The classic play about a woman’s fight for independence and her desire to break free of her role as housewife. One of the best-known, most frequently performed modern plays, A Doll’s House richly displays the genius with which Henrik Ibsen pioneered realistic prose drama. The central character, Nora, epitomizes the human struggle against the humiliating constraints of social conformity. Her ultimate rejection of a smothering marriage and life in a “doll’s house” shocked theatergoers of the late nineteenth century and opened new horizons for playwrights and their audiences. However, daring social themes are only one aspect of Ibsen’s power as a dramatist. A Doll’s House demonstrates his ability to create realistic dialogue and a suspenseful flow of events, and bring to life the psychologically penetrating characterizations that make the struggles of his dramatic personages utterly convincing. Here is a deeply absorbing dramatic work as readable as it is eminently playable.

銀行の頭取に出世した堅気な弁護士ヘルメルと妻ノーラとは、仲むつまじい夫婦であった。だがノーラには、夫が病に冒されたときに、借用証書に偽りの署名までして内緒で工面した借金があった。その借金の相手はヘルメルによって職場をくびにされると、秘密の暴露とひきかえにノーラに、復職を夫に働きかけるよう迫る。スキャンダルは危うく未然に回避されるが......ノーラは決然として子どもと家を捨てて出ていく。人間の心のうちを描く近代劇の出発点となった記念碑的作品。