A DOLLS HOUSE

A Don House is a three-act play written by Henrik Ibsen, the same author of the evergreen An Enemy of the People. It deals with the fate of a married woman — Nora Helmer — who lacks reasonable opportunities for self-fulfilment in a male-dominated world. The protagonist in the play, Nora had earlier on committed a forgery, in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband, Torvald Helmer. And now she is being blackmailed and lives in fear of her husband finding out about her vice, and of the shame, such a revelation would bring to his career. When the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband’s esteem. To her husband, Nora is an amusing ‘thing’ to be petted, but unreliable. To other people like Mrs Linden and Nils Krogstad, she is naive and spoiled. Nora symbolises the status of the majority of women in this conservative patriarchal society, making the play as relevant today as it was, decades ago, in Norway.