Henrik Ibsen was a nineteenth century playwright who pioneered realism in drama. He wrote during a time in which very specific gender roles dominated life, especially for women, who found themselves bound to their home and their husbands, lacking a voice of their own. The influence of that society is evident in Ibsen’s works, many of which sought to analyze and critique different aspects of it. Ibsen did not hold back with regard to challenging even the most widely accepted societal norms; this led to many of his plays becoming extremely controversial. Chief among those plays are A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler. However, Ibsen himself said, “A Doll’s House is a social problem play, while Hedda Gabler is merely a problem play.” Though these plays and their protagonists are quite similar, at heart they are entirely different. One centers on societal norms, while the other centers on the actions of its protagonist.
The social climate in the late nineteenth century was still strongly governed by Victorian values, which is clearly portrayed in both plays. One example of this is the great distaste most felt toward expressions of sexuality. People, especially women, were supposed to be almost entirely covered up when outside their bedroom. It also wasn’t acceptable to bring up anything remotely sexual in conversation, or to write about it. Whenever anything of that nature would be brought up, it had to be in the form of subtle euphemisms; a clear example of this in Hedda Gabler is the many references to Hedda having “filled out on the journey” (pg. 162) during her honeymoon with George, to refer to her suspected pregnancy. The most prevalent aspect of societal constraints at the time, however, is the weight of gender role...
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...he faces, and the devious way in which she deals with it.
Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House are two plays strongly connected by similar protagonists. Both also took place in what was then modern society, amidst constraining Victorian values; values such as the suppression of sexuality and the relegating of the sexes to traditional roles. The difference is that one protagonist, Nora Helmer, is merely a vehicle for providing a candid critique of society. This, when taken with the realistic nature of the play, is what makes the play so powerful, and what made it tough for nineteenth century audiences to accept. The other, Hedda Tesman, is herself the subject of the play she appears in; the society she lives in merely adds to the effect of realism to draw audiences into the play, and acts as a complement to her, emphasizing the features that make her so unique.
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, a drama written in the midst of an 1879, middle-class, suburban Europe, he boldly depicts a female protagonist. In a culture with concern for fulfilling, or more so portraying a socially acceptable image, Nora faces the restraints of being a doll in her own house and a little helpless bird. She has been said to be the most complex character of drama, and rightfully so, the pressure of strict Victorian values is the spark that ignites the play's central conflicts. Controversy is soon to arise when any social-norm is challenged, which Nora will eventually do. She evolves throughout the play, from submissive housewife to liberated woman. It seems as though what took women in America almost a century to accomplish, Nora does in a three-day drama. Ibsen challenges the stereotypical roles of men and women in a societally-pleasing marriage. He leads his readers through the journey of a woman with emerging strength and self-respect. Nora plays the typical housewife, but reveals many more dimensions that a typical woman would never portray in such a setting.
Women in most cultures have been designated as second to men and in some instances, considered below male children as well. With the passage of time women gained respect and the right for equality. Although gender discrimination remains, a lot of progress has been achieved. Literature is a one of the facets of the human race that reflects the culture change of people. William Shakespeare’s King Lear portrays the patriarchal system of the Renaissance era, which leaves women completely dependent on the male head of household. In Henrik Ibsen’s Doll House, set in the modern era, there is still a patriarchal system but women have just a little more freedom. The article, The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen by Joan Templeton, analyzes the gender subordination in A Doll House. Comparing and contrasting the themes of the two plays followed by consideration of the article’s research on the theme in A Doll House, assists in developing an understanding of the gradual progression of women’s freedom to be their “true selves” through equality with men. The “true self” is a person's character that is masked by a false portrayal designed to appeal to others.
In two of Ibsen's most famous works, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, the main characters are females who strive to be self-motivated beings. Because of the male-oriented society that dominates their lives, which resembles the world women had to deal with at the time when Ibsen created his works, the confined characters demonstrate their socially imposed roles. "Ibsen's Nora is not just a woman arguing for female liberation; she is much more. She embodies the comedy as well as the tragedy of modern life," insisted Einar Haugen, a doyen of American Scandinavian studies, over twenty years later, after feminism has resurfaced as an international movement (Templeton 111). Many people admire Ibsen for portraying Hedda and Nora as women who are able to take action and escape the conventional roles expected of them.
