A Doll's House Patriarchal Society Essay
In A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen uses contrasting characters to explore the ideas of a patriarchal society and how that society can be damaging to relationships.
During the expository act, Ibsen shows the contrasting roles of Nora, an ignorant housewife and Torvald, her provider, to portray how patriarchal societies affect relationships. In a patriarchal society men are cast as the ones with power, regulating the money and controlling their wives. In these societies women are limited to domestic roles, usually as mothers and wives. Ibsen uses different language registers to show contrast between Nora’s naive character and Torvald’s controlling character. Nora’s character in the expository act is one ignorance with Nora continuously ‘pooh-ing’ …show more content…
Torvald shows his power over Nora gained through the patriarchal society by the use of nomenclature. By calling Nora ‘my little skylark’, ‘my little songbird’ and ‘my little squirrel’, he diminishes Nora by relating her to a small, helpless animal and by continuously calling her ‘little’, subtly reminding her that she has little power compared to him. The obvious imbalance of power is also demonstrated by the separation of Nora from ‘the business world’ and Torvald’s authority. Torvald’s office is a visual enigma to the audience for it is a space into which the audience never sees her enter, rather Nora staying in the living room which is her ‘domestic space’. While Torvald attends to bank matters, Nora contrastingly ‘tidies’ the space and making the room neat while Torvald is busy being the ‘breadwinner’ of the family. This shows the distinct differences in their roles in their household, with Nora only being in charge of making their home ‘pretty’ while Torvald responsibility is the ‘important issues’ such as work and money. Torvald uses this power to remain in control of Nora, for example, when
During the expository act, Ibsen shows the contrasting roles of Nora, an ignorant housewife and Torvald, her provider, to portray how patriarchal societies affect relationships. In a patriarchal society men are cast as the ones with power, regulating the money and controlling their wives. In these societies women are limited to domestic roles, usually as mothers and wives. Ibsen uses different language registers to show contrast between Nora’s naive character and Torvald’s controlling character. Nora’s character in the expository act is one ignorance with Nora continuously ‘pooh-ing’ …show more content…
Torvald shows his power over Nora gained through the patriarchal society by the use of nomenclature. By calling Nora ‘my little skylark’, ‘my little songbird’ and ‘my little squirrel’, he diminishes Nora by relating her to a small, helpless animal and by continuously calling her ‘little’, subtly reminding her that she has little power compared to him. The obvious imbalance of power is also demonstrated by the separation of Nora from ‘the business world’ and Torvald’s authority. Torvald’s office is a visual enigma to the audience for it is a space into which the audience never sees her enter, rather Nora staying in the living room which is her ‘domestic space’. While Torvald attends to bank matters, Nora contrastingly ‘tidies’ the space and making the room neat while Torvald is busy being the ‘breadwinner’ of the family. This shows the distinct differences in their roles in their household, with Nora only being in charge of making their home ‘pretty’ while Torvald responsibility is the ‘important issues’ such as work and money. Torvald uses this power to remain in control of Nora, for example, when