Henrik Ibsen, in his book “A Doll House” lays out a storyline through which one is able to understand how feminism is enforced through people’s behaviours and actions. The book details the story of Nora and Torvald Helmer who have been married for the last eight years with children. It is from their relationship that we are able to understand the concept of feminism and how widespread it was in latter days. Feminism was a major influencer as to how women were treated and dictated the actions and behaviours of most men, inclusive of Torvald. In this way, the result of women’s actions morals the behaviour of men towards them. The following paper seeks to prove that indeed the actions of women enforces feminism by men.
From the book, understanding the personalities of the two main characters is important in making a basis on the start of feminism. Nora’s Character is brought out during herb encounters with Mrs. Linden and her husband. To her husband, she is meek, and submissive. She is child-like and capricious and is initially written off as shallow and flighty (Forward 2009). An encounter between herself and Mrs. Linden (an old school friend) proves that she is insensitive and braggadocios without consideration of other people’s circumstances. Nora is not patient enough to listen to the explanations as she brags of her husband’s achievement attaining a Managerial position that will bring in a lot of money in terms of revenue. She is overjoyed at the fact that she will have enough money to utilize. She is not thrilled at Mrs. Linden’s accusations that she is a child who is unaware of how the world operates. She appears to be child-like and doll-like through her behaviour. Torvald refers to her as “my little lark”, “little featherhead”, “my sweet skylark”, these are all pet names which referred to her personality which was not matured (Forward 2009). The conversation and interactions of Nora and her husband are on the surface based and hold no deep value or seriousness to them. Torvald treats Nora as his pet and Nora’s behaviour encourages this (Forward 2009).
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Torvald on the other hand is a man who is prideful and conscious of his position in the society. He lives his life to please the public and hence spends most of his time concerning himself with matters pertaining to work and other subject that are not home related. He prides himself in being able to provide for his family and having enough money to ensure they are well taken care of. To him, having a wife who fully depends on him to provide and maintains their household gives him a good name in the society is more important (Deer, 2003). Additionally, having attained a good position as a manger in the Bank, he is able to show his authority in the Society and maintain a positive and influential title to the public. Ensuring that his wife is well behaved is a priority in itself and hence he dictates her activities and her behaviours so that the image is maintained (Deer 2003).
The actions of these two characters fosters the growth and development of feminism. In the play, women have been portrayed as irrational, submissive, naïve and non-independent people who have no rights or a voice. Men in effect are portrayed as the providers and dominators of their households. Their word is law and hence should be treated as such. With this in mind, the anger stemming from Torvald after discovering that it was Nora’s efforts that had saved his life is justified to him. Being indebted to a woman is a low-point for any man. No man would admit that he was indebted to any woman as this went against their moral code or pride. Torvald was not ready to sacrifice his image as a “man” in the society and hence resolves to correct Nora’s mistake and continue with the marriage feigning happiness (Ibsen, A Doll’s House Act III: 40). Additionally, there are many other situations where feminism in this particular society is evident; Where Mrs. Linden is forced to abandon her happiness and marry a man whom she does not love in order to ensure that her sick mother is catered to and her brothers are provided for; Nora’s nanny had abandoned her child in order to support herself by working as Nora’s and consequently Nora’s children’s nanny with the explanation that she had been led astray previously. The implication that men are superior to women and hence deserve respect overlaps the implication that the direction the life of a woman takes is important. They are domesticated and seen as only to be and to act as “wives and mothers before anything else”. Many women are treated as sacrificial lambs who are to be used and set aside if their use fails. With Torvald, he saw Nora not as a human being, rather as his possession. Nora’s realization of this is what sets her free from the feminist theories portrayed onto her. She discovers that it is in her behaviour that the men felt superior to her. Bowing to their every will while suppressing her own.
In conclusion, we can tell that the division of lives into either public or private is a major factor into feminist enforcing. The public being given to men while the private to women, however, the private is governed by man and managed by women. Women for many years have been domesticated and confined to their roles in the home. They serve as companions whose duties are to reproduce and manage the homes with business and other work related matters being of too much complexity to be interesting to them. Additionally, women do not have a voice relating to matters concerning their lives, as is evident when Mrs. Linden married a richer man in order to ensure provision for her family was guaranteed. Men on the other hand are not to be bothered by matters of the house. As is evident with Torvald, he spends most of the time in the study and does not have much time to interact with his wife and children (Ibsen, A Doll’s House Act I: 23). It is only after Nora discovers this that she realizes how much of herself she had given up in order to please her husband and the society. It is the realization that her behaviour and actions towards her husband and other man and women in the society had allowed for the growth and extent of the men’s superiority. She had toned her life down and allowed men to treat her as property. In this way, the idea of feminism is enforced and continued and only through the realization of this can a woman break free from its effects.
References
Deer I. (2003). Ibsen’s Self-Reflexivity in ‘A Doll’s House’ and ‘The Masterbuilder’. Discovering Authors. Gale. Student Resource in Context. http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2101204671/SUIC?u=ysl_li_valleysc&xid=9fd b5365
Forward, S. (2009). A new world for women? Stephanie Forward considers Nora's dramatic exit from Ibsen's A Doll's House. The English Review , 19 (4), 24+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A196227179/SUIC?u=cps1540&xid=d4eabcb1
Ibsen, H. (2005). A Doll’s House . Gloucester: Dodo Press. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja& uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjHvey0mZXUAhVlLMAKHd9oAzEQFggjMAA&url=https %3A%2F%2Fmyetudes.org%2Faccess%2Fcontent%2Fuser%2Fmazu48009%2FPDF %2520Files%2FDollsHouse_full01.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHnEkiDwlgopteDTAnoMjofq lRX_w&sig2=k146ljgEYuLaLlUu5Wxipw. Accessed on 29 May 2017.
