Henri Ibsen uses Nora in “A Doll's House” to portray the negative treatment of all women throughout society during the 19th century. In this play we find Nora being as fragile, nieve creature and progress to an individual independent woman. “A Doll's House” introduced woman as having her own purpose and goals.
Nora, as a woman, a wife, or a mother, behaves like a doll. She is under the control of the invisible hands and the pressures of patriarchal society. Ibsen protests against the position of women in a masculine society which is unfair and under the hegemony of male-dominated powers.
More specifically, its subject is of women's status in the society and their treatment by men, the lack of true love and respect for a wife by a husband, and the lack of justice and dignity in the treatment of women in the society itself. A Doll's House is a blooming field for feminist criticism.
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is a significant work as a model play in the rise of feminism of 19th century. Nora, the central female character, acts as the harbinger of feminism here. She is seen in the play as a rebellious female for establishing her own recognition as a human being.
Billington and Gelber, along with many others, seem to read Ibsen's classic as humanist rather than feminist, arguing that Ibsen's message was not that women should strive to find themselves, but that all people should engage in a search for true identity.
A Doll's House is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This play exposes the character or the role of a woman to take care of her husband and her children and she should always be dependent on her husband whereas the husband will be independent by himself.
Torvald treats Nora as if she was a child, like a doll. Nora feels imprisoned in a doll's house. Portraying sexist society where women are looked more down upon than men, Ibsen engages Nora in a household where little authority is given to her.
A Doll's House, with its door slam heard 'round the world, is regarded by many as the beginning of modern feminist literature.
Ibsen's character Nora Helmer is the symbol of women's freedom of twentieth century. researchers wanted to explore the transformation of Nora from a doll to a human being. contemporary women's plight in the society and Nora's stand against it. considered women to be weak and fragile.
In Henrik Ibsen “A Doll's House”, Nora Helmer, the beautiful wife of Torvald, is a representation of women's freedom. She loves to spend money, dress elegantly, and cares for her children. However, Nora's most important concern is charming her husband and being a perfect wife.
Feminist plays are not just about sex and gender, but also create dialogue around class, race, privilege, and other forms of oppression.
The main message of A Doll's House seems to be that a true (read: good) marriage is a joining of equals. The play centers on the dissolution of a marriage that doesn't meet these standards.
Conforming to society's stereotypical idea of a wife, Nora takes care of her children and performs daily chores, yet she questions if this is the life that she wishes to live as her dreams of becoming self-sufficient come to fruition highlighting the idea of gender inequality.
In “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen, Nora struggles under oppression due to her gender. Throughout her life, Nora played the role of a submissive woman to her father and her husband. Desire for domination provides Nora with difficult decisions.
She is both a victim of her circumstances and also at fault for actions which she committed. Nora is a victim. Throughout her entire life, she has never been taken seriously by anyone. She has been treated like a doll by both male characters in her life, her father and her husband, and has acted accordingly.
Nora is a symbol for feminism, and for every oppressed woman who is patronized and denied her independence and self-identity. She thus represents the right of every woman to personal freedom and identity and breaks the stereotype that a woman's only duty is towards her children and her spouse.
Ghosts is such a play, dealing with a shameful past and its influence on the main character, Mrs. Alving. Ibsen presents her as one of the 'new women' of her age; educated, free-thinking, opinionated, and self- willed. She is a woman who was adversely influenced by the mores of the society in which she lived.
The end of A Doll's House created enormous controversy in Ibsen's time. Many of the middle-class theater-goers were scandalized that a woman might leave her husband and, more importantly, her children.
An example of Torvald's misogyny is that he treats Nora like a child, or a pet, instead of a wife with equal value and opinions as his. He says to Nora “playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin,” when she presents to him the problems with their marriage (Ibsen 56).
Objectification and Sexism
Torvald's objectification of Nora is clear from the start, as he addresses her with dehumanizing epithets like “little singing bird” and “little squirrel of mine,” which cast Nora more as a pet, as a thing to be kept, than as a person with autonomy (3).
A Doll's House explores the issues of social convention, a woman's place in a patriarchal world, the price of independence and the nature of relationships.
“The Doll's House” explores the separation of social classes between the rich and poor families seen throughout. This is symbolized by the contrast of the lamp's importance to that of the rest of the doll's house. The lamp is overlooked by most of the characters who observe the house.
At its core, feminism is the belief in full social, economic, and political equality for women.