Linde beautifully illustrates that occasionally a journey of the self is in fact based around preventing suffering.
While Mrs. Linde's sacrifices initially prove to be trying and certainly do not make her life any easier, time eventually reverses this effect and brings her life to a happier note. At the onset of the play, she has already begun taking charge of her path through life by seeking a job at the bank. This brings with it a sense of self-empowerment, not because her relationship with Krogstad is finally realized once more, but because she has a purpose that appeals to her in a field where her position is equal to that of a man. As this new chapter of her life unfolds, she states: "I could not endure life without work. All my life, as long as I can remember, I have worked, and it has been my greatest and only pleasure. But now I am quite alone in the world "my life is so dreadfully empty and I feel so forsaken. There is not the least pleasure in working for one's self. Nils, give me someone and something to work for. " (III.113) In this, she references back to the joy she finds in sacrificing her time to help others and the joy she derives from it. Her life has come to a perfect summit, allowing her independence in the manner she sought, as well as making her self-sufficient, despite what she had been forced to give up the get there.
Nora's character is different to that of Mrs. Linde's in that she is already financially stable as the play opens. Despite this difference, the central theme of women having a sacrificial role in both society and their households is still ever present. Nora reveals to Mrs. Linde that before coming to the point of economic stability that they have, Nora and her husband were forced to work long and arduous hours just to make ends meet. Her original sacrifices for the good of her family compound then when, confronted with her husband's terrible illness, she forges her father's signature on a loan to grant them enough money for Torvald's recovery in Italy.
