An Analysis Of ' The Witticism ' And ' A Doll House '

Through his work of art he displayed the daily stress of women and the pressures of society and how that impacts a woman. He explains through A Doll’s House that being a woman isn’t just about tending to your family and staying compliant. Being a woman is about being an individual with views and morals and strength just like every man. He challenges the audience to think outside of their normal views. He speaks volumes through the plays ending by having Nora do exactly the opposite from what everyone woman in an 1800’s audience would do. Imagine a world where man and woman were born equal and each person’s views were respected and honored, a world in which knowledge is power and each person is encouraged to delve into the encompassing world of education. This is the world that Henrik Ibsen imagined it being, known as the father of realism, he was much wiser beyond his years. As today, although there are many other battles to be fought, we have won at least one which is woman’s rights and

Haney-Peritz attributes this to it being, “unreadable in its own time because neither men nor women readers had access to a tradition of shared context which would have made the “female meaning” of the text clear” (122). However, in 1973, “the story’s feminist thrust” (113) was illuminated and these key ideas that embody a feminist story are examined by Haney-Peritz.

In Khaled Hosseini 's A Thousand Splendid Suns, Henrik Isben 's A Doll 's House, and Kamala Markandaya 's Nectar in a Sieve, women face obstacles that disempower and silence them due to Men 's treatment of women, the societal view of women, and the objectification of women. Within the literary works analyzed this semester, disempowerment is a persisting theme that roots from the various obstacles and hardships women encounter. The woman 's ability to overcome this disempowerment is particularly challenging due to being oppressed by their peers, specifically men. Women countlessly serve as victims of verbal and physical abuse under their husbands, thus contributing to the idea of female inferiority. There are various stereotypical roles challenged between men and women in society leading to discrimination of women. The preconceived notions of women 's roles in society arise from those within society. During this time era, most of society depicts women as uneducated, essentially lacking economical and social opportunities, making the female population highly vulnerable to all types of exploitation. Nonetheless, men in these literary works display objectifying and degrading attitudes towards those of the female gender. The objectification of women notably dehumanizes the female population. Within these literary works, the authors exemplify this reality of obstacles that disempower and silence women. Though these women fight for their liberation and equality, they are victims of

A feminist lens looks at the relationships between men and women. It specifically focuses on the portrayal of women within the work of literature. It attempts to analyze how women have been affected by men and their actions. It not only works to show how women have been marginalized and suppressed by society, but also how they have been privileged. However, a “feminist lens” mustn't solely focus on femininity. It also examines the role of “masculinity” in the portrayal of men .The “feminist lens” accomplishes all of this in the pursuit of analyzing gender boundaries and norms (Delahoyde 1).

Both the 1892 short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Stetson and the 1879 Norwegian play ‘A Dolls House’ by Henrik Ibsen, explore how the female protagonists are products of and are influenced by the harsh social conventions and expectations of their time. Both protagonists are constrained by the patriarchal society and the expectations of the wife of the late 1800s. Stenson challenges the audience’s response through the use of literary techniques including symbolism, to enhance the submission of the unnamed female narrator dealing with nervous depression. Conversely, Ibsen, through the use of theatrical techniques predominately stage directions and dramatic irony, to provoke audiences discuss the women’s abandonment of her marriage and motherly duties, something that still shocks contemporary viewers today.

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

Many wifes throughout the years have endured countless amounts of persecution from their husbands, but some men take it to a whole new level. Two male authors, Henrik Ibsen and Robert Browning, brought female hardships to light in the nineteenth century. Ibsen’s 1879 play, A Doll’s House, was so controversial at the time that he was forced to write a more pleasant ending in which Nora returned after having left Torvald. Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”, written in 1842, showed the immoral perspective of a Duke who had his wife murdered merely because she did not preserve her pleasant personality singularly for him. It was influential writers such as these who eventually gave feminism a kick start. The two husbands in these stories share a vast amount of similar characteristics. Despite the fact that Torvald loved his wife, and Duke had murdered his, both of them exhibit extreme authoritative and egoistic behaviors.

