A Doll's House: Genre 1 key example

The Realism movement began to spread across Europe in the mid 19th century and ended around the early 20th century. This period of literary history also overlapped with Modernism, which Ibsen also worked within later in his career, though certain elements of Modernism are also present in this play. Ibsen is considered one of the founders of modernism in theater and is often referred to as the father of modern theater. His plays are contemporary to the time in which he was writing. In A Doll’s House, as well as his other plays (and in particular Ghosts, written in 1882), Ibsen provides commentary on myriad social and societal issues such as gender, family dynamics, and economic inequality.

What's more, Ibsen’s focus on gender is imbued with a feminist sensibility, even if he did not do so consciously, as he stated to the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights in 1898. A Doll’s House is an interrogative, "problem" play that sets about establishing and exploring the full truth and reality of humanity without necessarily providing a set answer. With this play, Ibsen endeavored to display the true lives of ordinary people, inviting audiences to step into a world easily recognizable as their own but without the comfort of rose-tinted glasses.