A Doll's House Analysis

The play is set during the holidays. Yes, it's Christmas time for the Helmers and New Year's is swiftly approaching. Chances are that this isn't random. Christmas and New Year's are both associated...

Another super-famous playwright, George Bernard Shaw, said that A Doll's House is set in "every suburb in Europe." You could probably tack "America" and "a good portion of the rest of the world" on...

No narrator here, folks: this particular text is a play... and it's not a play that has a narrator or chorus that pops in to give us a heads-up on what to think about the action.We just have to sit...

In the beginning, the play seems to be biased toward Nora. We're definitely asked to sympathize with her—for good reason, as it's pretty hard to be on Torvald's side. From the moment he gets on h...

Ibsen is often thought of as the grandpappy of realist drama. Other playwrights wrote in this genre—like Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, and O'Neill—but Ibsen was the pioneer.In realist drama, the c...

Not long before her famous door-slamming exit, Nora has a little something to say to her husband, Torvald: "Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife" (3.286). With state...

A Doll's House ends with the slamming of a door. Nora turns her back on her husband and kids and takes off into the snow (brr) to make her own way in the world (brrrrr). It's a pretty bold decision...

A Doll's House is written in a straightforward realist style, which makes it really easy for a modern audience to get into. There's no thick Shakespearean poetry to wade through here. The play is a...

The Helmers have a seemingly perfect, happy home. In the beginning, all seems well. Nora and Torvald Helmer appear to be the perfect, happy couple. Torvald is getting a new job managing the bank. T...

Nora has a secret. At first the Nora and Torvald Helmer appear happy. Their troubled friends, Dr. Rank and Christine, envy their seemingly perfect lives. When Krogstad shows up, however, we find...

At first, Nora and Torvald Helmer seem... happyish. Torvald is overbearing, but Nora doesn't seem to mind. Torvald will soon start a new job as bank manager, which means more cash to play with.The...

Ibsen flunked two of his entrance exams for the University of Christiana. Who says delinquents can't make good? (Source)As Ibsen lay on his deathbed, he managed to sputter, "On the contrary" just b...

There's not a whole lot of sex-talk (or sex action—get your minds out of the gutter and into the 1870s!) for most of A Doll's House. This isn't particularly surprising, since it's set in the Vict...