In the play A Doll's House, by Herink
Ibsen, the main character is a young wife named Nora. Nora's role within her marriage is
to please and entertain her husband, rather than to serve as a solid foundation for the
family. This has caused Nora to opt for a behavior that befits her role in the marriage:
She is childish, hyperactive, dramatic, and seemingly very immature.
Among her many childish behaviors, Nora tends to sneak
macaroons and eat them behind her husband's back. When he sees her sneaking the
macaroons, he adopts an overly-important fatherly tone to scold her. In turn, Nora
embraces the "little girl" persona as a result. This alone shows how the macaroons help
Torvald assert the authority that he feels that he deserves to have over Nora. Hence,
the macaroons can be seen under a completely different light when we see the dynamics
that eating them creates in the relationship between Nora and Torvald.
Yet, there is much more to the macaroons than it seems:
Nora has to sneak the macaroons. It is a secret pleasure that she is hiding from her
husband. They symbolize the suppressed delights that Nora endures as a result of playing
the role of a child within the marriage. They also symbolize the forbidden and so-badly
wanted pleasure of being allowed to be free within the relationship to engage in the
behaviors that she seems fit. Nora is obviously running on empty and out of ideas on how
else she could act like her husband's doll- The macaroons, and the need to consume them,
are also allegorical to the preoccupation that Nora has to conceal her real self.
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