A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen was once quoted saying "A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view."("Author Commentary" 296). This is evidence that Henrik Ibsen was aware of the male dominance that was abundant in the society of his time period. Ibsen's short story "A Doll's House" deals with gender biases and male dominance. Women are looked at in a diminutive matter, and males are considered to be far superior because society thought male to be the better gender. "A Doll's House" shows how the bias influenced Ibsen's writing. Male dominance, as a major theme in "A Doll's House", can be seen in Torvald's biases towards woman, Torvald and Nora's relationship, and the sacrificial role of women in general. Ibsen uses Torvald Helmer's biases toward women as a medium for reflecting the way society then viewed women. Torvald believes a wife's role is to beautify the home. It was a wife's job to not only keep the house aesthetically pleasing, but also to maintain a certain level of personal beauty at all times. As far as he is concerned, there is no other role for women in societ
According to Torvald a proper woman should not work outside the home. Torvald issues decrees and condescends to Nora, and Nora must hide her loan from him because she knows Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, had helped save his life. Which gives a slight hint of Torvald's wanting to control Nora. " He makes her beg and promise to perform for him before he doles out any money to her. Despite Nora's great love for her children, shown by her interaction with them, and her great fear of corrupting them causes her to leave them. Furthermore, she must work in secret to pay off her loan because in 1879 a wife was not legally permitted to borrow money without her husband's consent ("Historical Context" 113). " Though Nora is economically more privileged in comparison to the play's other female characters, she nevertheless leads a difficult life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriage's dominant partner. Linde or any woman wanting a job must not have kids. Torvald calls Nora by her name only when he is scolding her. Even when she tells him she is leaving him, he says she cannot go. The Helmers' nanny had to abandon her own child to support herself by working first as Nora's caretaker, then as the caretaker of Nora's children.
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Acceptance Essays
