Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House is a realistic problem play set in the late 1870s in Norway. It is a story about a typical middle-class family of the time of the play dealing with marriage and gender inequality. In Norway in the 1870s, the women grow up and go straight from living with their parents, to being married to someone who is financially stable. Also, the women did not have any real duties or power other than to please their husbands and have children. The family the play focuses on is Nora, the protagonist, and Torvald Helmer who got married because it was the practical choice. They did not marry because of love, however, the two of them seemed to be fairly happy with one another. Nora, the protagonist, had Torvald’s children
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Nora has an epiphany in act three and decides to leave Torvald and the children to have a better life for herself. Nora’s decision to leave is a controversial one. Nora leaving her children causes an issue for some people when reading the play because it could be hard to understand how someone could leave their child. The only instance in the play that Nora interacts with the children is in a short scene in act one, and the rest of the play the children are with the nurse. During the 1870s, the children were raised by the nurses more so than their parents. Nora leaving would have little effect on the children and Torvald has been belittling her from the very beginning of the play. Torvald had even told her that if she stayed, she would not be allowed to see the children because she was a bad influence. Nora needs to be free from her prison of a home. Eventually, Nora realizes that they do not have a marriage, nor did they ever have a marriage. She tells Torvald that it would take a miracle for them to ever be happy and they would have to transform themselves, “to the point…. that our living together could be a true marriage” (Ibsen 1298). The play ends after this with Nora slamming the door shut, assumed to be leaving for good. Nora finally has the freedom she needs to be happy even if it means leaving her
Nora has an epiphany in act three and decides to leave Torvald and the children to have a better life for herself. Nora’s decision to leave is a controversial one. Nora leaving her children causes an issue for some people when reading the play because it could be hard to understand how someone could leave their child. The only instance in the play that Nora interacts with the children is in a short scene in act one, and the rest of the play the children are with the nurse. During the 1870s, the children were raised by the nurses more so than their parents. Nora leaving would have little effect on the children and Torvald has been belittling her from the very beginning of the play. Torvald had even told her that if she stayed, she would not be allowed to see the children because she was a bad influence. Nora needs to be free from her prison of a home. Eventually, Nora realizes that they do not have a marriage, nor did they ever have a marriage. She tells Torvald that it would take a miracle for them to ever be happy and they would have to transform themselves, “to the point…. that our living together could be a true marriage” (Ibsen 1298). The play ends after this with Nora slamming the door shut, assumed to be leaving for good. Nora finally has the freedom she needs to be happy even if it means leaving her