A Doll's House

A Doll's House (1879) was a scathing criticism of the traditional roles of men and women in Victorian marriage. Ibsen has his protagonist, Nora, leave her husband in search of the wider world, after realizing he was not the noble creature she had supposed him to be. Her role in the marriage was that of a doll, her house a "Doll's House", and indeed her husband Torvald refers to her incessantly as his little "starling" and his "squirrel". She is not even permitted a key to the mailbox. When she is blackmailed due to an impropriety she committed in order to save her husband's life, forging her father's name on a note, her husband declares that he will put her away. His only concern is his own reputation, despite the love for him which prompted her to it.

When the blackmailer recants, it could all be over, and in a traditional Victorian drama all would then be resolved. For Ibsen, however, and for Nora, it is too late to go back to the way things were. Her illusions destroyed, she decides she must leave him and their children, and leave her Doll's House to discover what was truly real and what was not.

To the Victorians, this was scandalous. Nothing was considered more sacrosanct than the covenant of marriage, and to portray it in such a way was completely unacceptable. Some theatre houses refused to stage the play, so Ibsen was pressured to write an alternate ending that was far less black. This distressed him considerably, and he actually on occasion at the last minute submitted a "correction" to the actors on opening night.