A+Doll's+House+&+The+Tarantella

One of the motives in Henrik Ibsen's //A Doll's House// is that of the [|tarantella], an Italian folk dance that Nora performs on Christmas night. This dance express one of the play's central themes: the idea that an uncomfortable truth, though it might cause an authentic pain and be misinterpreted as a deadly poison, which in fact may be the only medicine that could heal the marriage of Tolvard and Nora.

(Ibsen 2.82-2.83)
Comments like this from Torvald demonstrate that the Helmers are in a lopsided marriage.