“A Doll’s Trifles”
A essay comparing the plays “Trifles” and “Dollhouse.”
Joshua Long
English 102 Amy Lannon March 21, 2012
Our society’s gender roles are constantly evolving and changing, all in the name of “progressive thinking”, though not all for the good. With a new “social norm” appearing every few years or so, it comes as a surprise that it
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Henderson, when she says how she didn't think a “place’d be any more cheerful for John Wright’s being in it” (1051). And for the woman once known as Minnie Foster, it was that same man who eroded her until she no longer was one of the town girls as she had been thirty years before, no longer a woman who sang in the choir, her happy, hopeful spirit, gone. Her final comfort in that otherwise drained and dreary home was that little singing canary that she had bought a year before the events of “Trifles,” and whose death sets her off to finally murder her own husband by tying a rope around his neck killing him much in the way he killed the bird and her own spirit. This is a perfect example of something as wondrous as marriage gone horribly wrong.
While Mrs. Wright lashes out against her perceived cage, her gender role, by killing Mr. Wright, Nora’s character ultimately decides to trip the latch, to fly free from the bars. Nora’s complex personality proves to be difficult to predict to the very end, when she decides to shirk her duties to her husband and children to focus on herself, to serve her own needs for individuality, a decision that was not entirely popular with readers and audiences alike. Indeed, Nora quite easily refuses to be the “doll” in Torvald’s house, and abandons her loving, though misguided husband, and her children. She feels driven to do this once she realizes that she and Torvald had never exchanged a serious word in
Wright kills Mrs. Wright’s bird right in front of her. It was the trifles the women noticed
The play also does suggest that women should leave their controlling husbands or lovers in order to gain the independence they are seeking. Nora’s husband Torvald plays the dominant role in their relationship. Torvald often would degrade Nora by calling her “silly girl” referring to her not being able to make decisions on her own, so he thought. Nora plays the role of a loving mother and respectful wife, whom is all about her family. “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived.
Norms are defined as beliefs and practices that are followed by society and are culturally approved (Wade and Ferre, 165). Gender norms have always existed but changed through time. In order to determine how drastic the change has been and how it affected how individuals, interviews must be conducted. Four individuals were interviewed on how gender norms have changed during their lifetime. The interviewees consisted of a 50-year-old woman, a 19-year-old woman, a 55-year-old man and a 20-year-old man.
Torvald has a dichotomous character; the man that society has shaped and the controlling husband playing with his “doll wife”(p.80), the extended metaphor of the doll’s house is used to highlight how Nora has been manipulated and controlled since she was a child. The repeated use of the doll imagery reinforces the idea of Nora being weak and flimsy, an ideology which she later tries to break. The most prominent side would be the controlling husband which is shown through his attitude to Nora. He says to her “Hasn’t Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today?” (p.5) which makes us despise his
Throughout A Doll’s House, Torvald views Nora’s actions as being deceiving not only towards him but also towards her family. However, Nora gain her perspective on her own actions and begins observing it differently than Torvald’s. The play states, “ It was me they told that his life was in danger...well, well, I thought, you’ve got to be saved somehow. And then I thought of a way-,” (Ibsen 35-36). Within Nora’s and Mrs. Linde’s private conversation, Nora conveys that her manipulation of money revealed how she deceives her husband even though it was in good intent to save his life. In addition, this demonstrates Nora’s willingness to think about others, such as her husband, before realizing for herself that there were going to be consequences for her later on. Within the play, Nora states, “ You have never understood me. A
Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,
On October 6, 2017, I woke up and for an hour I thought about what social norm I was going to challenge for this assignment. After giving it careful thought, I decided I was going to challenge the gender roles, identity, and stereotypes that society has. “Gender roles are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female.” (Conley, 2017, p.133) I was going to challenge this with my clothing. So, I decided I was going to dress up like a man for the whole day. Gender roles are cultural and personal. They determine and control how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. In the United States, these gender roles are
Nora’s relationship with her father and Torvald has shaped her into the woman she is posing to be. She is under a mutual control being a shadow of what they want her to be. Many people see Nora as being the weakest link in this poem, considering her lack of ability to voice her opinion. Throughout the play, Torvald constantly uses little childish names when addressing Nora perhaps when he says “Is that my little lark twittering out there?” (Ibsen 1190). Nora’s mindset clearly begins to overlook the fact that Torvald may be picking at her in a way. Torvald is also seen to be picking at Nora for eating macaroons when he makes the statement “Surely my sweet tooth hasn’t been running riot in town today, has she?” (Ibsen 1192). This clearly states that Torvald’s opinion of macaroons is invalid for Nora, because he would not want her to become fat in possibly ruining his image. Nora’s childhood is the birth of all future relationships that grants control, which makes Nora feel as if she has no power in being an independent woman. Nora is seen as a little precious doll who is a valuable possession of her father and husband. She never feels like she has the courage to stand on her own and be a woman because all she knows is being under the control of someone else. The first aspect of Nora crossing into womanhood was symbolized by the
