Separate Spheres In A Doll's House

A Doll’s House embodies the Victorian period. Men and women’s roles during this period became more differentiated than any time in history. In earlier centuries, it was usual for women to work alongside their husband and brothers in the family business. It was known for women to partake in domestic duties. As the 19th century progressed, men increasingly committed to their work. Wives daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants. Ibsen focused on portraying these Gender Roles and Separate spheres between the relationship of Nora and Torvald, and the opposite roles of men and women of the victorian era between the relationship of Mrs. Linde and Krogstad. The two sexes in that time period adapt to what Victorians thought of as “separate spheres”. Separate spheres refer to the man and wife only being together only at breakfast and at lunch. It is not exactly stated in A Doll’s House the times at which the married couples meet, but the idea of a limited time for the couples to speak and see each other is present in Ibsen’s work of A Doll’s House.
The ideology of Separate Spheres on a definition of the natural characteristics of women and men. Women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior
Being what some may call “forward” in the company of men suggested a worrying sexual appetite. Women were assumed to desire marriage because it allowed them to become mothers rather than to pursue sexual or emotional satisfaction. This is present in Ibsen’s portraying the character Nora’s relationship difficulty in understanding the hardships of her relationships. Although the reader of today looks at the relationship situation present in A Doll’s House between Nora and Torvald as bad, Nora does not exactly understand how. This is due to her ignorance of what to look for in terms of emotional and sexual