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A Doll's House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Doll's House (Norwegian: Et dukkehjem) is an A Doll's House

1879 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Written by Henrik Ibsen
Written one year after The Pillars of Society, the play
was the first of Ibsen's to create a sensation and is Date premiered 21 December 1879
now perhaps his most famous play, and required
Place premiered Copenhagen
reading in many secondary schools and universities.
Denmark
The play was controversial when first published, as it
is sharply critical of 19th century marriage norms.[1] Original Norwegian
It follows the formula of well-made play up until the language
final act, when it breaks convention by ending with a
Subject The final revolt of a wife who
discussion, not an unravelling. It is often called the
has been treated as a plaything
first true feminist play, although Ibsen denied this.
The play is also an important work of the naturalist Genre Drama
movement, in which real events and situations are
Setting the home of the Helmers in a
depicted on stage in a departure from previous forms
small Norwegian village, 1879
such as romanticism.
IBDB profile (http://www.ibdb.com
/show.asp?id=1085)
IOBDB profile (http://www.lortel.org
Contents
/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&
1 Plot summary id=4221)
2 Alternative Ending
3 Productions
4 Film adaptations
5 Critics
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Plot summary
Characters

Nora Helmer: wife of Torvald, mother of three, living out the ideal of the 19th century wife, but
leaves her family at the end of the play.
Torvald Helmer: Nora's husband, a newly promoted banker, suffocates but professes to be
enamoured with his wife.

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Dr. Rank: Wealthy family friend, who is secretly in love with Nora. He is terminally ill, and it is
implied that his "tuberculosis of the spine" originates from a venereal disease contracted by his
father who had syphilis
Kristine Linde: Nora's old school friend, widowed, seeking employment
Nils Krogstad: Employee at Torvald's bank, single father, pushed to desperation. A supposed
scoundrel, he is revealed to be a long-lost lover of Kristine.
The children (Ivar, Bobby and Emmy)
Anne Marie: Nora's old nanny, now cares for the children.
Helene: The Helmers' maid.
The Porter: Delivers a Christmas tree to the Helmer household at the beginning of the play.

A Doll's House opens as Nora Helmer is telling Helene, the maid, to hide the Christmas tree from the
children. Nora, who is treated as a silly, childish woman by her husband, Torvald, is the protagonist of
the play. Her friend Christine Linde, recently widowed and short of money, has heard about Torvald's
recent promotion at the bank and comes to ask Nora for help in persuading Torvald to give her
(Christine) a job. Nora promises to ask Torvald to give Christine a position as secretary. Nora confides to
Christine that she once secretly borrowed money to save Torvald's life when he was very ill, but she has
not told him in order to protect his pride. She then took secret jobs copying papers by hand, which she
carried out secretly in her room, and learned to take pride in her ability to earn money "as if she were a
man." Torvald's promotion promises to finally liberate her from having to scrimp and save in order to be
able to pay off her debt. However, she has continued to play the part of the frivolous, scatter-brained
child-wife for the benefit of her husband.

At the same time, Nora finds herself the victim of blackmail. Nils Krogstad, who lent her the money, is
also an employee working under Torvald but is on the verge of losing his position to Christine. He has
found out that Nora forged her dying father's signature on the loan application, since under the law at the
time a woman could not borrow money from a bank unless her father or husband co-signed the
application. She unwittingly dated her father's "signature" shortly after his death. Krogstad threatens to
reveal this information unless she convinces her husband to keep him employed. Nora tries but fails.

Meanwhile, Dr. Rank, a family friend, flirts with Nora before revealing that he is terminally ill with
Tuberculosis of the spine, the more socially polite way of saying Syphilis at the time, with only a month
to live, and that he has been secretly in love with her.

After being fired by Torvald, Krogstad approaches Nora, declaring he no longer cares about the
remaining balance of her loan but will preserve the bond to blackmail Torvald into keeping him
employed. Krogstad informs Nora that he has written a letter detailing her crime and puts it in Torvald's
mailbox, which is locked.

