Marriage as Entrapment for Men and Women in Ibsens A Dolls House - Essay Example

29 July Marriage as Entrapment for Men and Women in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House Nora marries Torvald without understanding yetthat her marriage further imprisons her as a woman. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House narrates the struggles of a young wife, Nora, who only wants a perfect family in a perfect house. At first, she thinks that money is enough to have a happy life, until she realizes that she cannot be happy until she loves herself and she cannot love someone she does not know at all. She breaks all gender norms when she decides to leave her family and to turn over a new leaf. The play uses characters, symbolism, and irony to demonstrate the theme of marriage as a metaphor for imprisonment because it entraps both men and women into delimiting gender roles and expectations, which are particularly disadvantageous for women because once married, they have no freedom and autonomy to grow as human beings. The characters of the play demonstrate masculine and feminine roles and expectations that produce a marriage based on gender inequality. Torvald is the typical masculine stereotype who is expected to control his family’s affairs, including his wife’s. As a husband and a father, he sees himself as the dominant breadwinner and source of authority in his family. He highly values his role as a breadwinner because in his society, a successful man is someone who has a big income and high social status. He tells his wife: “It is splendid to feel that one has a perfectly safe appointment and a big enough income” (Ibsen Act 1). Society conditions men to think about money most of the time because money gives them power, and so Torvald wants to control the source of money in his household. Moreover, Torvald’s patriarchal attitudes can be seen in how he treats his wife, such as when he calls her a “little lark” or a “little squirrel” (Ibsen Act 1). He also believes that it is “like a woman” to not consider the consequences of their actions (Ibsen Act 1). Torvald sees his wife as a “little” object, someone who is inferior to him because she is a woman. Moreover, Torvald even thinks that immorality comes from women, not men. He tells Nora: “Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother” (Ibsen Act 1). Nora is quite offended with this belief, but Torvald honestly thinks that bad people are generally products of bad mothers, which indicates his poor perceptions of women. With such a low opinion of women, he treats his wife as his doll, someone he can and must control for her own good. He does not allow Nora to have a social life, which Nora confirms for Mrs. Linde: “Torvald is so absurdly fond of me that he wants me absolutely to himself, as he says” (Ibsen Act 2). Torvald does not want Nora to grow as a person because she might be a threat to his authority. Instead, he keeps her locked up in their house and ensures that she depends on him for money and social relationship. Two women indicate the result of following socially-produced gender norms. Mrs. Linde represents women who are married to their gender roles and responsibilities. She does not marry for love, but for money because she wants to help her family. She is practical, but in a way that pushed her to sacrifice her happiness, which is normal for her time because society expects women to have no autonomy and to be obligated in fulfilling the endless needs of their families. Like Mrs. Linde, Nora portrays the feminine stereotype. She is a woman who is married to her motherhood and spousal duties, while representing the feminine stereotype of a superficial spendthrift. Her sole responsibility is to ensure the happiness of her family, especially her husband, and to perform traditional middle-class feminine roles. She buys things needed in their house, supervises the welfare of her children, manages financial affairs, and stays inside their home as much as possible. In other words, she is glued to her roles as a wife and a mother. She is such a traditional woman that earning her own money feels “like being a man” (Ibsen Act 1). Apparently, the main point of being jobless is to depend on a man all her life, from her father to her husband. To be a man is to have money and to have money is to have power. Nora does not access the joys of earning money until her husband gets sick and she finds means of acquiring and paying for a large loan. Marriage, in addition, worsens their conditions because it takes away opportunities for growth. Mrs. Linde does not own anything after her husband dies. As a wife, she does not acquire wealth that she can call her own. The same goes for Nora, who cannot even get a loan without her husband’s permission. These women are trapped in marriages that did not contribute to their self-development. Womanhood has been a series of one form of dependence to another for these female characters. Aside from the characters, symbols further help readers understand gender roles and expectations that dominate the lives of the characters. Macaroons are symbols of childhood innocence. As a kind of sweets, Nora indulges in them because it makes her happy. These macaroons suggest that Nora is like a child, which is clearly Torvald’s perception of her. But she is a child because her society has prepared her to be one. Nora tells Torvald: “I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls…That is what our marriage has been, Torvald” (Ibsen Act 3). Macaroons suggest childishness that her society taught her, so