or her husband. Instead, at the end of the book, we can see that Nora is now in charge of Nora. She isn't influenced by any other sources except her own voice of guidance. Her last act was defiant of the wishes of Torvald and the time's social standards. To put it frankly, Nora didn't care at all about Torvald or society's wishes...She didn't only shut the door, she slammed it.
