Essay on The Feminist Approach to Antigone and A Dolls House

Later in Act I, her friend Mrs. Linde visits Nora. Even in their conversation Mrs. Linde comments on Nora's childish behavior. "Well my heavens - a little needlework and such - Nora, you're just a child." (Ibsen 1511). Nora quickly defends herself, in some sense to regain her standing within her own ranks. "I've also got something to be proud and happy for. I'm the one who saved Torvald's life." (Ibsen 1511). By doing this Nora is secretly undermining society and providing for her husband. In contrast to society beliefs at the time, shouldn't a wife provide for her husband in his sickness? Thus creating an interesting paradox passed upon wedding vows. Apparently not or Nora would have confided in Torvald sooner. "Mrs. Linde: And you've never confided..." (Ibsen 1512).

Nora finds strength in realizing her failure, resolving to find herself as a human being and not in what society expects of her. Nora’s recognition comes when Torvald so

Nora is trapped in her own house, in her own society as being a woman and the role they have. "I shall not allow you to bring up the children; I dare not trust them to you" (line 242). Torvald says to be own wife, taking away her most prized possession and the ones she loves the most and since she's a woman and Torvald is the man of the house, he is allowed to do it. One of Nora's friends, Mrs. Linden just married a man who recently passed away just for the money because women in that time aren't allowed to own the money that the family brings in, thinking Mrs. Linden would get all the money she got nothing. Then she meets Mr. Krogstad again and she's willing to sell her body once again for money and a way of living. "What a difference! Someone to work for and live for--a home to bring comfort into" (line 84). The book is complete brilliance, it shows that women are imprisoned inside their homes how Mrs. Linden has willing played a large part in this role towards the end of the

Certainly, gender roles are fixed expectations of how people should feel, speak, or interact in society according to their sex. Women are expected to play subordinate roles to their male counterparts. Despite the societal assumption that women are not as strong as men mentally because they are not as strong physically was an advantage for women to achieve goals privately in the following dramas. In Trifles, Antigone, and Dollhouse the women who played submissive roles in public, exhibited powerful acts of bravery for themselves and others. These women are powerful characters despite societal expectations and proved they are stronger than the men believed because they used passive methods to reach tough objectives.

The music group, Aqua, once sang in their song, “Barbie Girl,” “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.” Aqua’s lyrics symbolize the role women had to play in the 18th century. Women were expected to perform like perfect human beings, and put a smile on their faces regardless of the situation. They were expected to follow the rules at all times and submit to men in an instance. Antigone, written by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen, demonstrate the interaction and roles with men and women during the 18th century. The main characters in both plays, Antigone in Antigone and Nora in A Doll’s House, show how women have struggled to find their place in the social order. They had to fight for

When Torvald was ill Nora did all she could to keep him from dying. Nora took risks to keep her husband alive. Because Nora took the risk of taking her husband to Italy, her and Torvald had gotten into massive debt. She may not have told Torvald about the money and signing the papers, but that was a risk she was willing to take. Nora does not just take a risk by signing the papers but when she left Torvald and her children. In the time the play was written, women did not leave their spouses. When Nora left she took a chance.

Have you ever wondered what women were like before the liberation movement of the 1970s? In the plays Antigone, by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, women are represented as weak, underlings to men. However, both protagonists in the play, Antigone and Nora, show their strength and courage when they go against society. Antigone shows how strong she is when she goes against the King’s decree and buries her brother who is a traitor. Nora, to save her husband’s life, takes out a loan which wasn’t allowed for a woman to do in the 1800s. Both these actions show these two women were strong enough to go against society’s belief, and do what needed to be done. It’s important for men and women to give their opinions and feelings in a

Her action of borrowing money from Krogstad to save her husband’s life was clearly explained as a protest of feminism. She wanted to become more responsible in her family where the husband is normally responsible for the family. Nora changed her role through borrowing money, and arranging to pay debt which expresses her growing responsibility towards her family, and at last she walks out permanently from the house which shows her strength and power for freedom.