Women have been devalued by men for as long as people can remember. In the past, when men were off at war, women had to work jobs and keep business functioning routinely. Filling in the gaps the men left to go off to combat was no trouble for women, but as soon as the men returned, the women had to return to the kitchen. Women are the inferior option, the substitute if the male species were to be wiped out. Women aren’t acknowledged for all they are, nor are they given the same opportunities as men. In the story, “What if Shakespeare had a sister”, Virginia Woolf discusses how incompetently women were regarded in society. Women were dispossessed of all their rights, being nothing more than a housewife, being restricted of their potential. In, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a narrative of a woman being trapped and living in a patriarchal world. In the sonnet “Quincenanera” Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses a girl growing into a woman who knows she will be treated miserably by society. As portrayed in all these stories, a theme of women being deprived of their rights. Gilman and Cofer both defend Woolf’s assertions about the contradiction of women’s depiction compared to real life because of the expectations of reproductive work, devaluation, repercussions of women being denied of their true freedom, and sexism.

In todays world it is not hard to find a woman in any role in society, however this was not always the case. In time periods previous to this, the role of women was quite different than it is in today’s world. What is now equality and power was once seclusion and degradation towards women of society. Over the course of time the role of women has changed dramatically, and the plays Antigone by Sophocles, Trifles by Susan Glaspell and The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen are great works that show how women can challenge the boundaries that were put on them by a society that was not very accepting of feminism.

On gender roles and the pressure put on women by society’s given expectations, Psychologist and writer, Cordelia Fine says “blatant, intentional discrimination against women is far from being something merely to be read about in history books.” Society has been raging psychological and emotional warfare against women, since what seems like the beginning of time. Throughout history, women have been held by the standard of men and confined to these invisible barriers, threatened to never to step outside their “role”. In both plays, Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, we get to explore this theme and the havoc it wrecks. While all the characters seem to be content with these ideologies, it eventually peaks into a stand-off between society and the women. We will explore the trials and tribulations of these women in both plays.

In life they're will always be people who will deceive you in a variety of ways and their motives will try to justify those actions. In "A Doll's House," Nora deceived Helmer in result of her selfishness and immaturity. It began with small, innocent, white lies about her consumption of macaroons into the reader's realization that Nora had lied to Helmer about the fact that she had borrowed money and more specifically that she had forged her way into borrowing money from Krogstad. Although, Nora did save Helmer from dying, it didn't make it right for Nora to keep this from him and almost costing Helmer his job.

Literary Analysis of A Doll House In A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, one of the main characters, borrows money from Krogstad, in efforts to save her husband, Helmer’s life. Nora does this unthinkable act of the era, behind Helmer’s back and keeps it a secret until Krogstad threatens Nora. In this literary work Nora, confronts a private passion of independence that ultimately conflicts with the current responsibilities of a woman in the era. Ibsen shows Nora’s character development dramatically throughout the work in which she finally realizes the “Doll House” she’s been living in.

In Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market, Laura is saved from death through the bond of Sisterhood: a female power that embodies both traditionally feminine and masculine characteristics and values. Ross Murfin’s essay “What is Feminist Criticism?” feminist criticism, in the study of literature, is described as a criticism that examines how the values and attitudes of patriarchal societies affect the portrayal and expression of women in text (186-194). French feminists have focused on analyzing the way meaning is produced and have concluded that a gender binary is formed by language (186-187). Meaning is created by what a thing is not; for example, men are men because they are not women. The gender binary determines what things are masculine and what are feminine. This essay will adopt a feminist perspective and examine the gender roles (the behaviours, expectations, characteristics and values assigned to each gender by a society’s gender binary) depicted in Goblin Market. The primary focus will be on how gender roles affect the actions and decisions made by Laura and Lizzie throughout the poem and how sisterhood, a construct that blurs the gender binary, is the means that saves Laura’s life.

In “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen was created during 1800s time period. This play helps shine a light on the gender roles of the 1800s while also creating a twist that was uncommon for this period. During this time period, women were left home to oversee the domestic duties, while men went to commuted to work (Hughes). Men were seen as physically superior but morally inferior to women; which is also portrayed within this book (Hughes). This play marks the beginning of Henrik Ibsen’s realist period, which he explored the ordinary lives of small-town people (Kirszner and Mandell 881). This “modern tragedy” helped make Ibsen famous internationally because of the real-life story it captured (Kirszner and Mandell 882). Henrik Ibsen uses an array of literary devices to help keep the reader captivated from beginning to end. Three of the most prominent literary devices used by Henrik Ibsen are symbolism, foreshadowing, and an array of themes. These literary devices help transform a basic play into a complex story of lies and deception.

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was a controversial play for its time because it questioned society's basic rules and norms. Multiple interpretations can be applied to the drama, which allows the reader to appreciate many different aspects of the play. This paper examines how both Feminist and Marxist analyses can be applied as literary theories in discussing Ibsen's play because both center on two important subject matters in the literary work: the roles of women in a male-dominated society, and, the power that money has over people.