Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, is a play about a woman who realizes that she is worth more than she has been given credit. Her whole life she was treated like a little doll; too fragile to do anything serious, too frail to be troubled with real business. She was the wife, mother and homemaker. The only things she was perceived as capable of were running the home, raising the children and looking pretty. This was a common stereotype for women in the 1880’s. Women were treated as possessions, not people.

Women had a specific role they had to fill. They had to look just so, act just so, raise the children in a certain way, and keep up the house in a perfect way. Many women tried to fill this position of the “perfect housewife”. They wore corsets that put about 22 pounds of pressure on their internal organs, which caused cracked ribs, displacement of the liver and uterine prolapsed and collapsed lungs, all just to look the way men wanted them to. Women balanced their ever so busy family lives as well as their social lives. They stayed home to take care of the kids, while taking a break to have friends over for tea or coffee. Women had to be the picture of perfection.

Magazines were plastered with this picture of the “perfect housewife” which showed women with their corsets laced so tight that they couldn’t breathe, and mothers holding many children. The whole world bought into this picture of perfection. Luckily, there were advances made to make life a little easier. The world went from being producers to being consumers. Mail order catalogs made it easier for women to purchase the necessary items to keep he...

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...wn to what happens when she is no longer able to work. Everything she gave up, a family, children, a husband, love, security, provisions, she won’t have. Once she is done working, she will be alone. She will lead a lonely, solitary life that has driven many mad.

Luckily, because of the feminist movement in the 60’s, our society is more accepting of the different choices women make. There still is the pressure to be a supermom, but it is perfectly acceptable to be a working mom as well, or not be a mom at all and just focus on careers. One just must be able to handle the consequences that come with their decisions.

The message in “A Doll’s House” is just as applicable today as it was when it was written. Women still have to weigh their options and choose the path that is best for them. They must be able to handle the consequences that come along with their decisions.