Page "A Doll's House" Paragraph 21

A Doll's House was based on the life of Laura Kieler ( maiden name Laura Smith Petersen ).

She was a good friend of Ibsen.

Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor, with the most important exception being the forged signature that was the basis of Nora's loan.

In real life, when Victor found out about Laura's secret loan, he divorced her and had her committed to an asylum.

Two years later, she returned to her husband and children at his urging, and she went on to become a well-known Danish author, living to the age of 83.

In the play, Nora left Torvald with head held high, though facing an uncertain future given the limitations women faced in the society of the time.

Ibsen wrote A Doll's House at the point when Laura Kieler had been committed to the asylum, and the fate of this friend of the family shook him deeply, perhaps also because Laura had asked him to intervene at a crucial point in the scandal, which he did not feel able or willing to do.

Instead, he turned this life situation into an aesthetically shaped, successful drama.

Kieler eventually rebounded from the shame of the scandal and had her own successful writing career while remaining discontent with sole recognition as " Ibsen's Nora " years afterwards.