A Doll's House - Rosa's Response

In what ways might A Doll's House created a sensation in the world of theatre when it was first performed? 
Consider the various ways from a theatrical viewpoint (the development of realism), the subject matter, the structure and ending of the play.

A Doll’s House premiered in 1879 in Copenhagen, Denmark, around the era when revolution was affecting Europe in 1848, when a new modern perspective was emerging in the literary and dramatic world. Ibsen aimed to popularize this new perspective through realist drama, challenging social norms of the current age: its supposed customs and its realities.

The structure of the “well made play” was used by Ibsen, but from a serious perspective rather than the comedies that this genre was used for. In this way, Ibsen caught the attention of the current audience by deviating from the norm. Instead of writing in an end discussion to summarize the morals of the play, Ibsen substituted a plausible dénouement that left the play’s conclusion open-ended, instigating life beyond the play. A Doll's House was thought to be just another modern drama detailing the common moral lessons of society, but when Nora tells Torvald that they must sit down and "discuss all this that has been happening between us", the play diverges from the traditional format. In this way, audience members questioned the play’s intentions and “A Doll’s House” became a widely discussed topic.

There was also an absence of certain traditional themes and characters, such as an adult male figure usually symbolizing morality. In fact, this supposed figure in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a sickly doctor, suffering from a disease given to him by his father’s sexual endeavors, that explicitly expresses his fondness of Nora. This representation, along with the strong female characters (Nora’s rejection of marriage and motherhood) provided a stark contrast to current gender stereotypes. Audience members may have not understood how to deal with these controversial characters, and what they truly symbolized (critics argued that the play strongly suggested the support of feminism, but Ibsen stated that he was not a feminist and instead clarified that these characters symbolized the importance of self-liberation). Therefore, the multiple interpretations and the struggle to truly understand Ibsen’s intentions suggest that the play created controversy among the audience of that era.

Although Ibsen included hints of the perception of females during the play’s era, the fact that he intended a common housewife to represent the protagonist attacked most middle-class household values. Ibsen acknowledged the inadequacy of women to men, as shown through Torvald’s treatment of Nora, calling her many nicknames preceded by “little” and “my”, highlighting the inferiority of which he sees women, and the possessiveness of how he feels about Nora (as if she is an object owned by him, rather than a person). Torvald is also made to think that a woman’s sacred duty is to be a good mother and wife- nothing more. This ideal was very much like the status of women through a Victorian perspective, in which cultivated homemaker ideals were strongly encouraged in women and girls- to make sure these ideals were the ones to live by for life. Therefore, by going against these ideals through his characters’ actions, Ibsen suggested the realities of a Victorian society: highlighting the limitations of women and their struggle to fight their stereotypes. Perhaps this reflected the true mind of a woman of the era, and this idea might have negatively affected the audience, in which their current ideals did not seem good enough to live by, and this challenge created controversy- through the structure, character representations, and the various interpretations of the play.