My Most Sacred Duty

I am answering the question about the play’s crisis and how it marks a turning point:
The play’s crisis is Helmer’s discovery of the letter and his subsequent reaction. As we find out in the final act, it is the one moment that Nora has anticipated ever since she discovered how much trouble she was potentially in for borrowing money by forging her father’s signature. It marks a turning point because it is in that moment that Nora sees her life with a clarity that she seemed not to have possessed previously. She sees her life so clearly, in fact, that her realization spans not only her eight years of marriage but also her previous years living with her father. She finds in that moment that the miracle that she had hoped for did not come true: namely, that Tovlav was not going to try to sacrifice everything for her. It is also, of course, an enlightening moment about the character of Helmer. The thing Tovlav holds most dear was his honor: and he is not willing to give that up for her. In fact, he has kept her from having any honor, happier to treat her like a subordinate being, for their entire marriage. Because Nora now understands her husband’s nature so well, she can see that her role in their marriage is unnatural and unjust. In fact, I believe that Nora’s discovery of her husband’s character in that moment serves as the catalyst for her decision to leave him. In a way it was not even a decision. Because she saw that the only role she could play in a relationship with a man like Tovlav was one of a docile doll and not a person with an identity, Nora realizes that she will never be able to fix her marriage. The fact that she will never be able to fix her marriage shows the readers (or viewers) that Nora is someone who needs to her own identity and be her own person.