In A Doll's House, if you were a character in the story like Nora, consider how your life would be different if you lived during this story.

It is important to realise that life for women in the
nineteenth century was very different from life for women today. Ibsen really uses this
play to challenge his society's assumptions and forces his audience to look at the
restrictions and expectations with which the women of his day had to cope. At the time
of writing, the majority of middle-class European and American women were legally and
economically dependent on their husbands, and so for a woman today to be transported
through time and place into the action of this play would be an incredibly disconcerting
experience. They would not have independence first and foremost, which is something that
is rightly prized today and has been hard-earned by women. The issues that Nora
struggles with, such as not being able to spend money as she wishes, or if she does, the
need to lie about it and conceal it, would be especially difficult. In his portrayal of
Nora, Ibsen tries to show us how society of the time conspired to treat women as less
than human, as little dolls to be "played" with much as Torvald treats his wife. As such
there is a fundamental lack of recognition of women as equal human beings in their own
right.