Theme of A Doll's House

A detailed Summary of Theme of A Doll's House


The ending of any artistic work always either leaves the audience surprised or satisfied. Henrik Ibsen was forced to write a different ending for the play, A Doll's House, because German society was not yet ready for his surprisingly controversial and unconventional idea of a woman leaving her housewife duties to fulfill a personal need. The theme of this play, "Very often, individuals caught in restrictive settings must emancipate themselves even if it means that they will lose everything in the process," is better satisfied with Ibsen's original ending.

At the time the play was written, a woman was bound by her womanly duties to be a proper mother and a loving and supportive wife to her husband. Nora is also bound by that societal code of womanly conduct in the play, unless she leaves Helmer, her home, and her children. Nora's duty to be a typical Norwegian woman creates a fictitious prison for her in which Helmer controls her. Ibsen creates his restrictive setting from this invisible law. Nora's sole purpose is to please Hel


Nora does not have a say in family affairs, she isn't even able to open the mailbox because only "[her] husband has the key."2 Nora basically lives in a prison with restricted freedom. Throughout the play, the setting is the home, which emphasizes. This the fact that Nora rarely leaves her prison. Nora always stays in the house or goes to parties and places so that she can satisfy the whims of Helmer. When she finally resists Helmer's sexual request, he tries to resolve the problem by simply telling her that "[he's] her husband."3 She is like a doll living in a dollhouse, and she will never be independent unless if she leaves everything and starts a new life on her own.

If Nora stays, as in the altered ending, the theme cannot be applied to the play. The fact that Nora "cannot leave [her family]"7 does stress the point that she does not emancipate herself from her restrictive setting, which is the opposite from the theme. Her changed character does not build up to the expectations of her departure by her previous conversati

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Approximate Word count = 700
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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