A Doll's House

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A Doll’s House
In 1879 the first stage production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House caused quite a stir, ending with what one critic called “the slammed door that reverberated across the roof of the world”. (Handout, A Doll’s House, Ibsen, pg 580) It is hard to imagine today that a woman leaving her husband and children behind to go find herself could even raise an eyebrow, but this was the Nineteenth Century. This was a time of openly displayed male dominance, where women were brought up to be economically, socially, and psychologically dependent on men and especially on the institutions of marriage and motherhood. Women were expected to be the trophy, the plaything, as well as the means for bearing children for their husbands and, during this time, women did what was expected of them. They allowed themselves to be spoiled and didn’t let on if they minded not being able to think for themselves. Ibsen’s character, Nora, turned all these traditional roles upside down in 1879, with one closing of the door.
Nora Helmer was raised by her father according to the traditions of that period, meaning she was expected to absorb his opinions, ideas, and tastes rather than develop her own. She was made to believe her greatest role in life was in becoming a wife and mother. Her father, like her husband, did not take her seriously but treated her like a doll or a plaything. She performs for her husband in exactly the way he wants her to perform. He wants her to be pretty and childlike, with no head for business. Nora knows if she behaves the way he wants, it will make him happy. His values will have been flattered by her playfulness and his ego will be stroked. It is then she can get what she wants. That in itself brings a sense of power over men that women have always had, and maintain today.
In the play, Nora has secretly borrowed money, by forging her father’s name to an IOU, to take her seriously ill husband ...