Struggle for Feminist Equality During the Victorian Period - Book Report/Review Example

A Doll’s House: Emblematic of the Struggle for Feminist Equality During the Victorian Period As society began to experience radical changes in the realms of industrialization, modernism, and changes in belief regarding the origin of life, for example, the commonly held views on gender and gender roles also began to become more nuanced during the FIN-DE-SIECLE (1880-1914). It is in this same vein of rejecting the common mores and norms of prior societal thinking that Henrik Ibsen wrote his famous play, A Doll’s House. Although most characters usually experience growth and development as a function of the unique set of fictional experiences and subsequent realizations, Nora, the main protagonist of the play, undergoes a character development that is concentric upon the ideals of equality and feminism that were only just beginning to flourish in Western society. Ibsen masterfully casts Nora as the type of character who engenders many of the changes in societal, cultural, and feminine norms of the time. Although such a topic was far ahead of Ibsen’s time, he is able to discover the unique and identifiable methods of what constitutes the hopeless and constrained lifestyle that Nora, like so many other women of the period, experienced as a means of the culture and times in which they lived. It can be shown that Ibsen related to the reader and, originally, the audience, a female character who tasted of the power and control that was a fixture of the male-dominated aspects of her society; as such, once this was experienced, she began to wish to exercise her own will to power. As a vehicle to explore all of these factors, this author, like Ibsen himself, will consider the matter of Nora’s debt, as it effects her realization of empowerment and overall dissatisfaction with her life as it was. This brief analysis will review and analyze three distinct fields of character development, which set in motion Nora’s abandonment of her given situation and family: Nora’s attempt at social/political action/interaction; her domestic isolation; and the objectification that she experiences as a female member of Victorian society. The first of these elements of course relates to the “political” intrigue or societal interaction into which Nora is thrust. Although she does not willfully seek this out, it has a powerful effect on her development throughout the plot as she is liberated from the norms/mores of what women were traditionally involve. Rather than engage in meaningless idle chatter, Nora is thrust into the center of a very stressful issue that encourages her to exercise her traditional powers of coercion, sex appeal, feminine charm, and cunning to achieve the goals she wishes. The reader is left to understand that this is a first for Nora as the stress of these actions helps to define her character throughout the novel; through this, Nora experiences a sense of liberation. Although this liberation is born out of the experience in general and culminates in her slamming the door at the end of the play and abandoning her family, it clearly develops as a function of her realization that she is truly capable of handling the same complex set of demands that society has previously entrusted to the males (Austin 24). Says Nora of her brief experience in the workforce, "Still it was really tremendous fun sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man” (Doll Act I). An obvious parallel to this type of political/social emancipation that Nora unwittingly engages is the fact that it bears a striking similarity to the story of Adam and Eve as it relates to the Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit. The forbidden fruit in this story is of course in regards to a wife entering into the complex dynamics and intrigue that previously defined the “man’s world”. In this way, Nora is experiencing a character development through a similar mechanism. By realizing that she too, at least on a subconscious level, wants to be considered equal to her husband, Nora is experiencing the same types of thoughts that are described in the Biblical story of Eve, who wanted to have the same knowledge as God. Nora rails against the societal constrictions that bind her actions. Says Nora, "Hasn't a daughter the right to protect her dying father from worry and anxiety? Hasn't a wife the right to save her husband's life? I don't know much about the law, but I'm quite certain that it must say somewhere that things like that are allowed” (Doll Act I). Naturally, the second barrier that serves to restrain Nora and further adds to her own character development throughout the play is in regards to the domestic isolation she experiences on a daily basis. From the very outset of the play, the reader is led to understand that Nora’s life is one that is constrained by domestic duty and function. For instance, the very opening lines relate how a domineering husband seeks to instruct his wife on curtailing her shopping habits to more appropriately reflect his ideas on financial considerations. Says her husband, Torvald, "Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again" (Doll Act I)? Although the obvious plot device is to show the clueless nature and uninformed supposition under which her husband lives, the alternative interpretation is that it depicts a broken and domineering relationship