Book Club Guide

A Doll's House

Key themes

The self that women are expected to perform — and its costs
Marriage as an institution that infantilises as it protects
The moment when duty to oneself overrides duty to family

About this book

Nora Helmer has secretly borrowed money to save her husband's life and has been repaying it for years without his knowledge. When the truth threatens to emerge, the marriage — and Nora's entire constructed identity — begins to crack. Ibsen's play is one of the founding texts of modern drama and a landmark of feminist literature.

Premiered in 1879, A Doll's House caused a sensation across Europe. In some productions the alternative ending — Nora stays — was substituted. The play is one of the founding texts of both modern drama and feminist literary history.

Discussion questions

Nora's final decision to leave her family was one of the most shocking moments in 19th-century theatre. By the logic of the play, is it justified — or does it abandon duties that the play itself has asked us to take seriously?
Torvald loves Nora but treats her as a possession — a doll. How does Ibsen show the gap between what Torvald believes his love to be and what it actually is?
Dr Rank loves Nora honestly but says so at the wrong moment. How does his character function in the play — as a contrast to Torvald, as a complication for Nora, or as something else?
The play was so controversial that Ibsen was asked to write an alternative ending in which Nora stays. He complied, then called it 'a barbaric outrage.' What does this tell us about what the play requires?
A Doll's House is one of the most produced plays in the world. What in it makes it so universal across cultures and periods?