History Theatre / ADollsHouse

-->''"No; just cheerful. And you've always been so kind to me. But our home has never been anything other than a play-house. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Daddy's doll-child. And the children, they have in turn been my dolls. I thought it was amusing when you came and played with me, just as they thought it was amusing when I came and played with them. That's been our marriage, Torvald."''

** Nora and Linde

** Torvald and Krogstad, leading to the FirstNameBasis problem below (and contrasting sharply with Nora's slightly clueless but genuinely well-intentioned warmth towards ''her'' childhood friend, Christine.

-->''"No; just cheerful. And you've alwasy been so kind to me. But our home has never been anything other than a play-house. I've been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Daddy's doll-child. And the children, they have in turn been my dolls. I thought it was amusing when you came and played with me, just as they thought it was amusing when I came and played with them. That's been our marriage, Torvald."''

The main character is a middle-class wife and mother, Nora Helmer, who spends most of her time acting like a child for the amusement of her husband, Torvald. The play revolves around her realization that she has spent her whole life being defined by her identity as a daughter, wife, and mother, and that both her father and her husband have treated her like a doll rather than a person.

The play is a scathing critique of nineteenth-century marriage, and it is very feminist in outlook for its time. Ibsen tended to see his own work as being primarily about the need of all people to be able to choose their own roles and paths in life, and he wrote several other plays that espoused these beliefs through the stories of male protagonists. However, simply by taking for granted that women were as entitled to this right as men, ''A Doll's House'' struck its original audience as shockingly radical.

A Doll's House was also written as a subversion of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-made_play well-made play]], a genre of plot-heavy melodramas with essentially interchangeable characters. Ibsen used the same plot points: a secret unbeknownst to Nora's husband, only known by her good friend; a fate hinging on a letter; and a villain set out to ruin everything. Ibsen manages to flip all of this around, confusing his 19th century audience.

* AnAesop: The play condemns the contemporary (1870s) state of affairs between men and women. Nora realizes throughout the play the the norms of the time rob women of personhood and outright says so to her condescending husband.
--> '''Torvald''': There's no one who gives up honor for love.
--> '''Nora''': Millions of women have done just that.

* CharacterDevelopment: ''The'' reason a lot of the play's drama occurs. Nora is at first a bright-faced, happy wife who only does small acts of rebellion in order to support Torvald and herself. Eventually she opens her eyes and realizes the poor state of her marriage with Torvald. By the end of the play, Nora is more well-spoken and thoughtful than beforehand.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Nora acts like a silly, frivolous airhead to her husband Torvald, but she's actually a very shrewd, intelligent, frugal woman who can juggle her duties as a mother and house wife with little typist jobs on the side (something that required skill and schooling at the time), and stretch every penny for all it's worth to secretly pay back a loan she used to save her husband's life while pretending to use said money to buy frivolous dresses for herself; dresses that she herself made and pass off as professionally tailored clothing. In fact, Torvald's inability to recognize the Badass under the Moron exterior (which she had assumed her husband knew was an act) is part of what disillusions Nora about her husband.

** Nora alludes to this original intent if the scandal of her forgery went out, in hopes of drawing away public disgrace from her husband, who she believed would stand up for her. The extremity of this plans basically illustrates how she romanticized her marital devotion to Torvald.
** Krogstad acknowledges he thought of suicide during his disgrace, but didn't have the "courage" to go through with it.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: For Krogstad and Linde. They risk financial ruin and social humiliation through most of the story, but they avert both and are able to rekindle their relationship because they choose to do the right thing.

** While Nora, because of social conventions, never addresses the male characters other than her husband except as "Doctor" (for Rank) and "Mister" (for Krogstad), a major hint there is more going on between them than is obvious at first is Mrs Linde always calls Krogstad either simply by last name without "Mister" (in the Norwegian to him, and to others in English) or "Nils" (in most translations) when they're alone, and when speaking to her, Krogstad simply calls her "Kristine." It's also a shock to her (and a clue to nineteenth century audiences what's coming) when Dr. Rank calls Nora by her name, instead of "Mrs Helmer", when [[spoiler: confessing his love to her. When she is disturbed by his confession, he switches back to "Mrs Helmer."]] The social rules of the time meant men did not use women's given names nor the other way around unless they were on close terms.
* {{Foil}}: Several of them. The inclusion of foil characters in A Doll's House serve not only to advance the story, but to magnify Nora and Torvald's relationship and differences.

** Mrs. Linde is melancholic and more down-to-earth in regards to her views on the world; Nora, on the other hand, is lively (to the point of being a bit childish) and idealistic.
** Linde and Krogstad's relationship are this to Nora and Torvald's. The latter is a long-lasting marriage built on lies, the other one of childhood friends who know and love each other for who they are and finally find themselves together.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Nora speaks to her trusted Nurse (who was Nora's childhood maternal figure) that "If anything were to happen, would you..."

* GoodLawyersGoodClients: Part of the reason that the Helmers have had so many financial problems is that Torvald, according to Nora, will only take the cases he feels are morally right.

* {{Irony}}: Torvald spends most of the play condescendingly chuckling about what a silly little child Nora is without his patriarchal and paternalistic guidance. In the original ending of the play, when Nora gains enough confidence and self-resolve resolves to leave him, Torvald himself becomes nervous and fumbling, and half-begs her to stay, as he has no idea how he'll get along without her.

