“I have been your doll-wife here, as at home I was daddy'a doll-child” (Ibsen 1491). A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen tells a story of scandal and deceit set in the Victorian era. Nora Helmer is married to Torvald Helmer and feels more like his plaything than his wife. Nora had to have Torvald to be able to do anything, given the time she lived in. Nora borrows money behind her husband's back (which is illegal at this time) and tries to hide everything she has done. Ibsen uses the use of many themes and symbols in his A Doll House to show the reader how Nora was a doll-child who evolved into a doll-wife. The central theme of A Doll House is a true marriage between us, a union between equals. . The entire play is about the crumbling of a marriage that is exactly the opposite of that. At the beginning of the show both Helmers seem happy in their marriage. However, as the show progresses, the imbalance becomes more and more apparent. At the end of the story, the marriage falls apart due to the total lack of understanding between Torvald and Nora. Together in marriage, the two fail to realize who they are as individuals. They can only see themselves as part of the marriage. Another very important theme in this play is the house. From the beginning of the game, home is a place of comfort, joy and refuge. The idea of ​​home is intertwined with the idea of ​​a happy family, as the Helmers appear to be. Towards the end of the play, happiness in the Helmer family changes and the power imbalance becomes a major issue. At this point, the seemingly happy home reveals itself only as people acting for each other and the outside world. The Helmers have erected a facade, a doll's house, to hide the tension between... the center of the paper... although it disputes that the work is not feminist, it challenges the roles that men and women held in society . It shows how women felt trapped and alone in their homes. While not everyone will agree with what she did, Nora had no other way to get out of such a horrible situation. Works Cited Drake, David B. "Ibsen's A Doll House." Explainer 53.1 (1994): 3+. Ebscohost. Network. July 22, 2011. Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House": An Illustration of Symbolism. TheatreHistory.com. Network. 21 July 2011. .Ibsen, Henrik. "A doll's house." Norton's introduction to literature. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. 1447-496. Print.Kane, Tina. "The Doll's House." Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-2. Ebscohost. Network. July 23 2011.