Nora Helmer was one of those many women who lived off their husband's paychecks. However, Nora was less than a wife to Torvald. She was a plaything for him and that was the only thing she knew how to do. Nora’s father taught her to not work for money because that is why she had Torvald; he was to provide for her and the family. Nora was taught to sing and dance like a doll, just to please others. However, this all changed when Nora looked at the way she lived her whole life and decided to change it for good. Nora became the hero for herself and other girls reading A Doll’s House by working in secret and leaving a life that never made her happy. Because, despite what her environment lead to her to believe, she is more than a doll. She is a
Did you know that kids every year are sent home from school because they were wearing “the wrong type of clothing,” for example a boy wearing pink boots or a girl wearing a football jersey? You could be curious why, or just concerned about how stupid this sounds. This is an example of gender roles and how they need to be loosened to protect our freedom of expression and our choice of how we lead our lives. The gender roles that are considered normal today could be represented as two parallel pink and blue lines, not ever coming together to form a different color. The purpose of this paper is about how gender roles have been enforced throughout time, but this enforcement has begun to become unhealthy for men and women of all ages. I
Nora, a woman of mystery, a child if you will, and an ecstatic character is introduced in the very beginning in A Doll House as a jumpy little “squirrel, “full of energy seemingly unaware or the world and turns out as a completely different woman as she becomes wiser, sophisticated, developing a feeling of high independency due to interactions with various characters which restructure her character. Nora’s refinement was due to dilemmas with characters such as Krogstad whom she forges her father’s name to get a loan from [to save the life of her husband] and her husband Torvald who treats her as a daughter giving her nicknames of “cute little animals,” as well as minor characters such as her maid Anne-Marie. The setting of the play is
There are many topics widely debated today, in both popular media as well as politics, which hold a very personal place in the lives of certain people, mostly those who are affected by the problems and debate surrounding such topics as birth control, abortion, deportation and gender or sexual identity. For decades, gender roles have been split into domestic, subservient roles for women and dominant, bread wining roles for men; roles which are implied and made to seem the default for all people through tradition. The problem with such traditions is that as our society evolves as a whole, there is no longer room for boxing people into specific categories and ostracizing those who do not conform to what
Nora’s lies and secrets added on to an ever-evolving description of her character. Such behaviour is exposed when she first eats macaroons and lies about it to Torvald stating that ‘she would never go against his wishes’ and that she had given him ‘her word’ for it. She had already gone against the society norm by disobeying her husband, (in the Victorian times, woman conformed to their husbands in every little way). The interaction between Nora and Torvald, especially in Act One, was not as if they were equals but rather of a loyal pet and master. Nora responds playfully to Torvald’s criticism. She is a willing participant in their dysfunctional relationship. She understands that her husband sees her as an innocent, child-like persona, and she struggles to maintain the façade. But as Act One continues we start to see Nora’s diligent and witty side. With Mrs. Linde she boasts about her life with Torvald and how happy she is, but is quick to speak of her achievements when she is thought low of. Another side of Nora is portrayed in that scene, a side which even Torvald never knew of; she talks to Christine about her “saved Torvald’s life”. This gives us a better insight on Nora, regarding how she leads a double life, that she has not been ‘thoughtlessly spending money, but saving money to pay of her debt’. Upon hearing this readers no longer see a naive little girl but a woman who can take risks to save what is
Nora, on the others hand, outwardly appears to conform to societal standards unlike Mrs. Linde, yet grows unhappy due to the pressures of hiding what society considers her deviant behavior. The combination of trying to maintain her status in society, and trying to protect her children from the corrupting influence of a “deceitful mother” (Ibsen 27), who Torvald has unknowingly dubbed her, has caused her to have suicidal thoughts. Her conformity in traditional motherly role and her maintainace of her position in society contributes to her depressive state. Finally, toward the end both women switch roles. Nora has an epiphany, becomes unconcerned about her social status, and focus more in depth on intellectual questions, like “if what the clergyman said is true” about religion and “who is right, the world or [her]” (Ibsen 68-69). She decides to leave Torvald and her children, in order to pursue self-realization, which was an unheard of act for a woman at the time whose duties were believed to be located at home with her husband. The juxtaposition between the two women is especially prominent here, since as Nora leaves her family, as Mrs. Linde becomes integrated with Krogstad’s. Although, it seems Mrs. Linde is conforming to society, looks are deceiving. She only looks for a partnership, and not a marriage, which allows her to maintain her freedom, both legally, and of societal
Nora is frustrated in seeing Krogstad’s letter, which will reveal all her secrets but is not able to retrieve the letter, because her husband always has the key to the mail box. Nora carries a burden all throughout her marriage. All she hopes for is a miracle. She believes that when the secret is out, Torvald will take the blame and protect her, but unfortunately when the secret is revealed to Torvald, her world finally falls down, and Torvald disclaims and attacks her, even though she had done it for him. The futility of her marriage finally dawns on her. She says she was never happy, only lighthearted and that she was a doll wife to him. She blames Torvald for her ruined marriage. Nora is faced with the reality that she’s always been treated like a child. In their conversation, it is realized that since they married, there hasn’t been a serious conversation between them. Nora sees that her husband is not worth her love anymore and that she has wasted all eight years of their marriage. She now wants to educate herself. Therefore, not even the thoughts of her children could save their marriage, so she leaves