A Doll House- Henrik Ibsen

A Doll House is a play written in 1879 by Henrik Ibsen. The play is a journey of the character Nora’s self-discovery and struggle against the oppression of her husband Torvald and the society that he represents. Ibsen uses non-verbal elements such as screen directions and setting descriptions to symbolise aspects of characters and their relationships to each other.

The opening scene of A Doll House is preceded by a description of a room in the house in which the two main characters, Nora and Torvald Helmer, live. “A comfortable room, tastefully but not expensively furnished .” This description represents the Helmers’ place in society. They are middle class, not extremely wealthy, but with enough money to survive comfortably on. Middle class society in Norway in this time was quite patriarchal. There were strict social edicts about a woman being a good wife and mother. Women who tried to find independence, or were forced to work like Nora’s best friend Mrs Linde, were oft...