A Doll's House Essay

In 1943 Clare Boothe Luce, who served as a United States congresswomen from 1943-1947, once said “Because I am a women, I must make unusual efforts to succeed, if I fail, no one will say “She does not have what it takes” they will say, Women do not have what it take”. This quote was said in or around 1944, which is about 43 years after the Victorian era ended in 1901 in Europe. This quote by, Clare, really showcases how even in 43 years, countries still downed played woman’s ability. In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen utilizes the character Nora and many motifs and such as family obligation of women, to showcase the disparaging role of women during the Victorian era. During the Victorian era, women had no rights and couldn’t carry out any of the basic duties, unless her husband or father gave his consent. Ibsen really captures and magnifies such an experience by creating such characters like Nora and her husband, Helmer. During the Victorian era, women only had one job, and that was take
Ibsen illustrates this with Nora, when Nora tries to leave her husband because she is not happy and needs to find out who she is as a women, yet Helmer does not make it easy for her. Ibsen really shows the male chauvinist characteristic of Torvald, when Nora tries to leave him and he says “Why can’t you understand your place in your own home?” (Ibsen 111) and “So you’ll run out like this on your holiest duties” (Ibsen 111). From these statements of Torvald ,we con collect that Ibsen is making direct commentary to how women were treated and belittled during the Victorian era. Women were supposed to have “roles” in the house. If women did not follow the “traditional” role that was essentially forced upon them, they would be considered to be “disgrace” to their family. We see this when Helmer asked Nora, if she was just going to up and leave her