Henrick Isben's "A Doll House"

"A Doll House" is a realistic, modern prose drama. It shows the relationship between a married couple, Nora and Torvald, and Nora's struggle with Krogstad, who threatens to tell her husband about her past crime of signature forging. These events incite Nora's journey of self-discovery. Her main struggles are however with the oppressive and stifling attitudes of her selfish husband. At the end of the play, Nora decides to leave him. She takes with her only her coat and leaves him with everything, including her children. The end of the play was modified for many years, due to the inappropriate, socially unacceptable ending. Indeed, in the beginning of the 1900s when the play was written (more precisely in 1906), a woman leaving her husband was considered a taboo. Women had absolutely no rights at that time, they could not even borrow money without the approval of a male. Relationships therefor become a central theme to the play, as well as power and social expectations of men and women.