A Doll's House Gender Roles

It’s a women's role to look good all the time, decorate the house, clean, care for the children and please the husband. Although in this book Nora has very little responsibilities because the maid cleans and the nanny takes care of her children, which clearly shows that Nora is more of a possession to her husband like a doll. Not only is Nora Torvald’s doll but the kids are Nora’s dolls too for example when Nora ask the nanny for permission to hold her own daughter she then calls her “sweet little baby doll” (page 261, line 31). This doesn’t make Torvald a bad husband or Nora a bad mother; it’s just that there gender based actions represent the 19th century

Matthew Rinehart Professor Christy Sewell Introduction to Literature 22 November 2014 A Dollhouse and Fences Henrik Ibsen is, undoubtedly, one of the most celebrated playwrights of the twentieth century. Many are the reasons why his plays get much critical acclamation from all across.

In relation to today’s societal standards, it is easy to judge Torvald for how he treated Nora, however, his behavior is not very outrageous given the time period. Ibsen created Torvald in the image of a typical Victorian era male. Torvald is a product of his society, the same way Nora is. It can be argued he is equally as imprisoned. At the beginning the play, Nora seems completely happy. She encourages Torvald’s teasing, speaks with excitement about the extra

Gender stereotypes can have many different effects, but they are oftentimes negative. Utilizing it as a basis, society can create impossibly high standards. Failure of these standards evokes a sense of guilt within people. Such results stem from a bigger societal problem, which is that people live in a patriarchy—a system in which men hold the majority of powerful social and professional positions that shape society. According to Deborah Tannen’s “But What Do You Mean?”, the speech of women and men frequently creates conflict between the two sexes. Likewise in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, Jim Burden perceives women solely through his patriarchal view of life. Lastly, through “Kim Wilde,” Marjane Satrapi reveals that women are often bound within the gender roles set by society. While many lenses can add to one’s perspective, gender has a stronger influence; therefore, people must actively attempt to view life beyond the single lens of gender.

In the story “Doll House” Nora had been previously scolded by her husband and finally informed Torvald, “I’m saying we’ve never sat down seriously and got to the bottom of things” (936 MLM). Nora was done being treated as a child by Torvald. He shielded her from the world, like her father, and would never let her form an opinion stray from his own. He wouldn’t let her talk of the serious matters in life, from morality to simple decisions with money, that had to do with being her own person with her own mind. This led Nora to leave and find herself as Torvald would not let her just be with his grown instinct that love from a husband must have a controlling nature over the wife in the marriage, not an equality between the

To Nora’s surprise, his response was as follows: “you’ve wrecked all my happiness – ruined my whole future. […] I’ll be swept down miserably into the depths on account of a featherbrained woman” (Ibsen 901). To Nora, Torvald is self-centered, but he has no knowledge of how to react besides protecting his reputation and appearance. With one of the few factors, that defines the stature of a man, lost, Torvald becomes emasculated. The ideas of sociologist, Aaron Devor, regarding traditional views of gendered constructs help to explain Torvald’s perspective. He states that men capture “the hierarchical and competitive masculine thirst for power” (Devor 673) and are “generally concerned with egoistic dominance” (Devor 672), which are qualities society enforced on Torvald. His role as the head of a household and stable family man is now tarnished, none of which is his own fault, but that of the society he is held a victim of in that time period.

Can you imagine a relationship where power controls the household? A husband is usually the one that brings home the money and therefore makes all the decisions in the family. Although sometimes men can push the limits and act out of conduct. Ibsen stated, "A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men." With these assumptions, women are forced to find their own identity and go against societies view. In Ibsen's play, "Doll House," he uses symbolism, characterization of both Nora and Torvald, and irony to demonstrate the gender roles in that time of society and that breaking away to find your own identity is the only way out.

