Preview

A Doll's House Women Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1773 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Doll's House Women Essay
The role of women in family life and society has long been a controversial topic. The play A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen brings this controversial subject to light from a feministic point of view. The play is focused on a man named Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora. In general, Torvald is very diminishing towards his wife, saying she cannot possibly understand things like work, finances, and anything other than typical housewife tasks. However, a while ago Nora went behind her husband’s back and committed forgery in order to take out a loan to help Torvald when he was ill. Nora tries to spare her husband’s pride by keeping this from him since he is supposed to be the provider for his wife and their children; however, between Torvald’s belittling …show more content…

Nora tells her friend Kristine, “…with all his masculine pride—how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would just ruin our relationship. Our beautiful, happy home would never be the same” (Ibsen 794). A woman financially helping her husband us unacceptable, which restricts what women can and cannot do. Further into the conversation, Torvald proceeds to question Nora about whether or not she has had any macaroons today—she has had some even though he has asked her not to eat them because they are bad for her health—she replies, “You know I could never think of going against you” (Ibsen 788). It becomes clear early in the play that Nora is beneath Torvald in their relationship. Additionally, according to Toril Moi—a award winning literary critic— Torvald's control and Nora's thoughtlessness work together to theatricalize both themselves and each other in various idealist scenarios of female sacrifice and male rescue (Moi 257), which is a prime example of feminism and unjust gender roles. Moving forward to Act II, Nora is begging her husband to rehire Krogstad—an old friend of her husband that committed a forgery crime and is also the man Nora secretly took out her loan from—so he doesn’t tell her husband about the loan and her forgery. Torvald quickly becomes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    At the start of the play, Nora is seen as a caring mother and wife; however, this is an affectation of joy and contentment. In reality, her true character is held enslaved by her tyrannical husband. Her demeaning nicknames, “skylark” and “little song bird” truly are a metaphor for her mental and physical imprisonment to the societal roles of being a mother and wife. Nora accepts this captivity, however, evident through her own use of her nicknames throughout the story in order to pry money from her husband and follow all of his commands. At this point, the audience begins to sense superficiality and materialistic behavior from Nora, but this view soon changes as Ibsen reveals his realistic writing style. Deceit is first seen as she consumes macaroons secretively, in spite of her husband’s disapproval. She begins to reassure to Torvald that she, “should not think of going against (his) wishes’,”(Ibsen,1.4) and is dishonest once again when telling him Chritine Linde and Dr. Rank brought her the desserts. This fraudulence continues as she searches for a way to hastily pay a debt which her financially independent husband is unaware of. She hides the truth from her husband in the same manner she participates in a game of “hide-and-seek” with her…

    • 2454 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Part 1: Many women in the late 19th century wanted their freedom and wanted to become someone without their husbands’ consent. Women in Norway, were only useful to amuse their husband, and take care of their kids. In the play “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, we see how that plays out onto the play between Nora and her husband Helmer. What was a women’s role in the late 19th century in Norway? The text lead me to ask the question about a women’s role, because people in the late 19th century had to take care of their kids, and follow the social norms of women in Norway. Nora on the other hand, fled from her husband and wanted to find her true identity. Addressing the question about a women’s role helps us create the character Nora, and understand…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora Helmer, the main protagonist of Scandinavian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), has always been depicted, as an exuberant novelty item, whose only purpose is to serve the important male figures in her life. This especially pertains to her father and her husband. These male figures move around Nora’s realm with indirect disregard to Nora’s true nature, desires, and abilities. Although this facade seems to be built on solid ground in the beginning, we see the consequential subtle, but progressive, crumbling of a falsified foundation. In the end, Nora, the once veiled unseasoned girl becomes a woman waiting to grasp the horizons of experience…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nora made the right decision to leave a man who controlled and treated her like an object. While talking seriously to her husband for the first time, Nora admits, “I’ve been your doll-wife” (Ibsen 1120), which she used to show how he controlled her every move. Aside from being a “doll-wife” (Ibsen1120), Nora also confesses, “You arranged everything the way you wanted it, so that I simply took over your taste in everything” (Ibsen 1120). All these things demonstrate how since the beginning of their marriage, Torvald controlled Nora’s everything.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a male-dominated world, women have to struggle against society-imposed identities. Within A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, Nora undergoes a journey of realization, leading her to believe that she must discover who she really is, not who society wants her to be. Nora begins the play portraying the image of a “trophy wife”, but as the play continues, she transforms into her own individual. Through Nora’s cognizance that she has been pretending to be someone she wasn’t, Ibsen displays that women, in a patriarchal society, must struggle with stereotypes, while still trying to be who they truly are.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Feminism today is very different from what it was in 1879. Throughout the play, the female characters exemplify feministic characteristics that made the play controversial for its time. The first example of feminism is when Nora’s husband, Tovald, treats her as if she isn’t human. He calls her pet names and dehumanizes her. Torvald says, “Come, come; my little lark mustn’t droop her wings like that. What? Is my squirrel in the sulks?” (Ibsen 2358). There is no excuse for the way Torvald treats Nora. This phrase sets up the character and his relationship with his wife. While some suggest it is the structure of the home itself that plays into the doll house effect, most critics will argue that Torvald's demeaning nature taken with Nora is the reason she leaves her family at the end of the play. Another feministic characteristic seen in the play is when Torvald tells Nora that her only duty is to take care of her husband and children… “Nora: "What do you consider my most sacred duties?" Torvald: “your duties to your husband and your children.” Nora: "I have other duties just as sacred. […] Duties to myself” Torvald: “Before all else you are a wife and mother” (Ibsen 2402). During Ibsen’s time, the idea that a woman may have more worth other than homemaking and being a mother was outrageous and looked down upon. Men did not see women as anything more than a maid and caretaker of men and children and therefore Torvald…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the situations very poorly in this play by keeping everything a secret. The way that women were viewed in this time period created a barrier that she could not overcome. The decisions that had the potential to be good were otherwise molded into appalling ones. Women should have just as many rights as men and should not be discriminated by gender; but they should also accept consequences in the same way without a lesser or harsher punishment.…

