A Doll’s House

By Henrik Ibsen
Vickey Ho
Summary
❖ Setting during Christmas Eve in a living room
❖ Nora and Torvald Helmer have been married for years
➢ Torvald: earns money and cherishes Nora
➢ Nora: enjoys spending money and lives comfortably
❖ Fate of married women
➢ Lacked opportunities for self fulfillment in a male dominated world
■ Women cannot make decisions without husband’s consent
❖ Nora leaves home (including husband and children)
➢ Feel likes a doll
Themes
Key Concepts
❖ Marriage
➢ Imbalance between husband and wife
➢ “No man sacrifices his integrity for the person he loves” (104)
❖ Role of Women
➢ Women sacrifice their individuality
➢ Follow the man of the house
➢ “It seems to me that I have been living like a beggar, from hand to mouth” (99)
❖ Home
➢ Begins as a place of comfort and shelter
➢ Becomes a “doll house”
➢ “Our home was just a playroom” (99)
Characters
❖ Nora Helmer
➢ Wife of Torvald Helmer
■ Pampered
■ Lives comfortably and happily
➢ Loves her husband and children
■ Takes pleasure in them
➢ Hidden identity
■ Understands business
■ Thrifty and did small jobs to pay off
debt
■ Determination and ambition
Characters (cont.)
❖ Torvald
➢ Husband of the house
■ Believes that man should protect and
guide wife
➢ “Nora’s savior”
■ Treats Nora as a child
➢ Conforms to society
■ Conscious of people’s perceptions of him
■ Prioritizes reputation
Characters
Feminist Criticism (cont.)

❖ Nils Krogstad
➢ Antagonist of play
■ Threatens Nora to keep his job at the bank
➢ Wants to regain his reputation in the community
■ Got caught foraging
■ Supported his family through moneylending and blackmailing
➢ Hidden identity
■ Courteous
■ Will do anything for his family
➢ Kristine Linde
■ Finds faith in himself through her
Feminist Criticism
❖ "The ways in which literature reinforce or undermine the economic,
political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson).
❖ Gender Issues
➢ Patriarchy
➢ Women conform to men’s thoughts
❖ Women’s role in society
➢ Marriage
Feminist Criticism in the Play
❖ 19th century
➢ Women had little rights
➢ Subservient to men
❖ Nora: Torvald’s doll
➢ Pretended to have same interests
➢ Sacrificed her integrity
➢ Husband makes money
❖ Sacrifices
➢ Kristine sacrifices her true love, Krogstad
➢ No individual opinions
➢ Lives to please society
Author’s Perspective
❖ Ibsen lived in a patriarchal society
❖ Play was not intended to address the
issue of women’s rights
❖ Nora represents the Everyman
➢ Women are equal to men
➢ Women are as capable as men
Personal
Analysis Analysis
❖ Understand Nora’s inner thoughts and feelings
➢ Being a doll

❖ Comprehend the patriarchal society during the 19th

century
➢ Marriage
➢ Women’s roles
➢ Sacrifices
 Works Cited

Feminist Criticism. Web. 30 Aug. 2017.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Charleston, SC: Publisher Not Identified, 2015. Print.

"Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of

Criticism. Web. 30 Aug. 2017.