A man, intoxicated and impoverished, lay on the dirty streets of patriarchal Norway, and as the jeering citizens sauntered by, they could have never guessed that this man, Henrik Ibsen, would be the Prometheus of women’s rights and the creator of the modern play. Having been born in 1828, Ibsen lived through various examples of the subjection of women within the law, such as Great Britain allowing men to lock up and beat their wives “in moderation” (Bray 33). Therefore, Ibsen was known for his realistic style of writing within both poetry and plays, which usually dealt with everyday situations and people (31). Focusing on the rights of women, Ibsen’s trademark was “...looking at these problems without the distortions of romanticism” and often receiving harsh criticism for doing so (31). In an attempt to support his family, Ibsen became a pharmaceutical apprentice, but after three years he abandoned this profession and began writing poetry. After an apprenticeship in the theater, he began writing his own plays, including a drama in verse, Peer Gynt (31). While working and writing in Norway, Ibsen and several social critics observed “...the penalty society pays when only half of its members participate fully as citizens”, deciding to flee Norway in hopes of finding a more accepting social environment (33). Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House, his most famous work about women suffering through the oppressive patriarchal society, while living primarily in Germany and Italy where he “...was exposed to these social norms and tensions to a much greater extent than he would have been had he remained solely in Norway” (32). While Sweden, Norway, and Denmark began to grant legal majority to women, Ibsen understood the legal improvements f...
The feminist Lois Wyse once stated, “Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.” Women should express remorse for their strengths, when men should feel guilt when exposing their weaknesses. Wyse believed that women should have been able to show their strengths in their oppressive societies instead of covering them up. The 19th century setting in the two plays, A Doll House and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, caused much grief in both Nora and Hedda. They both lived in Europe during the 1800’s where males dominated the way society ran. Ibsen created an environment for women to question the society they lived in. Nora and Hedda, two feminists living in a masculine household bereft of happiness, desired to evade their unhappy life at home under the guidance of a man. Eventually, both women escaped from their husband’s grasps, but Hedda resorted to suicide in order to leave. Nora agreed with Lois Wyse by showing her strengths with pride to everybody, while Hedda hid her strengths like a coward by killing herself. Ibsen used numerous literary elements and techniques to enhance his writing and to help characterize the two protagonists. Nora, characterized as a benevolent and strong person, left her husband to explore the beliefs in society and to interpret ideas herself. Unlike Nora, the belligerent, selfish Hedda destroyed the lives of people around her just to take her own life in the end. Even though it appeared that Nora abandoned all responsibility for her children and hid an insidious secret from her husband, Nora showed greater fortitude than Hedda in the way she faced the obstacles of her life.
Phylogeny versus misogyny, arguable one of the greatest binary oppositions in a work of literature, is present in Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 Norwegian play A Doll’s House. The title itself suggests a misogynist view, while the work mainly consists of feminist ideology, as Ibsen was a supporter of the female as an independent, rather than a dependent on a male. Nora knew herself that her husband did not fully respect her, and this became a major conflict in the play as Nora progressively became more self-reliant in the play. Ibsen created Nora to give an example for all women, showing that they are more than what their husbands make of them. The misogynistic views in the play can be seen through Nora’s husband Torvald, due to the fact that he believed, as the majority of males did at the time, that women were not equal to them socially. This opposition caused a major conflict between the couple that progressed throughout the stage production.
Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler portrays the societal roles of gender and sex through Hedda as a character trying to break the status quo of gender relations within the Victorian era. The social conditions and principles that Ibsen presents in Hedda Gabler are of crucial importance as they “constitute the molding and tempering forces which dictate the behavior of all the play's characters” with each character part of a “tightly woven social fabric” (Kildahl). Hedda is an example of perverted femininity in a depraved society intent on sacrificing to its own self-interest and the freedom and individual expression of its members. It portrays Nineteenth Century unequal relationship problems between the sexes, with men being the independent factor and women being the dependent factor. Many of the other female characters are represented as “proper ladies” while also demonstrating their own more surreptitious holdings of power through manipulation. Hedda Gabler is all about control and individualism through language and manipulation and through this play Ibsen shows how each gender acquires that or is denied.
Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House examines a woman’s struggle for independence in her marriage and social world. Through the use of character change, Ibsen conveys his theme that by breaking away from all social expectations, we can be true to ourselves. When Ibsen presents Nora Helmer, we see a “perfect” wife, who lives in a “perfect” house with a “perfect” husband and children. The Helmer children have a nanny that raises them. By having the nanny, Nora has the freedom to come and go as she pleases. Torvald Helmer, Nora’s husband, will begin a new job as bank manager, so they will be rich, which will make her “perfect” life even better. Torvald even calls Nora pet names like “my sweet little lark” (Ibsen 1567) and “my squirrel” (Ibsen 1565). These names may seem to be harmless and cute little nicknames, but the names actually show how little he thinks of her. “Torvald uses derogatory diminutives to address Nora” (Kashdan 52). Torvald talks down to her. Nora is “regarded as property rather than a partner” (Drama for Students 112). He isn’t treating her like a real person. In Torvald eyes, she isn’t an equal. “Nora is viewed as an object, a toy, a child, but never an equal” (Drama for Students 109).
English A1 Oral Presentation Transcript Portrayal of Sexism in Henrik Ibsen’s ‘The Doll’s House’ Ibsen was a pioneer of the realistic social drama. Unlike playwrights who came before him, he was very concerned with portraying realistic social settings and illustrating a conflict resulting from social pressures and mores. Ibsen also endeavors to show the blatant sexism rampant in the country at the time. This is shown In part by the unequal nature of Torvald and Nora’s marriage.
The characters of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Hedda Gabler have problems relating to and surrounding their feelings towards the expectations presented to them by their society. The motivation behind their actions denote a fear of losing their respectability and status in their towns while implying a desire to be free of the expectations on them. The looming punishment of losing reputation and credibility in a community forces the characters in these plays to tiptoe around each other while trying to gain an upper hand and not be exposed in a possible scandal. The character’s actions are driven by a fear of losing respect in the community, being deemed disgraceful by neighbors, and damaging the character they have been building in the eyes
Society’s expectation of how a person should act, specifically, is commonly present in A Doll’s House. Unbalanced relationships in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House are shown through the symbolism of a doll. A doll is a representation of an ideal human being, often used as a toy for children. A doll represents what a human being should want to be and what little girls should grow up to be, this human is considered as the “ideal person.” For example the saying “I got all dolled up for a party,” it is an informal interpretation of one dressing smartly or attractively. Characters in A Doll’s House live according to the assurance and pressure of society in the Victorian era. These characters are all very different and divided as a result of their background, beliefs, and intelligence. These unbalanced relationships shown through the symbolism of a doll are commonly displayed among the main characters, and minor characters, and can also be shown through social class. When first opening this play we meet the main characters, Nora Helmer and Torvald Helmer, these two are husband and wife and are very important in developing theme and character development.
In its historical context A Doll’s House was a radical play which forced its audience to question the gender roles which are constructed by society and make them think about how their own lives are a performance for Victorian society.
Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, written in 1879, makes many bold statements about nineteenth century society. Ibsen uses his play to write about traditional marital roles, women’s independence, and crime. Each individual characters started out as one person and evolved into someone different by the end of the play, be it either good or bad.
“A Doll’s House” gives the reader a firsthand view at how gender roles affected the characters actions and interactions throughout the play. The play helps to portray the different struggles women faced during the 19th century with gender roles, and how the roles affected their relationships with men as well as society. It also helps to show the luxury of being a male during this time and how their higher status socially over women affected their relationships with women and others during this time period. Torvald Helmer starts off the story with a new job as a bank manager. He has a wife, Nora, who does not have a job in the workforce since that was the man's role.
Although Ibsen portrays A Doll House as a Realistic play due to the societal problems, which include women, illnesses, and laws; he attempts to address society and cause change within the Norwegian society without openly talking about these issues. The actions of characters, such as Nora, represent the fact that an individual can make progress in societal reform. Therefore, Ibsen’s identification and attempt to change society symbolizes a Realistic desire of finding solutions to problems. The ultimate goal of Realism is to better everyday life for the majority of people, while trying to deepen the understanding of society’s problems.