The Glass Menagerie Research Paper

Perception of Women During The Nineteenth-Century: “A Doll’s House” and “The Glass Menagerie” What is “Woman”? What could - indeed should she become? Such questions preoccupied an array of social actors during the nineteen-century and the turn of the twentieth-century throughout the modernizing world. Although “A Doll’s House” and “The Glass Menagerie” were written in different eras and about women of diverse cultures, both plays explored the way in which the role of women is depicted in a patriarchal society. In each play, the authors explain the struggles and difficulties women faced in defining their own identities separate from that of a wife, and mother. Nora and Amanda’s identities were defined by the differences between desire,
He stated that the problem which women faces were that the family was rigidly defined and patriarchal (Murphy). However, Ibsen and Williams through their plays demonstrates their concerns that women have the right to develop their own individuality; this was revealed through the story, when Nora decided to leave her home and children behind. “Then I have better try to get me some sense, Torvald. I have other duties just as sacred; duties of myself” (Ibsen 914). Amanda, on the other hand, in “The Glass Menagerie” encourages her daughter, Laura, to find her identity and not just the one planned by society. “Is that the future that we have mapped out for ourselves? I swear it’s the only alternative I can think of” (Williams 928)). Women were not being treated as equal with men, neither by their husbands nor society. For women to be a good wife and mother, she needs to find her true
Furthermore, with education women would become esteemed companions for their husbands, and not just sensual love objects, and also wives who are respected by their husbands as intellectual equals, and accordingly granted equal rights and responsibilities in marriage (Kersten). In the play, “The Glass Menagerie” females had to know the art of communication to entertain their gentlemen caller “We talk about things of importance going on in the world. Was nothing coarse or common or vulgar” (Williams 924). Nora, On the other hand, was not respected by her husband; he treated her like a child because of her limited knowledge. “You talk like a child; you don’t understand anything about the world you live in. However, Weininger’s allegation is that providing women with access to education would be a mistake because they would treat it as “Fashion” and as an opportunity to “Ensnare a man”