     After Nora finally obtained the money she needed there were many expected outcomes as a result. Nora finally had “something to be proud and happy for” (975). She was tired of having no significance and doing nothing important. She now felt like she had something to show for her life since she was “the one who saved Torvald’s life” (975). Without Nora’s actions “Torvald never would have lived” (975). Nora “was the one who raised the money” and got the loan that allowed them to travel south (976). She realized though the biggest drawback to getting the money was that she would have to lie to Torvald. Nora was well aware that “[Torvald] mustn’t [know], for anything in the world” or else he would lose his honor, and their home would never be the same again (975). Nora also had another reason for not telling Torvald about the forgery and loan. Nora made Torvald happy and pleased him by “dancing and dressing up and reciting for him” (977). She believed

In the book A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen there was thoughts alluding to the play being based off of feminism. At the University of Salahaddin two English professors Saman Salah Hassan Balaky and Nafser Abdul Mosawir Suilaiman wrote an article called, “A Feminist Analysis of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House”. They had three points that analyzed about the A Doll House, which were the Feminist Literary Theory, Ibsen as a feminist, and a feminist analysis of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

When revealing the secret of how she borrowed money to finance the trip to Italy, she refers to it as her “pride” and says it was fun to be in control of money, explaining that it was “almost like being a man.” Although she comes to regret her decision to borrow money, Nora’s dissatisfaction with her status as a woman intensifies over the course of the play. In the final scene she tells Torvald that she is not being treated as an independent person with a mind of her own. Her radical solution to this issue is to leave domestic life behind, despite Torvald 's declaration that he will change. Nora 's decision suggests that she, and the play, see the issue as only partially with Torvald. The more fundamental issue is with domestic life as it was conceived and lived at the time, in the way it legally and culturally infantilized women and made it impossible for them to be recognized or treated as full individuals.

"A Doll 's House", a play by Henrik Ibsen. In this play, Ibsen talks about the roles of (community of people/all good people in the world) and how women was treated at the time. From this play you can watch,notice,celebrate,obey what Ibsen believed about the roles of (community of people or all good people in the world), state where all things are equal between males and females, and the idea of the way of thinking that demands that women and men are treated equally. "A Doll 's House" is actually a play where one can see how things were at the time and what Ibsen himself believed about the central issue.

In the two works Antigone and A Doll’s House, two independent females faced a large conflict, leaving both women to decide what was right, ultimately deciding their fates. In Antigone, Antigone’s brothers fought for the throne, inevitably exchanging a double blow. Creon, the king, decided not to have a proper burial for Polyneikes since he was a traitor. Consequentially, Creon’s decision caused an internal conflict within Antigone: whether or not to go out of her way to bury her brother and conflict with the societal norms, or to sit pretty like the society expected women to do. Divergently, she chose differently from the majority opinion to bury her brother. Similarly, In A Doll’s House, Nora’s husband, Helmer, became remarkably ill and Nora was conflicted because she needed money for Helmer’s medical bill. Would she morally use the money inherited from her father, or just let Helmer die? Neither. Nora disregarded the societal norms and borrowed money, which women aren’t allowed to do. She used deception to make Helmer believe that she used the money inherited from her father. As society patronized women in their time periods, both Antigone and Nora were required to become very cunning to make a change to what they believe in while simultaneously following the societal guidelines to appropriately fit in.

Feminist criticism of literature has helped to illuminate the progression of gender inequality throughout history. The female characters of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, helped to reveal what was the general cultural climate at the time. They preserve the history of the inequalities women faced, accurately depicted in Shakespeare’s play through how the female characters navigated in a patriarchal society. It is important to analyze the literature of the past in a feminist context, to help remind ourselves of how far society has progressed and how much further we still have yet to go to achieve full equality. We should question how gender is depicted in today’s media and popular culture, as they are both an influence on society’s culture and a reflection of society’s

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.