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A Doll's House - A Critical Introduction
A Doll's House - A Critical Introduction
A Doll's House - A Critical Introduction
A Critical Introduction
Catherine Love
To find out more about the playwright, read A Concise Introduction to Henrik Ibsen.
A Doll’s House was written during the summer of 1879, while Ibsen was in Rome and
Amalfi. The play premiered on December 21 that same year at the Royal Theatre,
Copenhagen, directed by H. P. Holst. While the premiere production of the play was
pioneering in some ways, it still made use of relatively traditional stagecraft and had
a very limited rehearsal period, in contrast to the long rehearsals of the Meiningen
Company. It therefore represents a partial embrace of the naturalist theatrical
movement which was just beginning to develop across Europe at this time.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
The first production of A Doll’s House stayed in the repertory of the Royal Theatre in
Copenhagen for 28 years, demonstrating its enduring popularity. The play was first
produced in Norway at the Christiana Theatre in 1880 and received premieres in
Sweden and Germany in the same year. For German audiences, Ibsen was
persuaded to write an alternative ending, in which Nora’s decision to leave is
reversed after Torvald forces her to look at their sleeping children and consider what
it would mean to abandon them. This rewritten ending, however, was not successful
and was eventually abandoned.
Several more recent versions have sought to reimagine A Doll’s House, allowing
audiences to see this popular play afresh. American theatre company Mabou Mines
famously staged the play in 2003 with all the male characters played by actors
under five feet, leaving the women towering over them and contorting themselves to
fit the small furniture of the set. By subverting expectations in this way, the
production re-interrogated the play’s gender politics. Other adaptations have
brought a new perspective to the play by shifting Nora out of her original time and
place. Tanika Gupta (2019), for example, transposed the play to 19th-century India
and used it to interrogate British colonialism. Stef Smith’s version, Nora: A Doll’s
House (2019), located Ibsen’s drama in three simultaneous time periods – 1918, 1968
and 2018 – as a way of exploring the evolution of women’s rights over time.
Similarly, Nick Payne’s short film Nora (2012), commissioned to be released
alongside the Young Vic’s production of the play, imagines the central character as a
21st-century woman. Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 (2017), meanwhile, asks
what might have happened after the end of Ibsen’s play, showing Nora’s return to
her family after 15 years.
The production that you are watching was staged at the Young Vic Theatre in
London in 2012, directed by Carrie Cracknell. This theater has a reputation for
staging bold versions of the dramatic canon. In the same year as A Doll’s House, for
example, the theater produced a version of Hamlet set in a psychiatric hospital
(directed by Ian Rickson), a reshaped and cut-down revival of The Changeling
(directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins), and Benedict Andrews’ stripped-back, strikingly
contemporary Three Sisters. Unlike the adaptations cited above, Cracknell’s
This critical examination of the play as an argument for individual autonomy stands
in contrast to interpretations which position it as a feminist piece. There has been a
long-standing debate over whether Nora’s decision to leave can be understood as a
feminist gesture or as a statement about the freedom and rights of every individual.
Ibsen himself strongly denied that the play made any argument about women’s
rights, but A Doll’s House has frequently been viewed through a feminist lens. While
Cracknell’s production emphasizes the idea of the individual and their rights, it does
Cracknell has explained how, while retaining the play’s 19th-century setting, her
production engages with 21st-century concerns:
STRUCTURE
A Doll’s House is an early example of Ibsen’s naturalistic social drama and displays
structural features that can also be seen across several of his later plays. A key
aspect of the play’s structure is its gradual disclosure of information about the
characters’ pasts in a way that heightens suspense and drives the drama. The
apparent comfort and stability of the present is ruptured by the emergence of long-
buried secrets, which also serve to explain the ways in which characters act. Nora’s
apparent frivolity is shown to be a tactic of deception and manipulation, necessitated
by her fraudulent borrowing of money; Torvald’s desire to maintain control over his
household might be seen as compensating for the lack of control he experienced
during his past illness.
This use of revelations both borrows from and adapts the ‘well-made play’: a formula
associated with prolific French playwright Eugène Scribe. The well-made play is
driven by plot, with characters who serve this plot, and its action builds to a dramatic
climax followed by a neat resolution. As well as establishing complex characters
who are more than mere functions of the plot, A Doll’s House subverts the
conventions of the well-made play by upsetting the expected resolution. The arrival
of Krogstad’s second letter would appear to settle things for both Nora and Torvald,
allowing their household to return to its status quo. But rather than resolving the
drama, this turn of events instigates Nora’s departure. The play’s ending is therefore
its most revolutionary element — both in terms of its challenge to social values at the
time, and in terms of its structure. As pointed out by Dominic Rowan, who plays
Torvald in the Young Vic production, the conclusion leaves things radically
unresolved:
“The play operates as some sort of pre-history, clearing the rubble. At the end
of it you go ‘and now… what?’ What do we do now? Now that we’ve exposed
all these structures and these oppressive ways of behaving, where do we
go?” (Rowan, 2013, On Acting)
NATURALISM
A Doll’s House is one of the earliest plays in the naturalist movement and was part of
a body of work that had a huge influence on European playwriting and stagecraft.
