Research Paper On A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is a piece of literature written as a play. It portrays the stereotypical gender roles in society of the late 1800s. The main character, Nora Helmer, is a housewife that comes at her husband’s beck and call. He has the ultimate power over her, controlling her like a marionette. With her controlling husband, the assumptions of society, and her childhood friend Christine planning out her life, Nora makes the drastic decision to leave her husband and children. When she was just a mere child growing into a woman, Nora’s father treated her like she was his property. He saw her as a doll that he could control and dress up. Upon marrying Torvald Helmer, she was simply moved from being a doll in her father’s house to one in her husband’s. Torvald expects Nora to listen to his every command. He does not respect her as a woman, saying things like, “The child shall have her way” (Ibsen 59). She is his loving and adoring wife, yet he treats her like she is an unimportant burden. The “love” between Nora and Torvald was very conditional and unwelcoming. This is the main thing that pushed Nora to her decision of becoming an independent woman.
You could not be your own person and have your own beliefs. If you were an unmarried woman, then you would work in a non-strenuous position while you were searching for a husband. Back in that era people did not marry for love, but instead for money. During the play Torvald claims,”That is like a woman!” (Ibsen 12). This shows that women back then were daubed as irresponsible and that they could not be trusted with important matters. People may have pretended that they loved each other, when in reality wealth is what everyone craved. Nora Helmer, however, longed to be with a man that she loved and loved her unconditionally in