History Theatre / ADollsHouse

* InTheBlood: Zigzagged. At the climax of the play, Torvald (incorrectly) infers that Nora broke the law not out of a desire to help him but because she inherited her crooked father's moral weakness; she replies by suggesting that the worst hereditary problems in their society are passed on through flawed social ideals, not blood. Meanwhile, poor Dr. Rank dies of a literal disease implied to be the legacy of his father's immorality.

* CasualKink: Torvald seems to enjoy the thought of Nora, his wife, retaining her peasant girl role from the masquerade and being his secret lover. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Quite racy]] for an upstanding bank manager at the time.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Rank discussing his father and his preference for particular gastronomic endeavours, especially ... ''oysters'', and at the same time contemplating his inherited disease. [[Theatre/{{Ghosts}} Ibsen would return to that topic later on]].

'''A Doll's House''' (Norwegian: ''Et Dukkehjem'') is an 1879 play in three acts by Creator/HenrikIbsen.

* 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.
* ChildhoodFriends: Nora and Linde, also Torvald and Dr. Rank.

* DrivenToSuicide: 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 this himself during his disgrace, but didn't have the "courage" to go through with it.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: For Krogstad and Linde.

''A Doll's House'' (Norwegian: ''Et Dukkehjem'') is an 1879 play in three acts by Creator/HenrikIbsen.

* SympathyBankruptBanker: Averted by Torvald (but ultimately played straight) and played straight (but ultimately subverted) by Krogstad. It's complicated.

** 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.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Nora spends most of the play thinking her situation will unfold like the plot of a typical Victorian domestic drama; the fact that Torvald doesn't follow the "script" as she hoped he would is what finally makes her turn on him.

* LeavingYouToFindMyself: The play's conclusion, which might be the TropeCodifier. Nora's decision was quite controversial at the time, as it entailed not only leaving Torvald but abandoning her children - the actress playing Nora in the German production of the play forced Ibsen to write a new ending (which he detested) where Nora isn't shown leaving, "because '''''I''''' would never leave ''my'' children!"

* DrivenToSuicide: 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 martial devotion to Torvald.

* {{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.

* PromotedToParent: This happened to Anne the nursemaid when Nora's mother died. Also reoccurs again when Nora leaves her children to Anne's care.

** Also deconstructed. Not only paying up the last part of the debt was was 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.

* DespairDance: The tarantula sequence is definitely one.

* Jerkass: Torvald falls into this when he finds out about Nora's loan. He brutally chastises her, even to the point of labeling her as an unfit mother, without even so much as a thank you for getting the money to pay his medical bills. When [[spoiler: the debt is forgiven by Krogstad, Torvald immediately snaps back to his usual self, as though nothing had even happened, and neglects to acknowledge how badly he's damaged Nora's feelings, her perception of him, and their marriage]].

* 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.
* SympathyBankruptBanker: Averted by Torvald and played straight (but ultimately subverted) by Krogstad.

* 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 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.

* LoveRedeems: Zigzagged. Krogstad is willing to let the last part of the debt go and bury the whole thing for Linde's sake, but she tells him not to do it in order to show Nora the truth of her own marriage. When Torvald finds out about the whole thing he ''doesn't'' 'redeem' himself and everything comes crashing down as a result.

* BrokenBird: Nora's long time friend Kristine Linde

* LeavingYouToFindMyself: The play's conclusion, which might be the TropeCodifier. Nora's decision was quite controversial at the time, as it entailed not only leaving Torvald but abandoning her children - the actress playing Nora in the German production of the play forced Ibsen to write a new ending (which he detested) where Nora isn't shown leaving, "because '''I'' would never leave ''my'' children!"

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 17th century audience.