A Doll House By Henrik Ibsen

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen is a play about a woman named Nora who devoted everything to the men in her life.Written in the late 1800s, Ibsen wanted to shock his audience with an “unconventional” woman who took out loans and left her family but in today’s society I think it tells a different story. A Doll House speaks to this generation as we are experiencing another wave of feminism. While women fight for equality and today’s youth are heavily influenced by the media this play speaks volumes when it comes to feminism. Instead of being praised or thanked for the role she played in saving her husband Torvald’s life she is blackmailed. She even tries to save his reputation by contemplating suicide. She puts her life on the line for him but as soon as he is in trouble he is quick to blame Nora and punish her instead of thanking her for what she did for him. This can be paralleled to today’s society and the vast amount of women, from stay at home moms to university students and career working women, who believe they do so much only to have it thrown in their faces because they are women. She is also treated like an object to be seen on the arms of a man as shown when
I would set the play in our current time period but have both Torvald and Nora dressed in the fashion of the late 1800s thus showing how stuck in the past their marriage is. Also, in act three when the couple goes to the party, Nora will be dressed as if she was attending a masquerade as a bird while constantly hanging off her husband’s arm. Torvald constantly refers to Nora as his “little lark” (3.244). This costume allows for the audience to visualize Nora as his pet, dehumanizing her to be something that looks pretty for him and does tricks but is not to be taken seriously. A Doll House is a wonderful play that can be used to showcase society, the struggles women go through and the strength they