The enforcement of specific gender roles by social standards in 19th century married life proved stifling. Women were objects to perform those duties for which their gender was thought to be created: to remain compliant, to readily accept any task, and complete it “with grace” (Ibsen 213). Instead, men were the absolute monarchs of their respective homes and all that lived there. In Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, Nora is subjected to moral degradation due to her familial role, her husband's constant condescension, and his perceived subordination. Ibsen diminishes the role of the housewife through direction, diminutive nicknames, and through Nora's interaction with her morally supreme husband, Torvald. Nora puts on a façade of naivety and frivolity, deteriorating her character from a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the safety of home and, ironically, her own sanity. A Doll's House's depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th-century housewife and the social pressures placed on her shows a woman's gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald's progressive infantilization of Nora and pressure on Nora to adhere to social norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century social standards and their oppressive nature leads to the gradual degradation of her character that destroys any semblance of family and identity. Nora's role in her family is initially described as one of background, often "laughing quietly and happily to herself" (Ibsen 148) due to her isolation not only in space, but also in person. Ibsen's character rarely ventures from the main series of the drawing... to the center of the card... son's wife transforms into that of a woman desperate to preserve the illusion of the perfect home. To preserve her sanity, Nora was essentially forced to free herself from stereotypical 19th-century family constraints. Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, depicts the entrapment of an average housewife and the social pressures on her. The show shows his gradual descent into what would be considered "madness" in that specific time period. Ibsen illustrates Nora's fall from social grace as a result of her desire to represent herself as an individual and no longer be inhibited by the social norms imposed upon her. Nora's oppression, spurred on by Torvald, society, and herself, has led to the complete degradation of her character that has destroyed any semblance of the illusion of her perfect family and her forced identity as a 19th-century housewife..