In a sense, the play is a tragedy of the traditional society. It is a tragedy for the society represented by Torvald because that society had been confidently dealing with women in that manner which it regarded as correct and just. Now that a woman has suddenly given it a blow at almost its bases — the religion, traditional values, education, the institution of marriage, and so on — the society is facing a crisis, or a tragedy. If all the women, who are of course treated no better than this, do the same, the whole of the social system would collapse. And the impact would be basically the tragic destruction of the man's basis of happiness. The prevailing seriousness and sadness of the play: A Doll’s House has rightly been described as a tragedy. At the same time, it is also correct to call it a modern …show more content…
Nora grows in stature, and is purged by suffering. In defeat she is victorious. When everything lies in ruins around her, she emerges strong and independent; she is in the process of attaining complete maturity. At the same time, her action at the end, point s to a freer and more honest humanity in a healthier society. In this sense, she is modern, tragic heroine, and the play is precisely what it has been called, a modern tragedy. The use of Prose; Bourgeois characters: A Doll’s House is modern also in respect of its technique. Prior to Ibsen, tragedies were always written in verse. Prose was all right for comedy, but tragedy had to be in verse. Now, A Doll’s House is modern in so far as it is written in ordinary everyday prose. A Doll’s House is also modern because the characters in it belong to the ordinary middle class. Before Ibsen, tragic plays were concerned with the fate of kings and queens or princes and princesses or army generals. But all the five major characters in A Doll’s House belong to the bourgeois class. In other words, Ibsen democratized tragedy. The modern elements in the technique of the