The individuals within the society of Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, are prohibited from being fully developed individuals, due to social and financial problems. A Doll's House is set in Norway in the late 1800s. At the time, Norway was just hit by a economic depression, making it difficult to find a job, and even harder to get promoted to a high-paying position. Also, sexism was very prominent, and women were precluded from their rights and freedom. Because everybody did not want to face socioeconomic hardships, people like Nils Krogstad, Christine Linde and Torvald Helmer were forced to lose oneself, and the desperate attempt to not get excluded by society lead them to follow mainstream societal values. Nils Krogstad is a character who harasses Nora, eventually ruining her marriage, and is portrayed as the antagonist of this play, …show more content…
In the past, he suffered from heavy economic hardships and worked very hard to save his family for it. He finally gets a promotion to become the manager of the bank, suddenly feels immense pressure from society, and makes him very conscious of other people’s perceptions of him and of his position in the comunity. Torvald gets Nora to keep their house in a 'perfect' condition. He constantly monitors his wife - the food she eats, and also her appearance. His over-anxiety of a good appearance in the community is shown when he reasons his rejection of Nora's request to keep Krogstad at the office. Torvald says that he will not listen to her because if he did, he would become “a laughing stock before the entire staff”(1342). In the end, when Nora leaves Torvald, his chief concern was to save 'the appearance' of their household. Because of his over commitment to social appearances, Torvald gets his values and priorities distorted, and that leads him to the tragic ending of the story, losing