While Naturalism is now a familiar convention, at the time Ibsen was writing, it was a
radical rejection of the theatrical status quo. As opposed to melodramatic or
romantic dramas, which typically relied upon character types and sensational plots,
naturalistic plays focused on psychologically realistic characters in detailed
domestic settings, and they often addressed gritty contemporary realities and social
issues. Other well-known naturalist playwrights from this period include Anton
Chekhov and August Strindberg.
The term ‘Naturalism’ was coined in 1866 by French novelist, playwright, and
journalist Émile Zola. While Zola is best remembered for his novels, he was also
influential in the development of naturalistic theatre. In his essay ‘Naturalism in the
Theatre’, written two years after the premiere of A Doll’s House, he identifies some of
his desires and goals for this emerging form, which he characterizes as “real human
drama” (Zola, in Gale and Deeney, 2016, p.124). The ‘naturalistic evolution’ that Zola
claims is necessary for theatre in the late 19th century involves “the gradual
substitution of physiological man for metaphysical man” (p.133), while naturalistic
staging calls for “detailed reproduction” (p.134) and the use of lifelike costumes, sets,
and acting.
But the aims of Naturalism go beyond simply replicating real life in the theater.
Influenced by scientific developments at the time, naturalist writers were interested in
the effects of heredity and environment upon individuals and explored this through
the characters they created for the stage. We can see this in A Doll’s House, in which
Nora’s character has been conditioned by her upbringing, the expectations of the
society she lives within, and the immediate environment of the marital home
depicted in the play. Her transformation at the end of the play is partly brought
about by a realization of the ways in which her personality has been shaped by
these forces, to the extent that she does not even know herself.
Scholar John Bull has described the process of creating this version of A Doll’s
House as one of what he calls ‘Add-Aptation.’ This term, coined by Bull, refers to “a
position somewhere between adaptation and appropriation” (Bull, 2018, p.283).
These new versions of classic plays contain additions that are “both deliberate and
significant” (Bull, p.284), without radically overhauling the source material. One
example of this is the expansion of the scenes between Nora and her children, which
is discussed further in the next section. In her interview On Directing, Cracknell
similarly describes the version that she created with Stephens as “true to the heart
and the spirit of the original play,” but with “increased resonance for a contemporary
audience” (Cracknell, 2013).
DIRECTION
As Cracknell discusses in her interview On Directing, she sees her role as creating a
solid structure for the production based on detailed analysis of the play text. The
actors can then work within this structure for performance after performance over the
length of the run, making new discoveries, and evolving their roles over time. As part
of this work building a structure, Cracknell used improvisation with actors in the
rehearsal room as a tool to build more naturalistic performances. Hattie Morahan,
who played Nora, notes that “a lot of the characters in the play are essentially
products of their history” (Morahan, 2013, On Acting); or, as Zola would put it, they
are shaped by their pasts and the environments they have lived within. It was
therefore important to improvise these moments from the characters’ pasts as part of
the rehearsal process, so that this history could inform the performances.
Two aspects of the play that have been expanded or emphasized in Cracknell’s
production are the sexual dynamic between Torvald and Nora and the relationship
that Nora has with her children. In this version, Torvald’s desire for Nora is stressed
throughout, as is the way in which she exploits this to distract him from her secrets.
This is made apparent from early in the first act, when Torvald kisses Nora
passionately before the interruption of Dr. Rank’s and Mrs. Linde’s arrivals. Working
with Stephens, meanwhile, Cracknell has extended the short scenes in the play
between Nora and her children and has made the decision to depict her youngest
child as a baby. As a result of this directorial choice, Nora’s role as a mother and her
complex feelings about this role are foregrounded, making her eventual departure
even more of a dramatic rupture.
PERFORMANCES
The character of Nora is at the heart of A Doll’s House, and therefore the
performance of this central role is vital for any production. As played by Hattie
Morahan, Nora is nervous and excitable on the surface, yet she is shown to have
greater control over her own self-presentation and others’ responses to her than it
might initially appear. Her neuroses are brought to the surface by Morahan’s
This production’s interpretation of Torvald is equally complex, never turning him into
a straightforward antagonist. As Cracknell explains, while writing his new version of
the play, Stephens made the discovery that Torvald has two contradictory drivers
behind his character: “he has a very strong sexual drive, which is at the heart of him
as a man and as a human, but that in some ways is in conflict with his sense of
morality and his sense of what is right and proper in the society that he lives in”
(Cracknell, 2013, On Directing). He is also haunted by the illness that prompted
Nora’s act of fraudulently borrowing money, which in this version is interpreted as a
mental breakdown. Dominic Rowan explains:
“[Torvald’s anxiety] is never too far away from him […] any mental health issue
or physical breakdown undermines his sense of who he should be and the
responsibilities he should have, so he has to caretake that very closely in
order to maintain his position in society and who he feels he should be as a
man.” (Rowan, 2013, On Acting)
Rowan’s Torvald often seems to be in thrall to Nora’s beauty and motivated by his
desire for her. Their relationship in this production is a strikingly tactile one; he
frequently finds excuses to touch her. Yet this flirtatious behavior is quickly dropped
in favor of rigid self-control whenever Torvald feels that his reputation might be
under threat. In Rowan’s performance, this defensive response to perceived danger
DESIGN
One of the most striking aspects of this version of A Doll’s House is its revolving set,
designed by Ian MacNeil. When the lights come up, this set is in motion, showing us a
360-degree view of the Helmers’ home as Nora moves busily around it. MacNeil’s
design contains the living room, the dining room, Nora’s bedroom, Torvald’s study,
and the all-important front door, all connected by a central hallway, as well as an
external staircase off to stage right. Whereas each of Ibsen’s acts is written to be
contained within the single space of the living room, Cracknell’s production allows
for the action to move around the apartment. Between scenes, meanwhile,
performers flit from room to room, creating vignettes that flesh out the life of this
household. We see the Torvalds at their Christmas dinner, or the servants keeping
things in order.