Nora tells Christine of her predicament. Christine says that she and Krogstad were in love before she
married, and promises she will convince him to relent.

Torvald tries to check his mail before he and Nora go to a New Year's party, but Nora distracts him by
showing him the dance she has been rehearsing for the party. Torvald declares that he will postpone
reading his mail until the evening. Alone, Nora contemplates suicide to save her husband from the
shame of the revelation of her crime, and more important to pre-empt any gallant gesture on his part to

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"save" her.

Christine tells Krogstad that she only married her husband because she had no other means to support
her sick mother and young siblings, and that she has returned to offer him her love again. Krogstad is
moved and offers to take back his letter to Torvald. However, Christine decides that Torvald should
know the truth for the sake of his and Nora's marriage.

Back from the party, Torvald goes to read his letters and Nora prepares to take her life. Before she has
the opportunity, Torvald intercepts her, confronting her with Krogstad's letter. In his rage, he declares
that he is now completely in Krogstad's power -- he must yield to Krogstad's demands and keep quiet
about the whole affair. He berates Nora, calling her a dishonest and immoral woman and telling her she
is unfit to raise their children. He says that their marriage will be kept only to maintain appearances.

A maid enters, delivering a letter to Nora. Krogstad has returned the incriminating papers, saying that he
regrets his actions. Torvald is jubilant, telling Nora he is saved as he burns the papers. He takes back his
harsh words to his wife and tells her that he has forgiven her. He also explains to her that her mistake
makes her all the more precious to him because it reveals an adorable helplessness, and that when a man
has forgiven his wife it makes him love her all the more since she is the recipient of his generosity.

By now Nora has realized that her husband is not the man she thought he was, and that her whole
existence has been a lie. Her fantasy of love is just that -- a fantasy. Torvald's love is highly conditional.
She has been treated like a plaything, first by her father and then by her husband. She decides that she
must leave to find out who she is and what to make of her life. Torvald insists she must fulfill her duty as
a wife and mother, but Nora believes she also has duties to herself. From Torvald's reaction to Krogstad's
letters, Nora sees that she and Torvald are strangers to each other. When Torvald asks if there is still any
chance for them to rebuild their marriage, she replies that it would take "the greatest miracle of all": they
would have to change so much that their life together would become a real marriage.

The play ends with the sound of Nora slamming the door as she leaves, while Torvald hopefully ponders
the possibility of "the greatest miracle of all."

Alternative Ending
For the first production of the play in Germany, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending for it to
be considered acceptable. This is a good indicator of how controversial the play was at the time. In this
ending Nora does not leave Helmer, but instead remains for the sake of the children, which she cannot
bear to leave without a mother.

Productions
The play made its American premiere on Broadway at the Palmer's Theatre on 21 December 1889,
starring Beatrice Cameron as Nora Helmer.[2] The first English production starred Janet Achurch as
Nora on the 7th of June 1889[3]. Janet Achurch played Nora again for a 7 day run in 1897. The most
acclaimed American stage production of the play was in 1902 starring Minnie Maddern Fiske. A 1997
production starring Janet McTeer at Belasco Theater also received good reviews, along with 4 Tony

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Awards.

Film adaptations
A Doll's House has been adapted for several film releases including two in 1973 directed by Joseph
Losey starring Jane Fonda, David Warner and Trevor Howard; and Patrick Garland with stars Claire
Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, and Ralph Richardson. Dariush Mehrjui's film Sara (1992) is based on A
Doll's House, where Sara, played by Niki Karimi, is the Nora of Ibsen's play. A celebrated wireless
version of the play, available from Retro-Media.co.uk, and starring Basil Rathbone as Torvald, was
broadcast in the US 1947 by the Theatre Guild.

Critics
A Doll's House is a criticism play of the traditional roles of men and women in 19th century marriage.