Torvald displays a character as the alpha male in the play. He wants everything to go his way, which does not allow Nora to have the chance voice out her emotions. In the article, Gender Roles Behavior and

Phylogeny versus misogyny, arguable one of the greatest binary oppositions in a work of literature, is present in Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 Norwegian play A Doll’s House. The title itself suggests a misogynist view, while the work mainly consists of feminist ideology, as Ibsen was a supporter of the female as an independent, rather than a dependent on a male. Nora knew herself that her husband did not fully respect her, and this became a major conflict in the play as Nora progressively became more self-reliant in the play. Ibsen created Nora to give an example for all women, showing that they are more than what their husbands make of them. The misogynistic views in the play can be seen through Nora’s husband Torvald, due to the fact that he

During the time Ibsen is writing about and criticizing, every woman was undermined and oppressed by everyman. It can be argued that the men themselves are also victims as, if every man is above every woman as described by Templeton, the men are not intentionally doing this as it is what society has dictated for them. Furthermore, if every woman is enduring a struggle against every man, every man cannot be at fault, but the society that carved the idea the men are superior as Torvald is not aware of his own misogyny which is seen through his quote on men’s

In “A Doll’s House”, Torvald and Nora each have a unique role in their marriage. Torvald treats Nora as his little doll, or plaything, while Nora treats him as the man of the house who has the authority to do anything he wants. These ideas form because the society within the play does not allow much freedom for women. According to this society and culture, a women’s role is depicted by the man she is with, the female character’s all exemplify Nora’s assertion that women have to sacrifice a lot more than men. In this play, Nora, Mrs. Linde, and the maid all hold sacrificial roles depicted by the society they

In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, there are three major references in the play that explain Ibsen’s thoughts on both gender and societal roles for when of the past and present; these three references are to dolls, to animals such as skylarks and squirrels, and to children. Nearing the end of the story, Nora reveals that she feels similarly towards Torvald as she did to her father: “But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Papa’s doll child; and here the children have been my dolls” (67) Ibsen’s reference to Nora being a doll demonstrates the limited lives of women during this time; it shows that women weren’t meant to have their own lives; a man should control them in order to survive. Throughout the play, Torvald continuously refers to Nora as his “little squirrel” or his “little skylark” (2). Ibsen uses these references to symbolize the inferiority of women and superiority of men during the 19th century. Similarly, Torvald as refers to Nora as being like a child, also pointing to the fact that societal roles during that time meant that women were seen as helpless without the guidance of a man.

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen demonstrates gender role stereotypes placed on men and women throughout the play. These labels placed on the characters seem to foreshadow those in real life. Ibsen uses a metaphor of forgery and the power of money to bring what men and women “natural” roles are to the forefront. The issue of gender equality in society and marriage is brought out before the play even begins. When Ibsen decided to make the title A Doll House, he gave away the hidden meaning of how the characters in the play will act like dolls and perform social scripts.

Understanding this is essential to understanding the play holistically, as the patriarchal society of Norway in the late 1800s bound not only women, but also men to the designated societal roles they were given. In Nora and Torvald’s cases, this was that of a doting wife and successful husband. But even in Act One, Nora’s true personality shines through as she defies her role in small yet meaningful ways, by eating macaroons and then lying to Torvald about it. She also swears, apparently “just for the pleasure” she gets from the minor rebellion. As the drama unfolds, and Nora’s awareness of the falseness her current life expands, her need for subversion escalates, coming to a peak with her walking out on her husband and children to find her own

Dolls represent the way women were treated back then, the way women are seen as and behave. Women behaved in such a way because men and society molded them in that direction. Dolls have lifeless lives without someone that interacts with them; in the play we can see how Nora and Christine represent those dolls in society. Christine, a widower, is a doll because she is lifeless at first because nothing motivates her to work or do something about her life; she doesn’t have anyone to work or support for. That’s why she is lifeless, but as soon as she agrees to go back with Krogstad, she feels that she had “Someone to work for and live for- a home to bring comfort into” (65). She needed someone to string her. Nora has also a lifeless life just because of the idea that her father and husband run her life for her; decide everything for her as if she is a little child, “I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child” (77). She is influenced and is being treated like a doll, a little child, from her “male figures”. Nora did not have a mind of her own, and didn’t approach everyday life situation just like every other women in that era. She is being sheltered like a child; she is sheltered like a doll would be protected by a child. Ibsen portrayed the idea of women being treated like dolls through the title of