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A Doll's House Gender Roles

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During the late nineteenth century, some women continued to suffer from discriminatory duties such as “solely caretakers” while others began to alter their roles in society (Lythgoe). The detrimental accusations towards women made them seem very submissive The inequalities between the two sexes and how society undermines women are shown in the Norwegian play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. The play is very controversial in which it focuses on a marriage that appears to portray the “perfect” marriage. However, as the play begins to unravel its plot, a relationship based on lies and pleasing the public is exposed. Symbols within A Doll’s House are used to represent theoretical concepts and illustrate conflicts between Nora and Torvald Helmer. Henrik Ibsen’s …show more content…

She explains to her husband that she has been objectified like “a doll-child”, and a “doll-wife” all her life and is done being objectified by the people around her (Ibsen 53). She has been patronized and controlled by society. At the end of the play, Nora realizes that prioritizing her duty as a wife will never truly make her happy and decides to leave her husband. Torvald realizes that her decision is final and is left with a slam of the door. Nora slamming the door as she exits symbolizes the new women she is looking to become which also represents the modern nineteenth-century feminist step to seek true identity in society. Nora slamming the door at the end of the play is very significant because it also symbolically stands for Nora's rebellion against Torvald and essentially a slam in the face of social norms. She decides that the gender roles that have been oppressed by her and all women can not control her life anymore. In Henrik Ibsen’s, A Doll's House, Nora transforms from a woman who relies on her husband to support her, into an independent woman who sacrificed her “old” life to become what a lot of women in that time period strived to

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