To many 19th-century Europeans, this was scandalous. Nothing was considered more holy than the
covenant of marriage, and to portray it in such a way was completely unacceptable. However, a few
more open-minded critics such as George Bernard Shaw in England found Ibsen's willingness to
examine society without prejudice exhilarating. In Germany, the production's lead actress refused to play
the part of Nora unless Ibsen changed the ending, which, under pressure, he eventually did. In the
alternative ending, Nora gives her husband another chance after he reminds her of her responsibility to
their children. This ending proved unpopular and Ibsen later regretted his decision on the matter. A
Doll's House was originally banned in Britain by the Lord Chamberlain under the 1737 licensing act.
Virtually all productions today, however, use the original ending, as do nearly all of the film versions of
this play, including Dariush Mehrjui's Sara (the Argentine version, made in 1943 and starring Delia
Garcés, does not; it also modernizes the story, setting it in the early 1940s).

Much of the criticism is focused on Nora's self-discovery, but the other characters also have depth and
value. The infected Dr. Rank and Nora both suffer from the irresponsibility of their fathers: Dr. Rank for
the father who infected his family, Nora for the father she likely married to protect. Dr. Rank's disease
becomes a metaphor for the poison infecting the Helmer's marriage and society at large. Mrs. Linde
provides the model of a woman who has been forced to fend for and find herself - a self-aware,
resourceful woman. As Henrik Ibsen, a man with deep-seated distrust of the masses, said, "the strongest
man [or woman] in the world is he who stands most alone." [4]

It has been highly theorized that Nora and Christine were supposed to be lesbians. Henrik Ibsen was
considered a genius playwright of that period and was known for developing many unorthodox ideas at
the time. His genius was extended to challenging not only the institute of marriage during this century,
but the very foundation of marriage itself. Kristine, who recently widowed, came to Nora, looking for
comfort and compassion. It is there that their relationship begins to develop, causing Nora to doubt her
own marriage to Torvald Helmer.

References
1. ^ Krutch, Joseph Wood (1953). "Modernism" in Modern Drama, A Definition and an Estimate

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(First edition ed.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 9. OCLC 176284.
2. ^ "Opening Night Production Credits: A Doll's House (1889) (http://www.ibdb.com
/production.php?id=5582) ". The Internet Broadway Database (2008). Retrieved on 2008-09-18.
3. ^ A Doll’s House ... Translated by W. Archer. [Illustrated with photographs.] L.P., T. Fisher
Unwin: London, 1889. Kept at the British Library.
4. ^ Henrik Ibsen (2008). "Henrik Ibsen Quotes (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors
/h/henrik_ibsen.html) ". BrainyQuote. Retrieved on 2008-10-22.

Further reading
Ibsen, Henrik (1889). A Doll's House and Other Plays (First English edition ed.). New York: J.W.
Lovell Company. OCLC 23750072.
William L. Urban. "Parallels in A Doll's House." Festschrift in Honor of Charles Speel. Ed. by
Thomas J. Sienkewicz and James E. Betts. Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois, 1997.

External links
A Doll's House (http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?id=1085) at the Internet Broadway Database
A Doll's House (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4221/) at the Internet Movie Database
A Doll’s House: A Study Guide (http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/dolls_summary.htm)
Summary, analysis, quizzes and essays on A Doll's House (http://www.gradesaver.com
/classicnotes/titles/dollshouse/)
A Doll's House at Project Gutenberg
A Doll's House at Project Gutenberg (alternate edition)
Et Dukkehjem (http://runeberg.org/dukkhjem/) , free e-book of the Norwegian text, at Project
Runeberg.(Norwegian)
A Doll's House the play plot summary & character descriptions (http://stageagent.com/Shows
/View/1322)
The Social Significance of Modern Drama (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Writings/Drama
/doll.html) , a book by Emma Goldman, contains a chapter on A Doll's House.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Doll%27s_House"

Categories: 1879 plays | Broadway plays | Drama Desk Award winning plays | Henrik Ibsen plays |
Off-Broadway plays | Tony Award winning plays | West End plays

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