Norway 1879

Borrowing money without her husband's consent
In 1879, a wife was not legally permitted to borrow money without her husband's consent, so Nora must resort to deception to borrow the money she so desperately needs. Ibsen always denied that he believed in women's rights, stating instead that he believed in human rights.


Events in History at the Time of the Play

Norway in the nineteenth century. Norway was troubled by its share of foreign policy crises and domestic concerns throughout the 1800s. The century had started well enough. Norway was one of the few European states in which the French Revolution of 1789 did not inspire the masses to demand new liberties. While other countries experienced tumultuous times, Norway busily reaped the benefits of supplying exports and shipping services to any country involved in the wars taking place elsewhere. In the summer of 1807, after the British towed home nearly every ship in the Norwegian fleet (which was supplying Britain's enemies), Norway was forced to rethink its foreign policy. The country reluctantly allied itself with Britain's enemy, the French leader Napoleon.

The Norwegian economy, which relied so heavily on the seaports, suffered terribly when the British put a naval blockade in place. A combination of factors eventually dissolved the fifty-three-year union between Norway and Denmark; in 1814 Denmark ceded Norway to the Swedish king. Norway was thus united with Sweden in 1880, approximately the time in which the play is set; the union would continue until 1905.

The period of union witnessed the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Norwegians, especially to the United States. As a result of its rugged geography and the trend toward emigration, Norway remained sparsely settled and predominantly rural. In 1850 only 163,000 of Norway's 1,400,000 people lived in urban areas. The population distribution created a small-town mentality that Ibsen loathed and examined repeatedly in his writings.


Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play