that she can serve as a submissive wife. In addition, sewing is a symbol of fixing the poor condition of something. Nora is fixing her dress, but she is also finding ways to fix her life. But a dress, however, is only a physical manifestation of her existence. Because she is anxious of what her husband would do once he finds about her forgery, she forgets that she has done the right thing for her family. Again, she forgets what makes her happy because as a woman, that seems to be unimaginable for her. Another important symbol in the play is Nora’s dance. A dance is usually done for fun and entertainment. Nora dances wildly for Torvald out of desperation. She does not want to entertain him; she wants to make him feel concerned so that he can forget about opening the mailbox. The dance, in addition, is done solo. It symbolizes how Nora feels. She feels alone in her life because her husband does not listen to her. He does not respect her opinions and beliefs. When he gives in to his wife’s request to not open the mailbox, he says: “The child shall have her way” (Ibsen Act 2). He does not follow her because he respects her, but because he thinks it is alright to sometimes spoil a child. Indeed, Nora dances alone in her life with no one to love her as an equal. These symbols assert the impact of gender norms on women’s capacity to grow as individuals. Ibsen uses metaphors too to explore the theme of marriage and its reinforcement of gender inequality in society. The doll’s house is a metaphor for their marriage, where they are all imprisoned in it, and women are the worse off of them all because their main roles are to serve their husbands and children. Men are trapped, not just women, because they have to meet social expectations. Torvald is overly conscious of how society sees him, which is why he gets so mad at Nora for faking her father’s signature to get a loan. Nora is right in her assessment of how he would have reacted to her “saving” him, which she tells Mrs. Linde: “And besides, how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything!” (Ibsen Act 1). Nora is trapped in her marriage and is worse off than Torvald because she is his slave. She cannot do anything she wants, not even eat her precious macaroons, as she tells her husband: “I should not think of going against your wishes” (Ibsen Act 1). As a wife, she has no free will, and without any free will, she cannot be a happy human being. Another metaphor is the burning of the bond. Torvald tells Nora: “The whole thing shall be nothing but a bad dream to me. (Tears up the bond and both letters, throws them all into the stove, and watches them burn.) There—now it doesn't exist any longer” (Ibsen Act 3). The burning can be connected to the analysis that Torvald does not value his wife’s sacrifices at all. He burns them and just wants to forget everything, including the significance of his wife’s actions. These metaphors indicate that Torvald does not have any sense of respect at all for his wife because of her gender. Dramatic irony occurs in the play because of the unexpected turn of events, wherein the one who is believed to be helpless and hopeless is actually the savior of them all. Mrs. Linde expects Torvald to help her get back on her feet, when, in reality, Nora helps her achieve her dreams by not only giving her a job, but also by reuniting her with someone she used to love before. At first, Mrs. Linde thinks that Nora knows “so little of the burdens and troubles of life” (Ibsen Act 1), until she learns of what Nora has done to help her husband and family. Mrs. Linde changes her viewpoint of what she can do too, when she saves Nora by reuniting with Krogstad. These women save one another. In addition, Torvald thinks that Nora is an ignorant spendthrift when she is the one who made ends meet, while he rests to recover from his illness. When he discusses Nora’s expenses with her and Nora suggest borrowing when they no longer have money, he calls her “The same little featherhead!” (Ibsen Act 1). He does not think that Nora knows how to take care of herself and to prepare for the future. In contradiction to this expectation, Nora industriously earns a living to pay for a large loan, which essentially means that she saves them all from financial ruin. Finally, Nora does the most unthinkable for a wife and a mother at the end of the play. She tells Torvald that the men in her life stopped her from reaching her full potential as a human being: “You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life” (Ibsen Act 3). Because of their monopoly control of power, she has become a doll with no meaning and purpose. In the end, Nora chooses “duties” to herself over her social duties. By leaving her old life, she saves herself. Dramatic irony shows that the underdog can be the supreme heroine too. A Doll's House is a tragic play, not because Nora abandons her family, but because society abandoned her first. The theme of marriage is gender entrapment in its worst form. Nora is a doll who transfers from one male hand to another, and she has had enough. She cannot be anyone’s doll anymore. Every human being has a right to be free and to find the purpose of their existence. For Nora, the first step is turning away her dollness and doll house and acknowledging that she is nothing because from nothing, she can be someone valuable, someone who has self-respect because she finally owns her life. Nora is ready to build a house of her own, a house for her and by herself. Work Cited Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. 1879. Web. 24 July 2013. Read More