    • 3445 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a doll's house summary

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The theme that women have a low status in society is one of the main aspects of the play. Though Nora is economically advantaged in comparison to the play’s other female characters, she still lives a difficult life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriage’s dominant partner. Torvald issues decrees and condescends to Nora, and Nora must hide her loan from him because she…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was first performed in 1879 when European society strictly enforced male supremacy over women. The play consists of a middle class couple, Torvald and Nora Helmer, who seem to have the perfect marriage, three children, and a pending respectable income with the husband’s recent promotion to bank manager. Torvald treats Nora like a doll, manicuring and manipulating her looks and actions. Although his controlling demeanor is concealed by innocent nicknames and monetary allowances, the affects of his domination over his wife are eventually exposed. At the end of the play, Nora leaves in a haze of anguish after her husband fails to defend her when she is accused of legal fraud in a loan she had taken to save Torvald’s life. Some people say that Nora was right to leave and flee the control of her demeaning husband to seek her individuality, but many argue the contrary when considering what she left behind, what she could have demanded and changed at home, and what she would face as an independent woman defending herself in a 19th century, male biased society. Although some may assertively argue that Nora was right to leave her home, others suggest the she was not right to leave considering the abandonment of her children, the responsibility she could have demanded from her husband, and the prejudice against independent women in her society.…

    • 1908 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Torvald Helmer Dominance

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When you look at doll houses you see the perfect little family inside, the perfect little chairs, and the perfect little scene for what family life should be, but in the play “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen you see a different picture with the two main characters Torvald Helmer and Nora Helmer, who are husband and wife. At the beginning of the play the audience sees the first scene between Torvald and his wife about money; Torvald is depicted as a stereotypical man from the 19th Century. Torvald shows his dominance over his wife Nora, when he questions her about being out and spending money. Torvald is the manly man and he wants total control over everything that happens in his home, and he shows his dominance and control when he says, “[b]ut…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll's House Essay

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I can never really trust my eyes to tell me the unguarded truth if someone wishes for the truth to be concealed. The line between what is real or not real is often misconceived, especially in a society such as the one in A Doll’s House. Henrik Ibsen, the writer of this enthralling play, intended to show just how obscure the lines were in Victorian society. A Doll’s House is a story about how a young woman is so dazed by her society’s expectations that she doesn’t even realize the role deception plays in her life to help her appear as the perfect wife, when in reality she aspires to become her own person.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, in a global world, there is no difference between gender roles. Women became a more independent on their life. Writer Henrik Ibsen’s “Dollhouse” gave an overview about a beginning of feminisms in the 19th century. “Nora” who was the main role of the play transcend her character from doll house for free women constantly up to the end of the play. It shows the trend of independence in women’s life. Her action of borrowed the money from Krogstad to save her husband's’s life was clearly explained about the protest of feminism. She wanted to become a more responsible towards her family, which normally plays by the husband in the family. Nora changed her role through borrowed money, and arranged to pay deb which express her leading responsibility…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen

    • 7391 Words
    • 30 Pages

    During the late nineteenth century, women were enslaved in their gender roles and certain restrictions were enforced on them by a male dominant culture. Every woman was raised believing that they had neither self-control nor self-government but that they must yield to the control of a stronger gender. John Stuart Mill wrote in his essay, “The Subjection of Women”, that women were, “wholly under the role of men and each private being under the obligation of disobedience to the man with whom she has associated her destiny”. This issue of gender roles in the society propelled to the production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House—a controversial play of a woman who disregards conventional norms of the society. It displays how lies and deceptions could destroy relationships and the need of every individual to possess self-identity.…

    • 7391 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his play entitled, “A Doll’s House,” the creator Isben exemplified the theme of women and the role they played in society. In this play, you should pay great attention to the lack of inequality between women and men. How may you ask? Torvald, who was Nora’s husband, believed that women had simple, but specific duties to tend to. He believed that it was a women’s duty to not only honor and serve their husbands; but, also to raise the children with manners and instill pivotal lessons that would be needed as they transitioned through life. Nevertheless, as the play continued, the sacrificial role of women continued to become stronger,…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Doll's House Women

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the play, A Doll House, Nora is having trouble identifying herself, and this reveals how men and women were unequal in that time. During that time, men usually had more power than women. Women were expected to be at home and be a good wife or mother. Men didn’t expect women to run a big business or big loans. During that time, women were struggling to have equal rights.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics