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How Does the Title a Doll’s House Demonstrate an Allegory for Women’s Role at That Time?

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Juan Pablo Romoleroux
Mrs. Jones
English III, Period: 4
20 March, 2012
How Does the Title A Doll’s House Demonstrate an Allegory for Women’s role at that time?
The door of A Doll’s House is closed at last. This is a symbol for the end of the way society thinks about women back in the Victorian era around the 19th century. At the time Henrik Ibsen wrote the play A Doll’s House in Norway, it was normal for society to look down upon such women that would leave their children and husbands behind. Men had a higher status than women at that time. The title “Doll’s House” ties well with the play because it illustrates how in the past, society treated women as dolls. The title of the play demonstrates an allegory for women’s roles because it …show more content…

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

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