A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen was controversial in its time, in part because it showed a woman daring to leave her husband to pursue her own self-fulfillment, but also because its heroine was so unapologetic about her choice to abandon her children.

The play continues to provoke ambivalent feelings today, as audience members and readers are forced to reconcile their support for Nora’s belief in her own humanity with the extreme nature of her actions in leaving her family.

Write an essay in which you assess the morality of Nora’s decisions at the end of the play. Is she justified in her actions? Why or why not? Whatever argument you choose, you should support it through analysis of specific textual examples from the play (can be found on youtube:audiobook and or visual movie) itself. Answering this question sufficiently requires thinking not only about the end of the play but the world and the characters that Ibsen establishes for us in the first two acts as well.

You can use the text of the play provided to help you locate specific examples.