Henrik Ibsen's famous play, A Doll's House, is widely recognized as a feminist work. The show delves into the seemingly perfect lives of the Helmers, Nora, and Torvald. Nora is beautiful, charming and sweet and Torvald is a rich and successful banker. The exploration of feminism in the essay A Doll's House is crucial to understanding the play's underlying message about gender roles and social expectations. Despite the couple's past difficulties, such as financial difficulties during the first year of their marriage and Torvald's illness, Nora's decision to ask Torvald's colleague for a loan highlights the social constraints placed on women in the 19th century. While Nora's experiences highlight the couple's current good fortune, the show highlights the systemic oppression and limitations faced by women during that time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Rich, attractive, and important, the Helmers seem to be the perfect family. Yet the old adage applies: appearances are deceiving. As Nora reveals more about how she secretly worked to repay the loan to Torvald's colleague Krogstad, it becomes clear that there is a lot of tension beneath the calm surface of the couple's family life. This tension increases when Torvald tells Nora that he wants to fire Krogstad from the bank, and Krogstad subsequently threatens to reveal Nora's lies to her husband if she doesn't find a way to save her job. The action of the play intensifies, finally culminating in Torvald's discovery of a letter written by Krogstad, which reveals the truth about Nora's loan. Upon learning that his wife has deceived him, Torvald becomes angry and immediately concerned about preserving his own image, even though Nora's deception has allowed Torvald to recover, which he would presumably be grateful for. At this point, Nora's transformation from a silly, childish girl to an intelligent, independent woman is complete. She realizes that Torvald only saw her as a doll and leaves him. The public and critics have different reactions to Ibsen's A Doll's House, but the most shared conception of the work is that it is, without a doubt, a feminist text. In her article titled “The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen,” Joan Templeton discusses the numerous ways in which A Doll's House is actually a play that addresses the issue of feminism and women's rights. She states that: When Nora discovers that she has duties higher than those of "wife and mother", obligations she calls "duties to myself", she is giving voice to the most basic of feminist principles: that women no less than men possess a moral and intellectual and have not only the right but the duty to develop it (Templeton 32). Templeton argues that Nora's very transformation from childlike and naïve to driven and strong-willed is in its very essence feminist; furthermore, the play's feminism is prevalent whether Ibsen intended it or not. And it seems quite likely that Ibsen did not actually intend A Doll's House to be read as strongly feminist, stating at a banquet given to him by the Norwegian League for Women's Rights that he "must renounce the honor of having consciously worked for women's rights." movement...my task has been the description of humanity" (Templeton 28). After reading such a statement, it seems clear that Ibsen did not write A Doll's House with the intention of writing a seminal feminist work. Following this logic, there are a number of other critics who strongly disagree with Templeton's claim that Nora (andconsequently the game as a whole) is intrinsically feminist. British theater critic Michael Billington is one who disagrees with this interpretation of the play as feminist. After seeing a production of A Doll's House at London's Southwark Playhouse, Billington writes that "Far from a clear feminist appeal, the play becomes a complex study of two people who must both rebuild their identities" (Guardian Unlimited). Here, Billington shifts attention from the character of Nora, which is the central tenet of Templeton's argument, to the dynamics of the relationship between Nora and Torvald. In this way, the focus is less on Nora struggling with her sense of self, and more on the identities of both characters, in a refutation of In Templeton's essay on feminism in A Doll's House, Michael Werth Gelber writes: “In Torvald and Nora's Dollhouse, both husband and wife suffer from arrested development, which neither of them could ultimately overcome” (Gelber 361, along with many). others appear to read Ibsen's classic as humanist rather than feminist, arguing that Ibsen's message was not that women should strive to find themselves, but that all people should engage in the search for true identity. A Doll's House was written and published in 1879 and, as such, Ibsen was certainly aware of the prevailing attitudes towards women. Before the 20th century, women were expected to obey their husbands and concern themselves only with matters of frivolity and entertainment. In fact, years earlier, United States President Thomas Jefferson had summed up the attitude of the time when he addressed the issue of women and literacy, stating that "women's education should concentrate on the ornaments and amusements of life... dancing , drawing and music" (www.vst.cape.com). Women were not expected to educate themselves or become independent, which ensured complete dependence on their husbands. These widespread beliefs were certainly known to Ibsen and, Although he states that his aim was never to call attention to women's issues, the concept of feminism played at least an unconscious role in the writing of A Doll's House. At the same banquet of the Norwegian League for Women's Rights, where he stated that addressing women's rights was not his intention, Ibsen states, "I am not even entirely clear what this women's rights movement really is... It is women who will solve the human problem" (Gelber 361). Although Ibsen claims to be unaware of the women's rights movement, he places the responsibility of running human rights movements on women, showing that he at least has a deep respect and trust in women. House features a protagonist who wants to be an example for both women and humans, showing the importance of finding a sense of self and true identity. Women and men, both then and now, can look to Nora to see the ways in which one must truly find oneself. When Nora finally realizes that she is just a doll for Torvald, she says, "I did tricks for you, Torvald. That's how I survived. You wanted it that way... It's because of you that I managed to survive." he has done nothing with my life" (Ibsen). Although reports similar to Torvald's about Nora were much more common in the 1870s, they are not obsolete today either. However, domination can now occur in both directions ; in some relationships, women control men just as men control women in others. In this way, the feminist and humanist themes of A Doll's House still apply to modern times.