Blog Post #4

Mauricio Arnal

3/17/2014

Intro to Drama

Gender Roles and Equality

       

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House was a play written in the late 19th century that deals with gender issues that are still ongoing today. In the late 18 hundreds men and women had clear gender roles in which men were the typically the head of the house hold and the main source of income in the house, while women were typically stay at home moms, taking care of the house and kids. During that time, women had minimal power and were seen as lesser than men. It was not until the 1920’s that women even gained the right to vote in the United States. Isben’s A Doll House is a revolutionary play that criticizes and shows those same gender roles in a way that is ahead of its time. By demonstrating the sacrifices of women in a way that shows a shift in power, A Doll House resonates and brings about gender role issues still debated making it a play that has stood the test of time and is still discussed to this day.

        Although at first, Nora seemed like a money-hungry wife that was more interested in her husbands wallet, throughout the story we learn of the true hard work and sacrifices that Nora has to perform in order for her family to get where they are. When Torvald becomes ill and has to move to the south of Italy, a very expensive trip, it is Nora who has the opportunity to step up as the man of the house and earn the money in order to pay for their expenses. She secretly got a copying job and “locked [herself] in and sat writing every evening till late in the night… sitting and working like that, earning money. It was almost like being a man.” (472-475) Although Nora had an amazing feat and stepped up greater than expected, she also knew the gender roles of her century and knew that telling her husband that she that earned the money would emasculate him. Nora therefore, decides to implicates herself and lies about where she got the money from. Not only does she earn the money in order to save her husband and family but she also has to lie about how she attained it and relinquish the respect and appraisal she deserves for doing so. The same type of sacrificial role is seen when Mrs. Linde marries her suitor simply because she “didn’t think [she] could turn him down.” (306) She didn’t do it for love, she made a selfless decision in order to take care of her bedridden mother and her two younger brothers which she had to care for.

        Ibsen’s A Doll House is a great play that deals with morality and gender roles. The play demonstrates various sacrificial roles by women across different economic classes. Through characters such as Nora and Mrs. Linde, the play raises gender issues that still resonate to this day. As sexism and the oppression of women has been an issue at large since the 18th century, this play has stood the test of time, as Ibsen evokes the millions of voices that speak out towards the morality of oppression and sexism towards women.