A Doll's House

MP3 Audio CD. A Doll's House is one of the most controversial and most debated plays by Henrik Ibsen. The playwright?s criticism towards the institution of marriage as well as towards modern society makes it a play as valid and important today as it was in 1879 when it premiered in Copenhagen, the problems raised by it being as much affecting domestic life today as they were more than 130 years ago.

The drama starts by introducing the main characters, Nora, the wife of a successful bank clerk and Torvald, the husband. The conflict around which the entire plot revolves pertains to the past ? a few years before Torvald became ill and without his knowledge, Nora forged her father?s signature to obtain the money they needed to take Torvald abroad for treatment. Since then, Nora has been working secretly and saving money to repay the debt, but one of the employees at her husband?s bank, a man that Torvald is planning to fire, finds out about the secret and starts blackmailing Nora, requesting her to intervene on his behalf and to convince her husband to change his mind about the firing.

The truth is eventually revealed, Torvald finds out about what Nora did and behaves abominably, disappointing Nora and leading her to believe that their marriage has been based on lies and illusions. She decides to leave her family and the play ends with her moving out from the family home, facing financial insecurity and probably social disgrace as well.

What today?s audience might consider to be problematic was considered to be outrageous in the 19th century. The ending was considered to be especially scandalous ? so much so that Ibsen was required to produce a different ending for the staging in Germany because the actress who was to perform Nora refused to play the part with the original ending. In the alternative version, Nora reconsiders her decision to leave and gives her husband a second chance.