Papa's Doll-Home Husband

“The matter must be hushed up at any cost. And as for you and me, it must appear as if everything between us were just as it were before –but naturally only in the eyes of the world.” Helmer stated. In this very sentence the author highlighted the standing views on marriage and political views. It is clear that Helmer is not happy with his wife after what she has done and to learn of how she has lied. Helmer is not worried about his marriage and his wife’s feelings, he is worried about what others will think. Through this dialogue in the play it become clear to the audience that what is important in society shouldn’t be. The characters were influence by other around them, others views and perceptions of them. It was shamed upon to have a broken marriage and a deceitful wife. Helmer states, “Before all else, you are a wife and a mother.” Nora replies, “I don’t believe in that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are-or, at all events, that I must try and become one.” (Page 1390) Henrik did an amazing job at touching on key points of societies views and did it in such a way that empowers women and the feminist movements. In a time when woman are encouraged to be obedient and act as a second citizen, the author wrote this story out differently. Nora realizes her worth as a woman and understands that her feelings are more than just second best

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

Relationships in the 1800’s are very different from a typical relationship in the present day. In the 1800’s, when a male and female came together to form a relationship, the male was always superior to the female. During that time, the formation of a relationship gave the male utter control over his partner. Nora and Torvalds relationship was established during a time where all women accepted their fate of being inferior to males. Since then, women have been challenging that stereotype and demanding equality. One of the prominent difference between a typical relationship now and Nora and Torvalds’s relationship is equality. In a typical relationship now, the man and female are partners and share equal responsibilities within their home. Today, it is

In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in

The audience learn that Helmer and Nora's relationship is not a relationship with equality between genders. Through the way Helmer speaks to Nora, the audience can infer that he thinks that Nora is a child and he keeps Nora dependent on him. Helmer also plays the role of Nora's second father. Nora seems to be a woman who is unaware of the true aspect of their relationship and is quite oblivious.

More and more women are becoming single parents and raising their children on their own without the help of the father or of any man. Lately, and for several years, it is more common for women to be doing jobs for “men”. ( Kaiser, Spalding) Women who have been left by a male figure in their lives are very more likely to become independent and do as they need to survive. This was unheard of in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as said several times before, women do as men say and they are expected to do what they are told and live by a code. The morals of the realism and modernism era are unheard of in today's world. Women, and even men, either get married and have children, have children and don’t get married, or do neither and live their lives that way. Women have been acting this way for years, but is it really their fault? The leadership it takes for a woman to be on her own, and all the negativity that comes with being a woman who does what she feels is the right thing to do or what she wants to do, is absurd. (Bongiorno, Bain,

In the 19th century, with the ever-increasing industrialization and mass production of goods filling the streets, more money was required to live comfortably. Roles were set with women taking care of domestic duties and the men working to meet the demand of the outside world. Women’s work in the household had become more and more distant to the eyes of people everywhere. Unable to change the ideologies, women were content with exerting influence over their domestic spheres, and the beliefs of “true womanhood”. The woman I have chosen is one that sought to change that mold by moving away from traditional boundaries, into a more modern way of thinking.

As Helmer becomes equipped with the information about Nora by means of a blackmail letter left in the mailbox, the true nature of the marriage is unearthed and the inequality of marriage is revealed. The marriage between the two characters demonstrate the realities of patriarchal rule and the restricting

Marriage is only a means of survival; it does not hold romantic ties. Despite the recent shift toward a love induced marriage, the ties of matrimony used to be primarily financial and practical. These relationships left women bound to their husbands without any individual authority. Henrik Ibsen’s play A Dollhouse analyses the status quo of nineteenth century marriage and challenges its foundations. His main character, Nora Helmer, rebels against the societal restrictions on women and illuminates the concept of universal Humanism.

If Nora were to look for a job she would probably hear a sexist remark like, "shouldn't you be at home raising the children." "Ibsen saw women's proper role as motherhood, and motherhood only."(Frank Magil, 1572) It is hard enough in the new millennium for a women to get a good job to support herself, let alone in 1879, when this story took

childish actions. Helmer grows accustom to being the father figure to Nora and in essence

Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.

This drama questions the authority of man over woman. While the Victorian woman did not usually question their husband's entitlement to household authority, they desired trust and intimacy which made them less ready to accept husbands who treated them as inferior being which is reflected in Nora’s reaction in the last scene. Women were less educated which made them vulnerable in the society this also made living alone for the women very difficult as they had no source of income. Even if the woman was educated they were allowed to do low paying jobs only. During the Victorian period men and women’s roles became sharply defined than at any time in history. Men and women had their different spheres which were not allowed to mingle with each other. They didn’t interfere in each other’s matters. As we see in the drama Helmer has his own study where he was undisrupted. Women didn’t had any say in the decisions pertaining to their social well-being. Everything was decided by the male and the female had to follow it. Too many rules and regulations were imposed on women. Women were expected to engage in fragile and simple

Her final goal was so important to her, protecting her family, she knew she had to do whatever was necessary, even if that meant not being true to her husband or society. In the end, she realizes that it was more important to her husband his reputation, than what it had meant to Nora, all she had done for the love of her family, concluding to the raw truth that her husband didn´t really love her: he loved what she represented before society, a loving, faithful wife that compelled to all his expectations. She knew that to love her children, she needed first to understand and love herself, a thought way beyond and ahead of time, for a woman in the late 1800´s.