The Role Of Modernism In A Doll's House

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre. Ibsen mainly wrote about Norway claiming, “that he would never return to the petty, small-mindedness that pervaded the country” (Bloom 11). When Ibsen married Susannah Thoreson, he believed that they should live as equals and grow to become their own human beings. In Ibsen’s A Doll House, a drama written in the center of an 1879, middle-class, residential Europe, he portrays a female protagonist. In a culture with concern for fulfilling, or more so depicting a socially acceptable image, Nora faces the limits of being a doll in her own house. She has
Strength is to male as weakness is to female. Firstly, Ibsen highlights the role of Nora, the role of a weak female, by how he portrays her role in her marriage. Her husband is pressured into his role by the patriarchal society of the Victorian Age and thusly forces Nora into the role of an oppressed women. It appears, at first, that both Nora and Torvald, or Helmer, are content with assuming outdated, restricted gender roles set within their middleclass marriage, but it soon becomes clear that Nora is not the ditzy bauble that Torvald thinks she is (Fisher and Jibler). In the opening scene in act one, Torvald institutes for the audience his ownership of Nora as a pet when he says, “Is that my squirrel rummaging around? ... When did my squirrel get in?” (Ibsen 860). Torvald forces his wife to be compliant by calling her other patronizing names such as his "my wastrel" and "my little prodigal." An important, feminine weakness in the Victorian age is society’s requirement that men be responsible for the legal and financial affairs of women. Torvald keeps her in a subservient position by giving her no credit for understanding financial issues, or for being able to manage money. And, he fails in resisting the dictates of society as he is too full of pride and too accustomed by his society and his role in it to forgive Nora her misdemeanors made out of loving
Yes, men are built to do harder labor, but if given the chance women can find a way around it. In extension and relation to the play, the character Mrs. Linde enters the plot very early and refutes the idea that women cannot take care of finances and can do things without a man. She is basically an old childhood friend of Nora 's who has come into town to look for work. Mrs. Linde 's husband died leaving her a widow and ultimately she is jobless. After Mrs. Linde was widowed, she took care of her dying mother and young brothers offering them a better life while doing most of the work. Mrs. Linde become somewhat of a mentor, since she helps Nora cover the secret money she owes Krogstad. In the early dialogues between Mrs. Linde and Nora, Mrs. Linde insinuates the dollhouse theme by belittling Nora 's meek way of life. Mrs. Linde enlightens, "How kind you are Nora...for you know so little of the burdens and troubles of life...My dear! Small household cares and that sort of thing!-You are a child, Nora" (Ibsen 867). When Nora hears this she is no less than heated, because even by her friend she is seen as little more than a child. Mrs. Linde not believing in Nora is also a driving force that pushes Nora to end her submission to her husband and society’s