Gender Roles In A Doll's House And Trifles?

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In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, women weren’t given any voice. Their lives began with fathers making them feel powerless, and lead to their husbands treating them with the same principles. Gender roles were an important aspect and major issue of this time, women wanted a different life. “A Doll’s House” By Henrik Ibsen and “Trifles” By Susan Glaspell show great detail of how the female characters were treated powerless by the men in their life. Women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were powerless. Their roles were to become grown, get married, mother children and become a housewife. “A Doll’s House” and “Trifles” both show how women of this time period were powerless. Their husbands were superior to their wives, holding …show more content…

“Women have the domestic lifestyle and men have the public lifestyle” (McKee 9). McKee explains how women are given their roles to take care of children and the home because of the title of a mother. Women weren’t considered emotionally stable to be the provider in the family in the nineteenth century. (9) McKee defines the term masculinity as being characterized by dominance and aggression, whereas femininity being passive and submissive. “During these time periods if men or women switched these traits it was known to be unacceptable and inappropriate” (McKee 33). The role of the wife in Ibsen’s “A Doll House” shows how the female tried to take dominant trait and it backfired on her. Nora also held a secret from her husband, due to the anger it would cause. Which fits the masculinity description as being …show more content…

Not only was gender role stereotypes a major issue, discrimination not only by their husbands but by society was as well. Susan Cruea describes how women in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were victims of social and economic discrimination. Women’s choices were limited to two things, marriage and motherhood. Women were the domestic ones, while men being the superior ones (2). “Women were forced to be dependent on their husband’s for financial support” (Cruea 2). This was unfair, being a victim of discrimination and feeling forced to rely on your husband to meet financial need should have been sociably unacceptable. However, it wasn’t in this time period. “A Doll’s House” tells how Nora was left to take care of the financial responsibilities while Torvald was sick, and this situation led on to cause many problems in their marriage. Nora was unsure how to get money in this situation, made a deceitful decision, and hid it from her husband. This was an example of why the women were powerless in this time, it was clear they were unable to handle the issues they were faced

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