** Before that we see foreshadowing, from his admitting his biggest problem with Krogstad is his tendency to speak to Torvald as an equal (they were friends in school), to calling Mrs. Linde an insufferable bore behind her back, to his casual dismissal of the announcement Dr. Rank has [[spoiler: locked himself away to die, in part to spare Torvald's feelings]] that it's all for the best, really. Basically everyone we see who's some way in his power, he's disdainful of or outright cruel. Realizing he can turn it on her is Nora's final disillusionment.

* LoanShark: Krogstad, although his methods are rather unorthodox.
** Also deconstructed. Not only was paying up the last part of the debt more troublesome for Nora than the debt as a whole, but Krogstad turns out to be a complex person with his own motivations instead of a mere money-grubbing asshole.

* LoveRedeems: Zigzagged. Krogstad forgoes the blackmail for Linde's sake and is willing to bury the whole debt thing as well so Torvald never finds out, but she tells him not to do the latter (and send in a retraction) in order to show Nora the truth of her own marriage. When Torvald finds out he ''doesn't'' 'redeem' himself and everything comes crashing down as a result.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Deconstructed: Nora deliberately plays up her whimsicalness for Torvald's amusement, but it turns out that a result of her behavior, she and Torvald have never sat down and had a serious conversation about ''anything'', and thus their views on each other were severely distorted. Neither takes the discovery well.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: Averted by Torvald (but ultimately played straight) and played straight (but ultimately subverted) by Krogstad. It's complicated.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: After the truth comes out about how Torvald doesn't really love Nora for Nora, she removes her proverbial mask and tells Torvald why she must leave him. After spending the entire play masquerading as an airheaded ditz whenever her husband's around, she suddenly shows him how serious and well spoken she truly is.
* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: When Torvald mentions that they must have no debts and later when he expounds upon how very unforgivable it was for Krogstad to engage in forgery.

* PromotionToParent: This happened to Anne the nursemaid when Nora's mother died. Also reoccurs again when Nora leaves her children to Anne's care.
* {{Reconstruction}}: The reunion scene between Linde and Krogstand makes it clear that their relationship ''is'' based on understanding. So traditional marriage can work when the couple respect each other.
* RuleOfSymbolism: The play has been examined numerous times from many angles with symbols found everywhere, but one of the most subtle comes from the metadrama which the title invokes: not only is Nora treated by Torvald like a doll, but the nature of theatre as literally looking into the stage rooms where the characters interact like dolls in a dollhouse reinforces Nora's predicament, reminds the audience they are watching a play, and implies how all of RealLife involves similarly being on display to family and society; Nora's LeavingYouToFindMyself moment then becomes a challenge writ large to the audience to do the same in their own lives.

-->'''Nora:''' Mr. Krogstad, a little respect for my husband, please.
-->'''Krogstad:''' Certainly - all the respect he deserves.
* SweetTooth: Nora from the start. She constantly hides some snacks - and eats it when Helmer is not looking. Eventually, he calls her out on it.

* UngratefulBastard: When Torvald learns about the loan Nora (illegally) took out to pay his medical expenses, [[spoiler:he turns on her, brutally chastises her, and practically disowns her because he fears how public knowledge of this might ruin ''his'' reputation]]. Nora's realization about his true character causes her disillusionment and desire to leave him.

A Doll's House was also written as a subversion of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-made_play well-made play]], a genre of plays which essentially just changed the characters. Ibsen used the same plot points: a secret unbeknownst to Nora's husband, only known by her good friend; a fate hinging on a letter; and a villain set out to ruin everything. Ibsen manages to flip all of this around, confusing his 19th century audience.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Thorvald is a ''grave'' offender at the end of the play. This, more than anything, convinces Nora that he is not half the man she thought he was.

A Doll's House was also written as a subversion of the well-made play, a genre of plays which essentially just changed the characters. Ibsen used the same plot points: a secret unbeknownst to Nora's husband, only known by her good friend; a fate hinging on a letter; and a villain set out to ruin everything. Ibsen manages to flip all of this around, confusing his 19th century audience.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The play manages to talk about Dr. Rank's death by syphilis by calling it "tuberculosis of the spine" and saying that he got it from eating too many rich foods...an excess of "pleasure" that's clearly implying he had a lot of sex in his youth. In the 1800s, this was probably the only way Ibsen could talk about STDs without setting off the censors.

* VictorianNovelDisease: Dr. Ranke has "tuberculosis of the spine", which sounds like the above but was an actual disease, being a euphemism for syphilis. It is not, however, the result of Rank's father's dissolute life and Ibsen probably intended this as a LampshadeHanging of Torvald's unforgiving nature. It's referred to in this way because Ibsen couldn't openly refer to STDs during this time.

* AnAesop: The play condemns the contemporary (1870s) state of affairs between men and women. Nora realizes throuhgout the play the the norms of the time rob women of personhood and outright says so to her condescending husband.

%% * EarnYourHappyEnding: For Krogstad and Linde.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* VictorianNovelDisease: Dr. Ranke.
** It's referred to as "tuberculosis of the spine", which sounds like the above but was an actual disease. It is not, however, the result of Rank's father's dissolute life and Ibsen probably intended this as a LampshadeHanging of Torvald's unforgiving nature.

The play is a scathing critique of nineteenth-century marriage, and it is ''[[ValuesResonance very]]'' [[ValuesResonance feminist in outlook for its time]]. Ibsen tended to see his own work as being primarily about the need of all people to be able to choose their own roles and paths in life, and he wrote several other plays that espoused these beliefs through the stories of male protagonists. However, simply by taking for granted that women were as entitled to this right as men, ''A Doll's House'' struck its original audience as shockingly radical.