A Doll's House Research Paper

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the situations very poorly in this play by keeping everything a secret. The way that women were viewed in this time period created a barrier that she could not overcome. The decisions that had the potential to be good were otherwise molded into appalling ones. Women should have just as many rights as men and should not be discriminated by gender; but they should also accept consequences in the same way without a lesser or harsher punishment.

At the start of the play, Nora seems humble and responds positively to her husband’s humor and lightheartedness. “[smiling quietly and happily] ‘You haven’t any idea how many expenses we skylarks and squirrels have, Torvald.’ ‘You are an odd little soul. Very like your father. You always find some new way of wheedling money out of me,”… (Ibsen, pg.8). Ibsen’s view of human life was much tilted toward men in this play and he did a good job making the wife very doll-like in her husband’s eye. “She is to live for his sake only, to have no other thought than of him, no feelings, no opinions, save those which are his” (Jaeger, Henrik Bernhard. Henrik Ibsen: A Critical Biography. Benjamin Blom, inc., New York 1972, pg 240). She is excited about all the money that Torvald’s new job will

Bibliography: 1. The drama of Ibsen and Strindberg was consisted a good critical analysis over A Doll’s House that helped me in understanding Ibsen’s views as well as an outside source. I was able to easily find facts and normative statements that helped my writing of this essay go a lot smoother. The point of this book is to break down the elements and get into the author’s head to understand his views while also being critical. It helped change my opinion of the author by gathering information I didn’t already know and hopefully made my information more or less accurate. 2. Henrik Ibsen: A Critical Biography was a good source because it focused more on Ibsen’s real life and how he compared it in his writings. Finding out some of his childhood memories and more information on his life helped me understand why he wrote some of the things he did. I thought it was interesting that Nora was actually a person named Laura, but I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t just use the name Laura. This book was a good representation and probably one of my best sources to use for which I had a hard time deciding what quotes to use since there were so many. 3. Gender Bias: Roadblock to Sustainable Development was an excellent source in referring to the bias and discrimination of women. It showed hypothetical situations with family’s where only one parent or two parents share the same roles. Most of the situations were disasters but made me realize that without either one can make our lives miserable. It really made me think twice on what women are capable of and they shouldn’t be underestimated. This became a good source during one part of my essay but couldn’t fulfill any other part. However, I am glad I found this since it proved a very good point in my writing. 4. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership at the University of Rochester had good information and actual quotes for women rights activism including the famous Susan B. Anthony. I was able to find an incredible quote that went perfectly with what I was writing about. It’s also good to know about important moments in our nation’s history and the people that for the right of freedom. I was given a new perspective on how women felt when they were being taking advantage of. Makes me think twice before I let my bias take over. 5. The website compiled by Barber, Susan E. was a great timeline of all the women’s history over the past 100 years. There were so many quotes that I could have used and I had a hard time picking. However, I am happy with my selection and wished I could have used more. I ended up learning more than I wanted too because I was interested and a bit ignorant on women’s rights history and that helped me form an opinion I didn’t know that I had.