Discuss_the_Representation_of_Women_in_a_Doll's_House

‘A woman cannot be herself in modern society’ (Ibsen’s preliminary notes for A Dolls House.) Discuss the representation of the women in A Dolls House in the light of this statement. In discussing whether or not a woman can be herself in modern society, we must first address the historical context in which Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House; which was in the late nineteenth century. In this period, it was traditional for a woman of the bourgeois society to take on the role of a house wife and mother, and be entirely dependent upon their husbands’ for any financial support they required. Ibsen has played on this traditionalist view and created realism in what can only be described as a feminist play. In this period it was believed that men were superior to women, Ibsen has played on this idea by portraying the character Nora as a strong-willed free thinking woman, who by the final scene in the play has managed to change the roles between herself and her husband, Torvald. David Thomas believes that: “Once married, the women find they have clearly defined an essentially subordinate role in relation to men, whose property they legally and socially became.” (David Thomas, 1990 p.68) Men in the late nineteenth century where thought of as insensitive to a females needs and emotions, Ibsen successfully showed this in his play through the characters Torvald and Krogstad, whilst making Dr. Ranke the sympathetic male character. Our first impression of Nora is that she is child-like in many ways, for example, eating the macaroons when Torvald tells her not to, but as the play progresses so does our view of Nora. We learn that she is far from the child-like girl who plays on her husband’s expectations of her as a wife and as a mother, and that she is infact an intellectual thinker and more independent than she herself realises, and that she only pretends to be the ‘doll wife’ that her husband wishes her to be, in order to keep the peace in the family home, and also because she is under the false pretence that Torvald is worthy of her love. David Thomas thinks that Nora acts in her child-like, irresponsible manner because it is the only way she can find to relate to her husband, this is not exactly the case, as Nora believes she must act this way to please her husband in order to get what she wants, for example when Nora asks Torvald for a favour and he asks what it is she plays on his weakness for her by saying, “Squirrel would do lots of pretty tricks for you if you granted her wish.” (Act 2, p60) This shows how Nora is playing the part of a ‘doll wife’ whilst also trying to show her husband that she does have a mind of her own. However, late in the play, Nora tells her husband of how she is unhappy with the way she has to act in order to be accepted in both her own family and her marriage; “…I’ve been your doll-wife, just as I used to be papa’s doll-child.” (Act 3, p.98) This emphasises the lack of freedom Nora has had since being a child, as she has always been expected to be something other than herself, and act in a certain manner that is respectable within her bourgeois lifestyle, so she has never been able to fully express herself as an individual in order to keep her reputation as the respected Torvald’s wife. The only time in the play where Nora has actually been able to be herself is when she was dancing. She may have danced ‘wild’ according to Torvald, but to her it was the only time she was capable of being herself without feeling guilty, and been able to help relieve some frustration in the dancing. Ibsen also shows realism by using the expectations of society at the time, which were; marriage, children and respect for their husband’s. This is why there was tensions over the ending of A Doll’s House, because at the time it was written it was unthought-of that a woman, a wife and mother of the bourgeois society would just up and leave her husband and children for a life of poverty, even if it was their independence of which had to be sacrificed. This did result in Ibsen changing the ending for certain audiences, but as the play progressed through the twentieth century, Ibsen became known for creating a feminist play that considered many of the restraints on a women in the nineteenth century. “A Doll’s House has been seen as a landmark in our century’s most important social struggle, the fight against the dehumanizing oppression of women, particularly in the middle class family” (Ian Johnston, 2000) Nora lives in a society which is wholly governed by insensitive men of whom believe that women should stay in line with the traditionalist bourgeois social obligations of the time. Ibsen portrays this society by emphasising how the bourgeois life here is limiting, brutal and unforgiving for the female population, which helps maintain the realism of the social standards of the period in which the play is based. Ian Johnston for example, believes that “This society values money, contracts, and conventional respectability over anything else and has no room for people who do not fit comfortably into its exception.” And Ibsen shows all these, what are seen as negative morals in today’s standards of society, through the character Torvald. He shows how Torvald is prepared to give up a happy marriage for money and to keep his highly respected reputation. Torvald’s socially dictated role as the dominant partner makes life difficult for Nora to live as she has no means of being herself, making her depressed, and in the play even contemplates suicide when she finds out she has committed forgery and that when Torvald finds out, he may no longer love her. This is where we see the comparison between Nora and Mrs Linde’s social values. “Despite the pressures of social and economic determinism, both Mrs Linde and Nora, in there diametrically opposed ways; make conscious and responsible choices about their future lives as a result of painfully acquired experience. In both cases, their future lives will be fraught with problems (Mrs Linde as a step-mother, married to a social outcast, and Nora, fending for herself as a shunned divorcee), but both women have demonstrated their ability to face up to difficulties and seek for authentic