At the beginning of the play, she shows her love towards her children, she plays with them and buys them toys, thus symbolizing Nora's life, and that she is defined by her children. The majority of women, including Nora, during her time period were defined by their family's identity. Their lives were defined by the children they raised and the husbands they married. At the beginning of the second act, when Anne Marie talks about how she left her daughter, Nora doesn't understand how a mother could do something like that. Nora begins the conversation with Anne Marie by asking her if her children ask a lot of her. Anne Marie responds by saying that children are so used to having their mothers with them. She then says a line from the play that triggers Nora throughout the play when Nora says that she shouldn't be with her children as often as before. Anne Marie mentions that children get used to everything easily. It is this statement that Nora begins to think about her.