A Doll's House Feminism Essay

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Change is inevitable, no matter how hard people may try to evade it, change is just around the corner, waiting. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, change came when she realized the reality of the situation with her, and her husband, Torvald. The novella follows the struggle of Nora Helmer as she is blackmailed of fraud, even if it was under a life or death circumstance of her husband. A Doll’s House is renowned for incorporating feminist perspectives by placing Nora’s character through specific events, which helped her to see the gravity of her situation, and how those key events sparked Nora’s decision to shape the feministic approach in the novella.

Most books follow the Hero's Journey for the main protagonist, which consists of multiple
Before, Nora had become objectified to a doll, but after she perceives herself as a human being, even exclaiming “I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being” (Ibsen p. 78). Nora sees the way Torvald did not treat her as equal and now desires to be treated as such. Not only that but Nora’s stirrings of emotion caused her to discover that since Torvald was just like her father, she had no room to mature and become an independent woman. Ibsen explains “[if] I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you any longer” (Ibsen p. 77). Staying with Torvald would serve no purpose to her character, so those desires became the foundation for Nora to go out and find out who she was as a human being. Nora ultimately squelches the female role within media that woman should be submissive to men by dismissing Torvald’s excuse “Are they not your duties to your husband and your children?” with a counter “Duties to myself” (Ibsen p. 78). Above all else, Nora is allowed to make her own decisions in life rather than stay chained to a man with the intent of objectifying and using her. With this feminist-like mindset, Nora estranged her family because she no longer wanted to be considered an object and to search for herself out in the

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