First published in 1879, A Doll's House rewrote the rules of drama. Henrik Ibsen's biographer, Halvdan Koht, wrote that the play "exploded like a bomb into contemporary life... [pronouncing] a death sentence on accepted social ethics" and its author was decried as "an obscene defiler of the purity of the home". Before Ibsen, tragedies examined the lives of the aristocracy and upper classes, but A Doll's House was the first serious play to be written in prose about ordinary people in everyday situations. The plot revolves around Nora Helmer who is married to Torvald, an ambitious banker. Initially, the couple seem ideally matched, but as a consequence of blackmail Nora is forced to re-examine her life along with her role as a frivolous, scatter-brained wife.