For the record, I'm setting this play in Christiania (which is Olso today), 1879.
1. Christania
In 1878, Christiania was expanded to include Frogner, Majorstuen, Torshov, Kampen and Vålerenge. This expanded the population to113,000 citizens. Source
2. The Value of Money
Nora borrowed 4,800 krone in 1879. That is 309,120 krone in 2010. THAT is $56,969 in 2010.
The average man in Norway in 1879 made 656 krone a year. That’s 42,246 krone in 2010. THAT is $7, 751 in 2010.
The average man in Torvald’s industry in 1879 made 1536 krone a year. That’s 83481 krone in 2010. THAT is $15,311 in 2010.
Sources: Historical Krone to Modern Krone, Modern Krone to Modern USD, Historical Norwegian Wages
3. Women’s Rights
Women won very few rights before Ibsen wrote A Doll House, but the movement was starting to gather steam, as evidenced by the formation of The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights in 1884, only five years after the play was written.
1854: Women won equal inheritance rights.
1864: The right to be considered an independent adult IF you were unmarried was awarded. This allowed unmarried women adult women to control their own assets. Married women did not get this right until 1888, nine years after A Doll House.
1870: Women are allowed to become teachers.
4. Christmas
In the 900s, King Haakon I decided that the heathen custom of drinking Jul (Yule) was to be moved to December 25th, in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. http://www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/traditions-Norway.htm
It is a tradition in Norway to gather the family and make baskets of colorful paper to hang on the Christmas tree. Source
The “Nisse” is thought of as short and stocky with a long grey or white beard and a knitted red cap. He wears dark knickers and a shirt and vest or a sweater. He brings children Christmas gifts. Families in Norway have a tradition that one of their members masquerade as the “nisse” by putting on a mask and a costume on Christmas Eve. The nisse with his sack knocks on the door. He asks the question: "Good evening, are there any good children here?" Most children will say: "Yes, I am good". Source
5. Health
The 1800s saw many advances in the field of medicine. Bacterium were introduced as a theory by Louis Pasteur and carried on by Joseph Lister, who introduced the sterilization of surgical instruments and washing of hands as ways to prevent disease. Surgery became much less dangerous.
The nervous system took a huge spotlight in the 19th century; nerves and the brain were tested and experimented on thoroughly by Charles Bell, François Magendie, Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens, Carl Wernicke, Eduard Fritsch, Gustav Hitzig, and Johannes Müller. Phrenology, the completely debunked “science” of the way bumps on your head affect your personality was also very popular. Source
The Industrial Revolution also changed the rate at which people got ill. Smallpox, typhus and tuberculosis were endemic, and cholera alarmingly epidemic. Overcrowding combined with poor sanitation and often grinding poverty to leave many people vulnerable to the latest outbreak of anything nasty. Source
6. Sexuality
In 1841, Lord Acton published The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Youth in England. This book became influential in learned circles in Norway. Lord Acton was a specialist in diseases of the urinary tract who advocated a program of sexual abstinence before marriage, suppression of onanism (masturbation), and rigid control of sexual activity in marriage as the means of preventing inevitable mental and physical deterioration caused by excessive semen loss. This pseudoscientific doctrine reinforced the prevalent belief that sexuality was harmful to manly virtues and could lead to the degeneration of society.
The Norwegian Dr. August Koren was a dedicated follower of Lord Acton’s philosophy. He became an active member of Sedelighetsforeningen (Moral Guardians) and fought energetically against public prostitution in Norway. He had his work cut out for him; during the second half of the 1800s, a virtually uncontrollable epidemic of venereal disease was spread by prostitutes in Norway, particularly in Christiania (later to be named Oslo). In 1880, twelve hundred cases of gonorrhea were reported, which indicates that 4 percent of the male population between the ages of 15 and 60 years old caught the disease in one year. At the same time, 1 percent of the adult male population was infected by syphilis. It was at this time (1881) that Henrik Ibsen wrote his play Ghosts, which deals exactly with the effects of inherited syphilis. Peculiarly enough, the play was poorly received and not really performed until long after that. The population of Christiania had grown enormously during the eighteenth century, and prostitution grew right along with it. The debate over prostitution grew heated by the end of the century, and many authors and members of the arts participated in it. Source
7. Religion
Norway was a protestant Christian nation in 1879 and had been since 1536, when the Reformation reached the country. Around the time A Doll’s House was written, religious tolerance was slowly making its way into Norway. Previously banned, Atheism and Judaism were made legal in the middle of the century. Source
8. Education
It was reported that Norwegian men of the time were well-educated (by English standards) as all men could read and write. It was very expensive for men to go to University. At University, there were a lot of tests for the students to take. Geography and history were emphasized in higher-level learning, though the English decided they were lacking in “gentlemanly bearing.” Women, of course, did not receive education until years after A Doll’s House was written. Source
In 1870, unitary schools, schools that educated children of all social classes together, were established in Norway. Teachers were usually left in charge to make their own rules and decisions, and as a result, difficult students were often separated from the “normal” ones. Source
9. Art
Norway’s artistic culture really took off in the mid 19th century with Johan Christian Dahl, called the “father of Norwegian landscape painting” and continued through to later half with Kitty Kielland, Harriet Backer, Frits Thaulow, and Christian Krohg. Source
10. Ibsen’s Take
Ibsen himself wrote about his thoughts on Norwegian culture in relation to his writing A Doll’s House. What better source of information about the world of the play than the thoughts of the playwright himself? The following are excerpts from “Notes for the Modern Tragedy” written in October 1878by Ibsen as he was writing A Doll’s House.
“…in practical life the woman is judged by man’s law, as though she were not a woman but a man.”
“A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and whit a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”
“A mother in modern society, like certain insects who go away and die when she has done her duty in the propagation of the race.”
Source: Ibsen, Henrik. "Notes for the Modern Tragedy." The Bedford Introduction to Drama. comp. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
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