"What is the significance of the title of 'A Doll's House'?"
             I would like to begin with a quick introduction to how the play came about;
             In Ibsen's home of Norway at the time of writing this play, women's rights were particularly topical. Ibsen had written struggling feminists into his plays before. In 1869's "The League of Youth," he introduced Selma Bratsberg, a minor character who complained to her husband;
             "You dressed me up like a doll; you played with me as one plays with a child."
             Danish critic Georg Brandes suggested to Ibsen that this sort of character might make a good central theme for a later play, and perhaps in response to this, two more women were created in "Pillars of Society" who rebelled violently against being degraded by their male-dominated society. However, it wasn't till a fan of his – a girl called Laura Peterson wrote to him that the story of Nora came about. Ibsen took a great fancy to Laura and used to call her his "little skylark." In her regular letters, she would tell of how she married a Danish schoolmaster who eventually contracted tuberculosis. The doctor recommended they move to a warmer climate, and since they were poor, she secretly arranged a loan for which a friend stood security. However, 5 years later, she was ordered repayment, or the friend who had stood security told her he'd be ruined. She had no money and didn't dare tell her husband, so she wrote a novel and asked Ibsen to recommend it to his publisher. Ibsen, however, didn't like the novel and refused to recommend it. Laura burned the manuscript and forged a cheque. This forgery was soon discovered, and she was forced to tell her husband the full story. Her husband treated her like a criminal and proclaimed her unworthy to take care of the children. She had a nervous breakdown and was committed by her husband to a public asylum.
             I'm sure you can see the huge similarity between this story and 'A Doll's House.'
             T...