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I love Doll's House so much, and I always love reading stories such as these, where a woman goes through a process of self-evaluation, and realizes the oppresions of society upon her without excessive drama, nor throwing a hissy-fit.

Which novels/stories would present a similar situation, or a similar character?

The Age of Innocence is one example. Ellen Olenska is someone who lives life on her own terms. May Welland eventually learns how to gain some control, although she operates within the bounds of polite society.

The House of Mirth is another. Lily ultimately ends up committing suicide, but along the journey she becomes completely aware of the suffocating restrictiveness of society on females without access to their own money.

How about Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth refuses to live life except on her own terms. She might be opinionated, but it fits within a delightful characterization.

Catherine Linton from Wuthering Heights is similar to Nora. She was forced into an unhappy marriage with a controlling husband (Linton).  Eventually, she had the courage to stand up to her oppressor, Heathcliff, and married her love, Hareton.

The solitary character that comes to mind when I think of Nora is Mariam in A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Mariam makes the transformation from immature child to a functioning adult, just like Nora.

Another character similar to Nora in some regards is Anna Karenina (title character for Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) in that she goes against oppressive "norms" placed on her by society.  She chooses to leave her husband, Alexei Karenin, whom she doesn't really love, in order to live in adultery with Vronsky, her true love.  Unlike Nora, however, this change isn't liberating for her, and it eventually drives her to suicide.

The two authors use a similar female main character and sequence of events to suggest opposite themes about life.  Tolstoy suggests that domestic life is the root of happiness, while Ibsen suggests rather that independent thought is the cause of happiness, not specifically family life or independence from such life.

From Hemingway's masterpiece on the expatriate life in post-WWI Europe, The Sun Also Rises, Lady Brett Ashley relates to Nora on numerous levels.  Like Nora, Brett also indulges in her society's perks as the story begins to take shape; however, by the end of the novel, she curses her culture for taking away another love from her.  Both Nora and Brett's encounters with the negative realities of society could be avoided if they had chose more prudent measures in the past, but that does not negate the fact that neither character could stop the chain of societal and personal reactions once the initial motions were set in place.  These two women seek individuality and freedom, and both are symbols of feminine strength in conservative societies that are destined for revolution.

A female character who shares a few similarities with Nora is Tita from Laura Esquivel's novel, Like Water For Chocolate. Tita, like Nora, is unhappy with the lack of freedom and independence she has. Tita is held back by Mama Elena and must lie and fake about her happiness to avoid being scolded by Elena. Elena held Tita back from her true love, Pedro, until Tita finally had the courage to be open about her love with Pedro and not John (Tita's other love interest).

In Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy, the main character's mother is in a very oppressive environment. In South Africa, during the apartheid regime, she is subject to a far more personally abusive authority in addition to the prejudice in her country. She lives with a man who has lived under tribal laws his whole life, a lifestyle where the man of the house's word is law. Throughout the story, she is abused emotionally and physically as she struggles to provide a better life for her children, an institution her husband is firmly against. Eventually, she develops more confidence and starts acting on her own. She succeeds in her goal and finds her own power as well.