In the 1879 play, A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, filmed in 1973 by Patrick Garland, Torvald Helmer (Anthony Hopkins), the husband of Nora (Claire Bloom), has total control over her. Torvald treats her as if she is a stupid kid. At the same time he has control over her; I think Nora has brought a lot of it on to herself. She is always playing some kind of teasing game to aggravate Torvald and get what she wants. To me, this game she plays helps Torvald know that he has Nora wrapped, or so he thinks. If Nora has such a problem with Torvald having control of her, then she should put a stop to it. She should quit playing games and act as if she can take care of herself.
I do not think that Nora should have left because that, to me, proved she could not take care of herself. She was just running from the problem. If it were me, I would have stayed and proved herself to Torvald. I think she should have proved who she really was. Torvald seemed to really care about Nora. Granted, he did go off on her, but arguments happen in every relationship. More than anything, I think Torvald did not see Nora's true self. I think that he took her actions as childish actions. Therefore, he could not fathom the thought that she would or could do what she done. I do not think that he thought she was competent of doing anything like that.
Nora running from the situation was not the brightest thing to do, in my opinion. I do not understand how she thought she could make it on her own. She relied on Torvald for his money and Christine (Anna Massey) to take care of her. When she had time, she did play with the children; but, when she did not, they were left to play by themselves. Christine also took care of Nora. Therefore, I do not understand how Nora thought she was helping herself out by running out on the situation. I think that Nora needs to be natural, and Torvald needs to treat her like a lady. Then, together realize how much they could accomplish.