The choice of rooms to show is significant in itself. It is clear from context that this
design does not depict the whole apartment; we do not see the children’s bedrooms,
for example, or the kitchen. It’s worth paying attention, then, to what we do see. Most
of the play takes place in the living room, as envisaged by Ibsen. The addition of the
dining room provides another entertaining space in which characters can speak to
one another, while Nora’s bedroom offers a more private location for intimate
discussions and the sharing of secrets. Torvald’s study, meanwhile, is never entirely
opened up to the audience. We only see it in glimpses when the stage revolves,
revealing Torvald at work or in conversation with other men. It comes to represent a
sealed-off, male space, to which neither Nora nor the audience are granted full
access. The hallway, while seemingly just a transitional space, is also crucial, as
MacNeil explains: “I hit on something where I thought, when they’re in the corridor
they’re not acting […] they’re relieved of some pressure to perform” (MacNeil, 2012,
On Design).
These various spaces are dissected by windowed walls, allowing the audience a
partial view from one room into another. Seen through these windows as the set
The addition of multiple rooms also has an impact upon the reading of the drama at
key moments. One example of this can be seen immediately after Torvald has read
the final letter from Krogstad and has ‘forgiven’ Nora. Nora moves from the dining
room, where this conversation has taken place, to her bedroom next door, leaving
the door open at Torvald’s request so he can continue to talk to her. As written, she
is offstage for the following speech. But in this staging, the audience can see Nora as
she listens to her husband, allowing us to witness her reactions and read her thought
process as she makes her decision to leave.
THEATRICALITY
As she explains to Torvald her reasons for leaving him, Nora says: “I’ve lived my
whole marriage like a beggar. Like a street entertainer. I survive by performing tricks
for you” (Ibsen [Stephens] 2012, p.103). In Cracknell’s production, the theatricality and
artificiality of Nora and Torvald’s marriage is highlighted for an audience. They are
both constantly playing roles, and Nora in particular has to maintain the effort of
performing for Torvald and the other men in her life.
It is also significant that at the end of the play we see Nora removing her tarantella
costume — something that would typically take place off stage in productions where
the action is confined to the living room. Instead, this version allows us as an
Identify each significant piece of information (e.g. the fact that Nora borrowed money
to enable her and Torvald to go to Italy) and note down when it is revealed to both
the audience and to specific characters within the drama.
Once you have your map drawn up, consider what this can tell us about how Ibsen
has crafted the release of information and the development of the drama. How
would the play look if this information was revealed differently?
2) Nora’s decision to leave Torvald and her children at the end of the play may seem
sudden, but seeds are planted throughout the play as her character evolves
emotionally. Working through act by act, try to identify all the steps that lead to
her final decision and examine how these steps are presented, both in the script
and in performance.
3) In ‘Naturalism in the Theatre’, Émile Zola insists that “The environment must
determine the character” (Zola, in Gale and Deeney, 2016, p.134). In what ways
are the characters in A Doll’s House determined by their environment?
4) Why not have a go at updating the play yourself? If you were to rewrite A Doll’s
House to set it in the 21st century, what would you change? What elements of
Nora’s personality and environment would you consider? What would you keep
the same?
5) To what extent do you think A Doll’s House can be seen as a feminist play?
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Johnston, B. (1992). The Ibsen Cycle: The Design of Plays from Pillars of Society to
When We Dead Awaken. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Lan, D. (2014). In Conversation with Carrie Cracknell. [online] BAM Blog. Available at:
<https://blog.bam.org/2014/02/in-conversation-with-carrie-cracknell.html> [Accessed
5 September 2022].
Stephens, S. (2014). Simon Stephens: why my Cherry Orchard is a failure. [online] The
Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/oct/16/the-cherry-
orchard-chekhov-simon-stephens-katie-mitchell [Accessed 15 July 2022].
Zola, É. (2016). ‘Naturalism in the Theatre’. In M. B. Gale and J. F. Deeney, eds., The
Routledge Drama Anthology: From Modernism to Contemporary Performance.
London: Routledge, pp.124-135.