Is a woman's most sacred duty a duty to herself, or to her husband and children? Nora Helmer was a woman living in a time when women had no power or merit. They were expected to please their husbands at any cost. They couldn't make anything of themselves. Henrik Ibsen sparked an early version of the women's rights movement and a trend toward different marital standards. It was so radical for the time that Ibsen was forced to move to Italy due to the extreme unpopularity of his ideas. However, he changed modern literature and topics for drama, and made a very important change in society. The scene was Norway in the late 1800s. Queen Victoria was still reigning in nearby Britain. The actions of Torvald, Nora, and Kristine showed the reader that this is a very different time than the present. In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen presents the concept of seeking self-actualization in a society that was rigidly conformist, as shown through the characters of Nora and Kristine, in order to prove that society prevented women from becoming the self-fulfilled people that they could be.
Hjalmar Boyesen, in A Commentary on the Works of Henrik Ibsen, remarks, "As long as women are brought up primarily with a view to pleasing men, their individuality must of necessity be sacrificed. They have to conform to the masculine ideal of womanhood, not to their own ideal as determined by their own endowments, temperament, and character" (p. 199). All other matters aside, Torvald saw Nora as nothing more than a "doll." He constantly objectified and dehumanized her by calling her things like "spendthrift," "skylark," and "squirrel." He frequently spoke to her in the third person by saying things like, "Is it my little squirrel rummaging about?" (Ibsen 1). He had very strict rules for her conduct. At one point, she was hesitant to eat a macaroon because he told her not to do so.
