Women granted the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment of the United states. Women had a long road of suffrage before gaining their rights as human and the same equality as men. Literature before the 19th century reflects upon the treatment towards women at the time. Male superiority caused women to make many sacrifices by not being able to purse they own ambitions , careers and identity. For example, in the play “ The Doll's House” by Henrik Ibsen, the marriage of Torvald and Nora Helmer was unstable because of the gender inequality. Being controlled by her father and handle over to her husband's authority , Nora was not able to purse her own desires , and identity . Similarly in the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the marriage between scientist Aylmer and his wife Georgiana falls apart because he's in love with the idea of perfection and not his wife. Geogiana jeopardizes her life to satisfy Aylmer’s passion of perfection. Another literature that reflects on the same idea is the novel, “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Sonya pursues the cruel life of a prostitute because her father is incapable of supporting her family. Sonya sacrifices her reputation to keep her family alive. The sacrifices these three women make take them all in different path.
Women start sacrificing from the time they are born, from being taught how to dress up and taught all the house chorus instead of being educated. The father passes his daughter’s hand to their husband and tie her to another bond. In a marriage a strong foundation is required to build a stable relationship. Many times marriage is defined as the male being the dominant provider, while the female takes upon the rol...
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...ociety expected of her. She makes the decision to forsake her duties towards her children and her husband to go fulfill her duties to herself to find a identity. Women even today in many cultures go through the same situations as Nora and Georgiana sacrificing they identities and desires.
Works Cited
Weinstein, Cindy. "The Invisible Hand Made Visible: The Birth-Mark." Nineteenth-Century Literature 48.(1993): 44-73. Humanities Source. Web. 19 May 2014.
Rogers, Katharine M. (1985): ‘‘A Doll House in a Course on Women in Literature,’’ in Approaches to Teaching Ibsen’s A Doll House, Shafer, Yvonne (ed.). New York: Modern Language Association, p.82.
Nesar,Uddin.(2013): “Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Komol in Saratchandra’s Shesh Proshno: A comparative study from feminist perspective,” in International Journal of English and Literature. Bangladesh, p.408-412.
In the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, several literary lenses can be used to better help understand the storyline. The most prominent lens used throughout this play is gender. It plays a large role in the story A Doll’s House. Nora, the protagonist is faced with many challenges because of the normalities of 19th century society. She must overcome these difficulties throughout the play.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, and Writing. By Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 2011. 1709-757. Print.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth Mahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2002. 916-966.
Kate Chopin's work, The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, were written at a time when men dominated women in every aspect of life. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in The Awakening, and Nora, the protagonist in A Doll's House, are trapped in a world dominated by men. The assumed superiority of their husbands traps them in their households. Edna and Nora share many similarities, yet differ from each other in many ways.
Edin Stachowiak Jean Forst English 1002 7 August 2016 TITLE INTRODUCTION Until the 1920s, women were viewed as worthless in the eyes of the law, men, and society. In Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House,” a clear image of the tyranny that women undergo in society. THESIS STATEMENT: The play depicts the treatment that women subjugated by men such as the lack of love and respect towards a wife, lack of justice and equality from society, and an unbalanced fairness and freedom.
Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen." PMLA 104.1 (1989): 28-40. JSTOR. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. .
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House. Lives Through Literature: A Thematic Anthology. Ed. Helane Levine Keating et al. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. 782-838.
Henrik Ibsen’s famous play A Doll’s House was first published in 1879 and contains elements and characters that appear to support feminism, and drew attention from the women’s rights movement. However, Ibsen himself said that he was not a feminist; rather, his play is about the human nature in general, and is not specifically about women’s rights. Over the years, this was the view that most scholars used to interpret the play, but more recently scholars have produced an opposing argument. Margaret Stetz, one such scholar, writes that “To call Ibsen a feminist playwright or to describe A Doll’s House as a drama in favor of women’s rights is no longer controversial” (150). The most obvious example of Ibsen’s view on gender roles is the relationship between Nora and Helmer and, more specifically, Nora’s self-discovery at the end of the play.
“The Doll House”, by Henrik Ibsen has a major theme of feminism issues. Nora the wife of Torvald, has done an ultimate favor for her husband but is now is having to pay back for this favor. While the reader knows what the wife Nora has done, we see the way she is treated by her husband Torvald. Leaving a wonder of why she would even do a favor for this vile man.
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and George Eliot’s Middlemarch are based on events from their personal experiences. The events that lead Ibsen to feel the need to write A Doll’s House makes his approach on the feminist stance a bit more unusual from other writers. Ibsen shows his realist style through modern views and tones that are acted out by the characters in this infamous story. In the viewers’ eyes, it is the women in A Doll’s House that makes it so popular, Nora and Christine give readers a real sense of Ibsen’s feminist stance. George Eliot makes her feminist stance in Middlemarch in much the same way as Ibsen. In Middlemarch, one of the main female characters, Dorothea, wants control of her life and chooses happiness over wealth. These female characters from these well-known works are represented in such a way to give readers a grasp of the social conditions involving women.
Women of the 19th century were trapped in their societal roles. There was no way out. Rights were unattainable: no matter how many rights movements occurred, such as the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights. A women’s place in society was determined by their husband’s status; there was little to no way to obtain a job, a women could not even decide for herself whether or not she wanted to be married or have a child. The male role in the woman’s life took over all decisions and property. Women were seen as the property of men, like their dolls. This idea of a women being a doll was especially evident in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian dramatist, he became known as the father of modern realistic drama. He became popular because of the ridicule he received for “revealing a women’s need for independence from male authority” (feminist literature). While most characters in the play remained obedient to their societal roles, one woman took her life into her own hands. Mrs. Linde, after the death of her husband, learned to stand on her own two feet with no ones help. She got a job, a house and learned to stand on her own two feet. Even though Mrs. Linde played a minor role in the play, her life became a model for the feminist movements because she defied female stereotypes for her time period.
..." A Doll's House," by Henrik Ibsen portrays the genders role of nineteenth century women and men in society. Torvald's perception of his wife of how she is a helpless creature shows the overall role which women fill. Women are responsible for the purity of the world through their influence in the home and through the upbringing of their children. They had to beg and ask for permission to do certain activities and essential things.
Henrik Ibsen paints a sad picture of the sacrificial role of women throughout all social economical classes in his play “A Doll House”. The story is set in the late 19th century and all minor female characters had to overcome adversity to the expense of love, family and self-realization, in order to lead a comfortable life. While the main female protagonist Nora struggles with her increasingly troubled marriage, she soon realizes, she needs to change her life to be happy as the play climaxes. Her journey to self-discovery is achieved by the threat of her past crime and her oppressing husband, Torvald and the society he represents. The minor female characters exemplifying Nora’s ultimate sacrifice.
...on as a disgrace to society because women are not expected to leave there husbands. Nora proved that she can withstand enormous amounts of pressure and that she is capable of doing things when she is determined. She is eventually freed from that doll ouse, as she calls it, and it allows her to leave without being afraid to learn about her and the world around her.
As “A Doll’s House” is a realistic drama each of Ibsen’s character encapsulate a role in his society. Nora as the main protagonist is branded by others as “an extravagant little thing”, and represents what was typical of a housewife. The social construct of a mother’s role restricts her behaviour and actions as a woman and individual. Not only is Nora the subservient woman but her relationship with her husband, Torvald, is reminiscent to that of a father and his “little girl”, reflecting the idea that ownership of a woman is acquired by her husband from her father.