solutions.” (David Thomas, 1990, p.73) Mrs Linde is another character in which Ibsen shows the restrictions upon women to be something their not in order to be accepted within society. Mrs Linde was previously in a loveless marriage, and Nora sympathises with this; “…. Oh, my poor darling, what you’ve gone through! And he didn’t leave you anything'” (Act 1, p.29) Nora does not understand the concept of a loveless marriage, as she and Torvald were in love when they got married. However, Ibsen uses Mrs Linde to show that women in the nineteenth century felt obligated to their families to marry into money in order to help their own families financially, and this is exactly why Mrs Linde married into a loveless relationship. Although, Mrs Linde is only accepted as an independent women in society because she has been widowed, and has no other alternative but to make her own living unless she wants to be poverty stricken, and rejected from the bourgeois society. In a way, Nora and Mrs Linde change roles in the play, as Nora craves the independence which Mrs Linde has, and Mrs Linde is willing to give up this independence in order to experience a fulfilment within herself in relation to love. Nora is willing to sacrifice the love of both her husband and her children so she can become independent and find some self-fulfilment within herself in order to become happy. However it would seem irresponsible had she not believed that her nanny was capable of being a mother figure to her children. She believes in her nanny’s ability due to the fact she gave up her own child so that she could get the job as nanny and become accepted within the bourgeois society, and refers to herself as ‘a poor-girl who was led astray’. This is also an example how Ibsen has managed to include another way in which society has limited a women from being herself and not following the traditional bourgeois ideals and obligations. Nora feels she has the determination needed to discover her real potential as a person rather than Torvald’s doll-wife and doll-mother, which Ibsen uses as realistic example of the struggle women are embarked with in order to find a sense of self. Nora feels she can no longer be what Torvald wants her to be; “I believe that I am first and foremost a human being, like you-or anyway, that I must try to become one. I know most people think as you do, Torvald, and I know there’s something of the sort to be found in books. But I’m no longer prepared to accept what people say and what’s written in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to find my own answer.” (Act 3, p.100) Here, Ibsen is tearing down the conventions of social realism in the period by using what in those days was seen as a unthinkable subject, where a woman fights for independence from her husband, and rejects the comfortable role in the bourgeois society as a doll-wife. Nora, for Ibsen, is symbolism for the feminist in Ibsen himself. He believes that women should have the right to be themselves in society, that they should not be the ‘property’ of their husband, but have the same rights a male does, and that as Nora says in the play, women should not be the only gender making all the sacrifices in their life and happiness. Torvald is typical of the pompousness of the males in this society as he is unwilling to give up his honour for the person he loves; “Nora, I would gladly work for you night and day, and endure sorrow and hardship for your sake. But no man can be expected to sacrifice his honour, even for the person he loves.” (Act 3, p.102) At this point Ibsen has decided to make it known that he has recognised the sacrifice that women have had to make in order to keep their husband and their societies happy and endure a what is perceived as advantaged lifestyle at the time. Through Nora he responds to Torvald’s accusation that men cannot give up their honour for the one they love; “Millions of women have done it.” (Act 3, p.102) This is a momentous point in the play in which Ibsen has gone against the pillars of society and claimed unfair prejudices against women, as they are the gender of which are made to sacrifice so much and men only gain through it. Thus a woman could not be herself in modern society in the late nineteenth century due to the fact that it was ruled by men and they formed the basis of the bourgeois society of which everyone tried to be a part of. Women in particular had to work hard to get into this society by becoming a ‘doll-wife’ to a highly respected masculine figure and sacrificing their own needs in order to be accepted into a comfortable, advantaged life. Ibsen himself showed the struggle women had to go through in order to maintain both this bourgeois idealistic state and also a women’s happiness, and through the characters of Nora, Mrs Linde and the Nanny, he emphasised that in this period of time, no woman could be truly happy being in the traditionalised social obligations of the nineteenth century, and that the only way for a women to survive was to become immune to heir feelings and accept the male dominated society to be within a highly respected lifestyle or they would have to try and fend for themselves in a world were it was only accepted that men worked while the women stayed at home. So in reality a woman would either have to put on an act, as Nora did in A Doll’s House or actually discover their own personalities and identities whilst being shunned by society. Bibliography Henrik Ibsen – A Doll’s House – Methuen Students Ed. – Translated by Michael Meyer – Commentary and Notes by Non Worrall – 1994 – Methuen Publishing Limited, London Stanley Weintraub – Ibsen’s A Doll’s House metaphor foreshadowed in Victorian fiction – nineteenth century fiction, Vol 13, No 1 pp.67-69 – June 1958 David Thomas – Henrik Ibsen- Macmillan – 1990 - Hong Kong Ian Johnston – on A Doll’s House – lecture notes in Liberal Studies 310 – Mialaspring University-college – Canada – July 2000 Christine M. Bird; Arthur Ganz – Hedda Gabler and Nora Helmer – PMLA, Vol 95, No 1, pp.105 –107 – January 1980 Michael Werth Gelber; Joan Templeton – Ibsen and Feminism – PMLA, Vol 104, No3, pp. 360-362 – May 1989 Sparknotes – A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen- Spark Publishing, New York – 2002 - China