to be a bit cunning and forge her father's signature on a loan. We learn as the play unfolds that in early years Nora secretly struggled, fretted, and worked very hard to try and produce money to pay for the dept. However, Nora now has a new anxiety--she is being blackmailed byKrogstad, her creditor, with the threat of exposing her fraud should she not convince her husband to allow Krogstad to keep his post at the bank.
Nora's personal problems portray the larger social problems presented in the play, such as the unfair treatment of women. The unfair treatment of women is first presented in the fact that society forbade women to take out a loan because society saw women as uneducated, irresponsible, ridiculous individuals. Had Nora not been forbidden by society to take out a loan on her own, she would have never been placed in a position in which she needed to commit fraud. The unfair treatment of women is also portrayed in Nora's struggles to earn money to pay back the loan. Back then, middle class women, like Nora, were forbidden to work. Lower class women, however, were allowed to work, but only low-income jobs, such as clerks, teachers, and domestic servants ("Historical Context"). Despite the fact that Nora was middle class, she did, however, manage to find work to earn money that she could perform behind Torvald's back. For example, Nora tells her friend Christine:

Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of copying to do; so I locked myself up and sat writing every evening till quite late at night. (I)

Most importantly, the social problem of the unfair treatment of women is especially portrayed in Torvald's treatment of Nora. While he is generally kind to her, it is also very evident that he has no respect for her. He treats her as a ridiculous person and forbids her to do many things; he even refuses to listen to her point of view. However, Torvald's treatment and opinions of his wife are not entirely his own fault; rather, they are a consequence of the influences of his society. Had Torvald been more considerate of his wife's opinions and feelings, she never would have had to take out a loan behind his back and again would not have been forced to commit fraud.

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is a prime example of a problem play in that it deals with social issues and exposes social evils. This largely explains why it was so controversial in its day. Most people who went to the theater in nineteenth-century Europe did so because they wanted to be entertained. They most certainly didn't go because they wanted to be confronted with social problems.

But Ibsen, a staunch proponent of naturalism in drama, believed that it was important to use theater as a vehicle for depicting the realities of contemporary society, no matter how uncomfortable they might make people feel. It was only by dealing frankly and openly with what was actually happening in society that any kind of social change was possible.

The problem addressed by Ibsen in A Doll's House is female oppression. The central character of Nora Helmer lives in a world in which women are treated as second-class citizens. Lacking the same rights and opportunities as men, they are marginalized, infantilized, and kept in a state of permanent subjection by their menfolk.

The appalling treatment of women in nineteenth-century European society is epitomized by the marriage between Nora and her husband, Torvald. Torvald treats Nora like a child, someone who lacks the requisite agency to make her own decisions in life.

For him, as for most men in his society, women are to be confined to the home, where they are to raise children and do the housework. The world outside, the world of business and public affairs, is the exclusive domain of men, from which women are excluded for what is allegedly their own good. Among other things, this prevents, as it is supposed to do, women from becoming independent and making their own decisions in life.

Eventually, Nora solves the problem of female repression by leaving her husband and children and venturing out into the big wide world. But the nature of patriarchal society ensures that her life outside the respectable middle-class home will be something of a struggle. And so the problem with which Ibsen deals remains one that will still need to be dealt with in subsequent plays.

A Doll's House is a quintessential problem play.  In it, Ibsen presents the problem of women's place in society.  However, many at the time might not have recognized this as a problem but more as just the way things were.  Ibsen presents the difficulty that women faced because of their lack of power and legal standing.

The character of Nora is first presented as a flighty, superficial person,playing the little "squirrel" for her husband, but we soon see there is more than meets the eye.  Ibsen is masterful at revealing her story, bit by bit.  Because she lacks legal standing, she is forced into the position of committing forgery to save her husband's life.  She then finds herself being blackmailed and at odds with her husband.  Had women the right to borrow money on their own, the whole situation would have been averted.

Nora then has an epiphany of what makes a marriage and what a true partnership might be.  This is very prescient of Ibsen, presenting the idea of a 50/50 relationship between a man and woman.  The audience is left to wonder what becomes of Nora and Torvald.  In this wondering, they may also consider their own thoughts and beliefs about the place of women in society.