A Doll's House Author:Henrik Johan Ibsen The slamming of the front door at the end of A Doll's House shatters the romantic masquerade of the Helmers' marriage. In their stultifying and infantilized relationship, Nora and Torvald have deceived themselves, and each other, both consciously and subconsciously, until Nora acknowledges the need for individual freedom. Ibsen's 1879 pla... more »y shocked its first audiences with its radical insights into the social roles of husband and wife. His portrayal of the caged "songbird," his flawed heroine, Nora, remains one of the most striking dramatic depictions of a late-nineteenth century woman. "Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama."?George Steiner« less