How A Doll’s House Sparked A Societal Revolution

There’s a lot of talk today about ‘taking a political stand’ or ‘being social justice warriors’ in your writing. And some coaches and authors advise new writers to stay away from such things.

But the fact of the matter is, Social Justice Stories CAN be hugely successful and change the world too, as long as they’re done right.

Never underestimate the power changing the conversation.

This is exactly what Herrick’s Ibsens’ A Doll’s House did.

Back in 1879, when it was written, women were little more than property. Even animals had more rights as shown by the fact that animal cruelty laws were passed decades before spousal or child abuse laws.

Few people back then thought that was odd in any way.

But Ibsen recognized that it was odd. So he crafted the story of Nora. A woman who took out a loan on her own (illegal for women, but not for men) and had her world blow up because of it.

Nora did it to ‘save’ her husband. And she expected him to be grateful. When instead, he treated her like a wayward child, she realized she wasn’t a partner, but a slave.

She told him as much and slammed the door.

End Story.

Well, the story might have ended there, but the ramifications didn’t. Suddenly, women all over the Western World started realizing that they didn’t even have as many rights and protections as the family dog, so activists rallied to change that.

And eventually, they did.