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Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a powerful play that has challenged the social norm about gender roles, marriage, religion and especially gender equality in the 19th century. The Norwegian society has accepted the play’s idea and has turned Norway into one of the countries with the best gender equality index in the world. Yet, with a Vietnamese cultural background, the perspective would be different due to the difference in tradition. This text is juxtaposing the interpretation of a middle aged female from Vietnam and another in Norway regarding gender roles, religion and marriage and thrklkl

The play by Henrik Ibsen demonstrates the stark difference between expectations for women and men in terms of financial support, in terms of roles within the family, education and the difference of possibilities of jobs. Nora, the main character of the play, cannot borrow money without her husband’s consent, she holds the position of caring after the children, tending the house, welcoming guests while her husband is locked away in his studies. And as women in 19th century Norway, Nora and her nanny cannot hold a position at a bank but have to resolve to do menial labour such as forsaking their children and become a nanny or copying documents to which Nora thought it “felt manly”. The difference in expectations for the two genders here is juxtaposed cleverly to show how women rights and choices were limited. For a Norwegian woman, the message sent via this play is something their society has emphasized on and achieved. They would consider the 19th century society to represent an antiquated mindset. In the Vietnamese culture, women often took up menial jobs while men pursue higher education and have a wider choice of jobs. However, as stri...

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...and considerate than a relationship of companionship. As much as a Norwegian woman find it sensible for a divorce in this case, Vietnamese women, especially middle aged would frown upon divorce as in the Vietnamese culture, a husband and wife must stay together despite conflicts.

“A Doll’s House” has different interpretation based on the audience, thus would have different impacts and meanings depending on the audience. A Norwegian woman would consider this play as a prime text that has sparked feminism in Norway while a middle aged Vietnamese would interpret this more as a tragic love story and would not be see the feminist message as clearly. The difference in perspective resulted in different interpretations of “A Doll’s House” is a prime example of why authors should take into consideration the context of the audience in order to deliver the message efficiently.