The play questions the way husbands perceive and treat their wives, responds to women's masculine attitudes and how these factors have shaped relations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Torvald wants his wife to be as comfortable as possible. However, in return, he wants his wife to become his little “little lark, your doll, whom you would henceforth treat with double care, because she was so brittle and fragile” (Ibsen 78). “A Doll's House” centers around two individuals living together as husband and wife, Trervold and Nora, but also focuses on family life, work and societal expectations. Because of these expectations, Nora had to give away the borrowed money, as a secret for a long time, even though the money was supposed to be spent on improving her own health. “It was a time when it was ethically wrong for a woman to borrow without her husband’s consent.” Nora, for her part, wants to be evaluated, not on her obedience, but on what she has done to improve the well-being of the family.