A Doll's House

The significance of this text to the world is that it was the first literary work to show a woman taking control of her life by leaving her family. This was an extremely radical idea because the family was a woman's pride and joy, and her biggest contribution to marital life. The idea that a woman could leave her husband and children was virtually unheard of before Ibsen's book. This is why the door slam when Nora leaves her family is referred to as "the slam heard round the world". Another interesting thing this play does is allow us to view the victimized protagonist negatively for gaining her end means. That is, to gain power and ultimately her freedom, she walks out on her family. For this, we can choose to view her negatively.

The last scene of this play is the most famous. In this scene, the relation to the title is shown. When Nora talks about her childhood, and about how she is unhappy in her marriage, she says that her papa "called [her] his doll child, and played with [her] just as [she] used to play with [her] dolls" (66). When Torvald asks her what that has to do with their marriage, she responds that she "was simply transferred from Papa's hands to" Torvald's (66). The actual title "A Doll's House" can be taken in two different ways. It can be taken as a house belonging to a doll, because Nora is a doll living in her own house. Alternatively, it can be taken as a doll's house, meaning that all houses are simply homes where dolls are placed, and manipulated. The title can either show an ownership, or complete lack of it thereof. 

Nora as a protagonist can also be viewed in two different ways. She can be viewed as an unaware, simple housewife who makes a snap judgement at the end of the story without truly understanding what she is doing. Or, she can be viewed as an intelligent woman who has finally found her desired way out of her dreadful marriage. Nora does successfully save the spending money Torvald gives her to pay off her secret loan for three entire years. It takes some mental agility to come up with such a scheme, and to keep it hidden from her husband who makes money his business. A Doll's House is a text that changed the way theatre of the times was viewed, and opened new thematic doors for playwrights to explore in later years.