Theatre Critique of A Doll's House

During his lifetime, Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote twenty-six plays and a collection of poems. He was born in Skein, Norway, on March 20, 1828. In 1867, Norwegian Parliament awarded Ibsen an annual writer’s salary of four hundred dollars, enough to pay for housing and food, which he would receive for the rest of his life. A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and Hedda Gabler (1890) have probably been the most frequently performed of his plays. After suffering three strokes in his last six years, Henrik Ibsen died in his sleep in May 23, 1906, at age seventy-eight.

A Doll’s House, published in 1879, was the second of Ibsen’s social plays. It is about a Norwegian wife, Nora Helmer, who realizes that her comfortable life is not really comfortable at all. She sees that she was just a doll-child to her father, and then she was passed along to her husband, Torvald, who calls her things like his “little squirrel” or his “sweet skylark.” All her life she has had the same tastes and opinions as her father and husband; she doesn’t really know herself. She realizes that she has duties to herself that she must fulfill, so she leaves her home, her husband, and her children. A Doll’s House caused much controversy

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Krogstad is overjoyed and says that he will demand his letter back before Torvald can read it and learn Nora's secret. This time, Torvald not only refuses, but also sends off the letter of dismissal that he has already prepared for Krogstad.

One of my favorite things about A Doll’s House is how Ibsen has Torvald long for Nora to be in danger, so he could risk everything for her sake. He wants respectability and has changed the terms of his blackmail: he now insists to Nora not only that he is rehired at the bank but that he is rehired in a higher position. Linde tells Krogstad that now she wishes to be with him and care for his children. Rank, a dear friend of Torvald, has come to visit.

In conclusion, I am glad I read A Doll’s House. He then puts a letter detailing Nora's debt and forgery in Torvald's letterbox, so that Torvald will be pressed to help Krogstad.

Nora’s character was the most interesting to me. Another unknown visitor came to visit at the same time, and Nora is surprised to see her school friend Christine Linde.

Approximate Word count = 1326
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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