Throughout A Doll's House, playwright Henrik Ibsen shows Nora is only able to wield power in her relationship with Torvald when she acts independently through deception.
Ibsen begins to develop Nora's exertion of power through deception in the opening act. Nora enters the scene having returned home from Christmas shopping without her husband's knowledge — or, at the very least, he is completely unaware of the extent of her shopping. We see his lack of awareness when she asks him, "Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought," to which Torvald replies, "Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?" Torvald's surprise shows us he was either completely unaware Nora intended to do any shopping or at least unaware of the extent of shopping she planned to do. He tries to control her by telling her not to "spend money recklessly," but she is still able to buy what she wants behind his back. By buying what she wants behind Torvald's back, she exerts power by deceiving him, despite his efforts to control her.
Nora commits a second act of deception by secretly purchasing and eating macaroons. After paying the porter and telling their maid Helen to hide the Christmas tree, Nora takes off her coat and hat, laughs to herself, fishes a "packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two." She then goes to the study door of her husband and listens to confirm he is at home before busying herself with opening her new packages. Later in the scene, we learn Nora was intentionally secretive about the macaroons because her husband forbid her from eating sweets. When asked by Torvald if she had "been nibbling sweets," Nora continues her deception by saying, "I should not think of going against your wishes." Yet, the very fact that she has gone against his wishes shows she has the ability to wield power through deception by doing as she pleases, despite his efforts to control her and leave her powerless.
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