Henrik Ibsen
             "A Doll House," a play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, is considered a landmark in drama for its portrayal of realistic people, human relationships, and situations. It is a feministic play about the development and eventual termination of the marital relationship between Nora and Torvald Helmer. Nora, the play's protagonist, escapes the traditional gender roles that her relatives and society in general defined for her in order to learn about herself and to achieve true individuality and freedom. "A Doll House" speaks out against the chauvinistic, male dominated world of Ibsen's time by commenting on the traditional, although thankless and sacrificial role that women held in society during the nineteenth century.
             The play shows a sad, yet hopeful world for women, one in which social progress is already under way, and Nora Helmer is just an example of a modern-minded, independent woman that wanted to cast off her chains and become her own woman. She succeeds, although she ends up hurting her children and family in the process. In her progress, she must cast aside the familiar and the expected in order to become a better person.
             Nora Helmer: Nora Helmer is Ibsen's representative of an independent, modern woman that is unhappy with her limited role in society. She is a good, loving wife, and would do anything in order to protect her family. The play introduces her as an airheaded, weak creature that is utterly dominated by her seemingly loving husband. However, after she chooses to break the law in order to save her husband's life, Nora is to be plagued with blackmail from Krogstad, and her own personal guilt. Nora represents the imprisoned woman, a human being with no real power, and no voice for emotions.
             However, Nora is not a conventional house-slave that doesn't question her existence. Instead, Nora eventually realizes that she is a prisone...