Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828 at Skien in Norway. He was from a wealthy
family who soon after his birth lost their money. Ibsen worked as a pharmacist's
apprentice, but at the age of twenty-two he had written his first play, a promising
melodrama entitled " Cataline ". He engaged in theater work first in Norway and then
in Denmark and Germany. By 1865 his plays had won him a state pension that
enabled him to settle in Rome. After writing romantic, historic and poetic plays, he
returned to realistic drama with " The League of Youth " ( 1869 ). Among the major
realistic "problem plays" are "A Doll's House " ( 1879 ), " Ghosts " ( 1881 ), and " An
Enemy of the People " ( 1882 ). In " The Wild Duck " (1884) he moved toward a more
symbolic tragic comedy, and his last plays, written in the nineties, are highly
symbolic. In the year 1906 he died from aphasia which took even the power of him to
put words on paper. I'm going to study one of his "problem plays" which is " A Doll's
House ". In " A Doll's House ", Ibsen as he often does, criticizes society's general
thoughts on women and the place of women in society. In fact, he criticizes how
women are humiliated and how women are put in the position of being stupid as they
are only for the use of domestic responsibilities, in the eyes of the society.
There are two woman characters who have strenght against society in the play.
One of them is Nora, the main character, who is living under the power of a male
figure in her marriage. The marriage between Nora and Torvald is put to shame due to
the overpowering actions of Torvald. The first example for this is Nora wants money
from Torvald in order to buy something to the house or to their children which is
lately understood that this is for the loan that Nora took from a banker in order to save
her husband's life. Husband is dominant financially in the marriage which is stressed ...