Imaging the Genders Role of the Nineteenth-Century Concerning into A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen - Research Paper Example

ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 19TH CENTURY "A Doll's House," Henrik Ibsen portrays the genders role of nineteenth century concerning the women and men in society and by an extent in the household. It is a fact that there has been a major gap between the roles that a man or a woman can play in the society and this has taken place for a very long period. The women in the older generation were faced by double standards where the society expectations on them were so high with very harsh economic challenges (Ibsen, Henrik, and William 2002 pg 48-50). Therefore, the role played by a woman as compared to the ones played by men was considered inferior given that history has it that men had a upper hand over almost all the rulings in the society. From the book, Torvad Helma, Nora’s husband began a new job in the rank of a bank manager and this job is expected to increase the family fortune specifically by first of all increasing the standard of life lived by Nora. This is due to the reason that Nora could not find work in the workforce where there is the dominance of the male given that a job is considered a men’s role. Torvald even calls Nora pet names like "my sweet little lark" (Act 1, p.1) and "my squirrel" (Act 1, p.1). Marriage as a role of men and women in the 19th century though considered scandalous by many Europeans as to how the topic is handled. This is due to the reason that marriage was considered so holy than the covenant of marriage itself therefore nobody including writers of books could be allowed to present it in this manner. Women were quite compromising beings in the society most so when it meant to protect their families (Ibsen, Henrik, and William 2002 pg 68-72). This is seen when Nora presents her undermining husband another chance after the reality of her responsibility as a mother dawns on her. The play is represented as a departure from the traditional behavior and theatrical conventions as shown by Nora leaving home and her acts of slamming the door. Ibsen portrays the role played by women in all the economic classes of the society as sacrificial. Generally, the play through Nora has shown that even in instances when men are not willing to sacrifice their integrity, women given their non-chauvinistic nature have always undertaken the sacrifices (Unwin, Stephen, and Henrik 2007 pg 20-9). This is witnessed when Mrs. Linde had to make a long life sacrifice of breaking with and abandoning her love Kondrad given that he did not have money or wealth to marry a richer man in order to find enough money to support her mother and two brothers. In addition, a nanny also had to make a sacrifice of abandon her own child to for the sake of supporting herself by working for Nora as her caretaker. As she tells Nora, the nanny considers herself lucky to have found the job, since she was “a poor girl who’d been led astray.” This job would aid her in taking care of her daily livelihood, which was at a mess (Ibsen, Henrik, and Brian 2004 pg 34-43). Women are further stepped on, as they are not allowed by the society to be custodians of wealth making the men quite powerful financially hence the decision makers in the society then. From the book, Nora is quite advantaged economically as compared to the other women in the book. “Nora serves as a wife and mother, but not as an equal to Torvald”. Despite this, she still lives a quite a difficult life because the society dictates that becomes the dominant partner in the marriage hence controls most of the decisions when it comes to handling the wealth an action which leads to the devastation of Nora (Wren 1997 pg 1.207). Torvald issues orders and decrees geared to threaten Nora’s position (Torvald planned to cope with the scandal resulting from blackmail by stripping Nora of her spousal and motherly duties, but would keep her in the house for appearance sake. If Nora, with her reputation tainted as a criminal, would poison the minds of the Helmer children, she would be useless as a mother to them). This leaves Nora without another option but that of hiding her loan from the husband given the husband will himself never accept that a woman bailed him out irrespective of her position whether her wife. Nora also has to work her secret ways to repay her loan since the society dictates that for a woman to even attain a loan the permission has to have come from the husband (Blankenship 2008 pg 9-11). If Nora does not convince her husband to stop their threat of shooting Krogstad a man whom Nora borrowed from, then the man threatens to threaten to expose those acts, which would lead to a disgrace to Nora. Nora as young woman who cannot understand the clear cut between money and business therefore tries hard to convince her husband for Krogstad not to make his threats right. NORA: "Many a time I was at my wits' end […] I used to sit here and imagine that a rich old gentleman had fallen in love with me […] that he had died; and that when his will was opened it contained […] the instruction: 'The lovely Mrs. Nora Helmer is to have all I possess paid over to her at once in cash.'" (Ibsen, Henrik 1992 pg 1.205-1.207) On the other hand, men are represented as very tough human beings in the book as represented by both Krogstad and Torvald. They are the main decision makers when it comes to the main decisions in the family. They are therefore trapped in the traditional gender roles of being the head of the family and therefore the providers to the same families they head hence they have to bear the burden of supporting the entire household. The formal work setting is set for the men and women should not be seen amidst any workforce. Another role of the men is that they are bestowed the title of the infallible kings of their respective castles, therefore they can decide what the woman dopes and what they do not do. In their state, the women support the men further for example: NORA: "how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything!" (Wren 1997 pg 1.197) when she saves his husband. Works Cited Blankenship, Mark. "A Doll's House.(Theater review)." Daily Variety 12 June 2008: 7-15. Print. Ibsen, Henrik, and William Archer. The league of youth; The pillars of society; A doll's house. 2nd ed. London: W. Scott, 2002. Print. Ibsen, Henrik. A doll's house. Dover ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print. Ibsen, Henrik, and Brian Johnston. Ibsen's selected plays: authoritative texts of Peer Gynt, A doll house, the wild duck, Hedda Gabler, the master builder: backgrounds, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print. Unwin, Stephen, and Henrik Ibsen. Henrik Ibsen's A doll's house: a study-guide. London: Nick Hern, 2007. Print. Wren, Celia. "From Nora's House to Ours." Commonweal 9 May 1997: 31-9. Print. Read More