A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a brilliantly written play/piece of literature expressing the low expectations that were set upon women in the 19th century and how they could be overcome. The main character, Nora, played the role of the puppet, the housewife, the simple caretaker while her husband Torvald was the primary breadwinner. He treated her like a pet, giving her money sparingly often forcing her to beg. What he was completely unaware of was that she had secretly taken a loan in order to pay for a trip to Italy that saved Torvald’s life. The reason she kept asking for money was so she could pay off the loan on a monthly basis. Nora’s childhood friend Christine serves as Nora’s foil because she represents independent women who grew up in harsh conditions and suffering major setbacks with former partners. Nora seems like a child in comparison, being given all that she wants with seemingly little regard to the misfortunes of others. For their eight years of marriage, Torvald had played with Nora as if she were a doll in a dollhouse, the same way her father had treated her all of his life. In the end, the man who had loaned her the money decided to take back the blackmail against Nora’s husband, but not until after he had seen the note in order for Nora to know her husband’s true nature. Kristine and Krogstad made the right decision forcing the issue upon Nora and Torvald because they were living a lie their entire marriage. Nora has finally learned to become independent of men like her father and her husband.