that is defined by a woman’s domestic life that is unable to achieve any level or degree of freedom (Tilghman 340). Even when she purchases gifts for the family’s Christmas, her unrelenting and self-centered husband seeks an account of what was spent and why. Says Torvald, “"It's a sweet little bird, but it gets through a terrible amount of money. You wouldn't believe how much it costs a man when he's got a little song-bird like you” (Doll Act I) This theme is further expanded upon when Nora entertains the question of love when speaking with Mrs. Linde, a mutual friend of the family. Nora asks her: “Tell me, is it really true that you did not love your husband? Why did you marry him?” (Doll Act I) Her curiosity with respect to love develops as she tacitly understands that what she shares with Torvald is quite a far cry from the emotions that can be defined as love itself. Later in the play, Nora test him with reference to Torvald’s affections. States Nora, "Nonsense! Trying to frighten me like that!--I am not so silly as he thinks. … And yet--? No, it's impossible! I did it for love's sake" (Doll Act I). Nora soon finds that her litmus test with respect to the level of affection she believes her husband to possess is a false belief. Here Nora sees that her lack of freedom combined with her loveless marriage ultimately dooms any hope she may have of some form of normality. Similarly, what serves as the symbolic coup de grâce for Nora’s character is her realization that her place in life can be attributed to nothing more than that of an object of her husband’s occasional desire. Earlier in the play, Nora had entertained loftier aspirations regarding her role as a wife and the needs this entailed with relation to making her husband happy (Schideler 277). Says Nora of her supposed duties to her husband, “I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him” (Doll Act I). Nora juxtaposes her feelings of love and devotion with the realization that a time is coming, perhaps soon, when these emotions will mean nothing. Whereas earlier in the play Nora had affirmed, “’You know how devotedly, how inexpressibly deeply Torvald loves me; he would never for a moment hesitate to give his life for me’", she was now fully convinced that the emotions and feelings were shifting away from what she had previously believed (Doll Act II). However, this sense of duty that Nora attributed to her objectification changes rapidly as a function of time. Later in the play Nora has the following to say to her erstwhile love: “I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life (Doll Act III). In this, the reader can pick up on the obvious overtones of disgust and exhaustion with the current state of affairs that Nora relates. In the end, it is not any one factor that encourages Nora to walk out the door and abandon the constraining and oppressive life she had led for years. Rather, it was the combined influence of the three factors that this essay has mentioned. Ibsen works to masterfully incorporate these elements into the story as a way to explore some of the current constraints that the Victorian Period unnaturally placed on women. Of particular interest is the way in which Nora’s character was allowed to develop throughout the course of the play. Rather than being discontented with her station in life from the start, Ibsen introduced a seemingly one-dimensional character that merely had the dark secret pertaining to her debt. By the time the story ends, a dynamic and powerful woman has emerged who is willing and ready to grasp the reins of her own fate and steer it accordingly. In this way, the analysis that Ibsen provides through the development of Nora’s character is forward thinking and imaginative for a time which such thoughts were not even considered. In this way, the manner in which Nora shuts the door at the end of the play serves to denote a clear and intended point that Nora considers her experience to be a break from her former life of sacrifice and subservience. As she has exercised her will to power and understood that the constraints that have belabored her for so long are both imaginary and to a certain extent self imposed, Nora is finally free to exhibit her own judgment and pursue her own ends. Furthermore, although the play deals with a host of factors relating to women’s rights, feminism, and the New Woman of Ibsen’s era, the most powerful dynamic that is related is that the barrier between man’s world and the woman’s world is clearly imaginary and Nora is able to readily operate in both mediums with perfect ease. As such, the nature of the feminist platform is tacitly defined by Ibsen as a constraint that is not nearly so monolithic and problematic as one might assume. Works Cited Austin, Gayle. "Creating A Feminist Theatre Environment: The Feminist Theory Play." Studies In The Literary Imagination 24.2 (1991): 49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. Gilmore, Alec. "The Gospel According To Ibsen." Journal Of European Baptist Studies 10.2 (2010): 22-36. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Shideler, Ross. "Ibsen And The Name-Of-The-Father." Scandinavian Studies 69.3 (1997): 277. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. Tilghman, Carolyn. "Staging Sufrage: Women, Politics, And The Edwardian Theater." Comparative Drama 45.4 (2011): 339-360. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. Read More