A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by Henrik Ibsen, originally published in Norwegian as Et dukkehjem. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen on December 21, 1879, and quickly became one of the most significant plays of the nineteenth century for its critical attitude toward the marriage norms of its day.

The play aroused great controversy at the time of its release, concluding with its protagonist, Nora, leaving her husband and children in order to discover who she truly is. Ibsen was moved by the belief that a woman could not fully be herself within a society whose laws, judges and expectations were shaped entirely from a male standpoint. Yet the play's reach extends well beyond questions of gender. Scholar Michael Meyer argued its true subject is not women's rights but the need of every individual to discover who they really are and to strive to become that person. Ibsen himself, addressing the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights in 1898, insisted he had never consciously worked for the women's rights movement, describing his task instead as simply the description of humanity.

This book is featured on The Book Club with Michael Knowles, PragerU's show dedicated to the great books of Western civilization. In this episode, Michael Knowles is joined by The Post Millennial's Libby Emmons to ask whether A Doll's House is truly the feminist landmark it's often portrayed to be, or a deeper critique of radical individualism and the erosion of traditional societal roles.

📺 Watch the episode: Libby Emmons — A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Read Ibsen's groundbreaking play on marriage, selfhood and self-preservation, and discover why its questions about individual identity still spark debate nearly 150 years later.