A Doll's House Gender Roles

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“Happily ever after is not a fairy tale, it’s a choice”(Weaver) and in A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen you clearly see just how fast Nora 's charmed life comes crashing to the ground when she decides to wake up to a reality call. Ibsen 's play centers around an era where women asserting themselves was frowned upon by societal conventions that chained each person into a roll they were to play. He showed a time where women were to meant to be the perfect housewife, governing the children and take care of their husbands all the while being a dainty decoration uncorrupted by the spoils of society. Gender roles were heavily set between men and women yet Ibsen leaves subtle hints throughout the play of highly unpopular and unconventional views …show more content…

He also reveals how demining men 's control over women 's lives styles were unnecessary. Nora is a character created by Ibsen to embody the battle of what was acceptable of a woman and her few life choices of that time. She was also meant to hold what was unthinkable, a woman who could steer from the curve to be true to herself rather than that of societies necessities in gender roles. “ The role of wife was portrayed as desirable, necessary, and as a rite of passage for women. It was seen as achieving true womanhood, and assuring women of security and respectability…Women were considered primitive, irrational, with smaller brains, thus less intelligent it has created women 's isolation, and continued needed support of men.”(Noras World Keiller)Where Nora is far from being an equil next to her husband, or any man, her whole lifestyle is dictated by the men in her life that control her and she creates the illusion of a “doll 's house” where she dwells in a perfect world regardless of the sins she …show more content…

Yet she later discovers Torvald would not do the same for her nor ever recognise her as his equil with her own opinions, ideas, or worth. He had always treated her like a pet or child controlling her down to every aspect of her life from the clothing she wore to how she spent her daily activities. Torvald even believed Nora to be daft and naive in the ways of how the world worked from financial issues to social conduct. Nora then abandons her doll 's house, the oppression she live under, and the inequality held over her by her husband to be able to stand on her own feet. “I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Daddy’s doll child. And the children in turn have been my dolls. I thought it was fun when you came and played with me, just as they thought it was fun when I went to play with them. That’s been our marriage, Torvald.”(Ibsen). Nora shatters the only reference to how an oppressing marriage to a demining man distorts a person, those alterations are transcending capturing everyone else into dangerous cycle of disillusioned lifestyle. Ibsen uses this to symbolise the oppressive nature stressed on how idealised married life was expected, forced, and became a limiting factor on women since they were unable to pursue higher

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