Introduction
Feminism appears throughout Ibsen’s major plays in several forms, including the double norm, matrimony, the independent woman, and parenthood. It means that hypocritical characters have strong views about the distinctions between men and women. Feminism’s theory in society has had a variety of effects on people’s lives. The self-righteous, practical schoolmaster variety Rorlund reads to a group of town ladies on the culture for virtuous hoodlums to keep their loyalty to the purity of the family and community; a completely absurd ideal given the untruths, deception, and self-centeredness on which this society is founded (Benhabib 162). Karsten Bernick noticed that the women are willing to claim assembly, albeit in a minor capacity.
Feminism in the play
Torvald Helmer, who is obsessed with maintaining his image at all costs, enjoys juxtaposing feminine frailty and childishness with manly force and cunning. Mrs. Alving presents her deceased husband as an immoral man in Ghosts, while Mrs. Alving paints her servant Johanna as a shattered lady, according to Pastor Manders. Nora Helmer is an example of a delusional lady living in a culture where men mistreat women and reduce them to dolls or playthings.
Norma Helmer is a doll who resides in her toy palace, sustaining the fragile image of material prosperity in hierarchical and indigenous traditions. Nora Helmer is oppressed, as are the other female characters in the story. According to the French revolutionary writer, the feminine is a female by a certain absence of qualities. We must consider the female personality to have a flaw. Men have a habit of portraying women as second-class citizens. She does not exist as a separate person; rather, she exists as the Other (Benhabib 162). Nora is not seen as an independent woman, and she is a product of her father’s upbringing.
Nora is a dumb squirrel, a small skylark, a songbird, or an acute dispersed brain, according to her husband, whose beliefs are nonsensical and identical to any other woman’s. Since Nora was a child, her father has referred to her as the other. Her father subsequently handed her over to her husband, who treated her as if she were a treasured possession. Nora’s demeanor and awakening at the end of the play properly represent her upbringing.
When Nora lived at home with dad, he fed her all his opinions until they became her opinions. If they didn’t, she didn’t say anything since she knew he wouldn’t like it. Her father used to refer to her as his doll-child, and he used to play with her in the same way she used to play with him. And when it happened, he received dad’s message. Everything is set up to her husband’s liking and altered to match. In retrospect, Nora felt like she lived all the days of her life like a beggar. Nora regrets being attached to her husband and decides to move out.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s essay, The Weak and Meek Lady, evocates Ibsen’s portrayal of the weak and meek lady. An illusion of their rights, where women are said to possess the qualities of the softness of temper, outward submission, and scrupulous attention from a young age. When paired with the gift of beauty, these qualities will ensure that man protects them. Torvald assures Nora that “ you can feel assured that my wings are big enough to keep you safe. What a lovely and welcoming environment they built at our house”(Charan 192). Realizing that he has reconciled his wife—and that he has pardoned her entirely and honestly—is incredibly soothing and gratifying for a man. He gave her a second chance at life as if he’s given the ability to be reborn and be both his wife and his child.
This can be seen in Torvald’s treatment of Nora when she was a child. He forbids her from eating macarons and orders her to dress up and do a recitation for him. Nora, on the other hand, was treated like a spoiled brat and a sex object for the entertainment of her husband. As a result, near the end of the play, Nora understands that it is past time to reclaim her status. As the One after a lengthy period of submission that cemented her role as the Other. Nora learned that it is better to give than to take, and her father and spouse were only willing to give her what they had (Nasrin 5). In such a hierarchical context, Nora’s day-to-day household life is typical of intermediate women. They are more securely dependent on some men, dads, or spouses than other women due to location, housework, economic status, and social position. If they are bourgeois, they have sympathy for bourgeois guys but not for proletariat women.
Nora’s famous tirade in the last scene encapsulates everything that early feminism despised. Nora depicts how women are taught to be nice at the expense of any serious principles as if they were soft domestic brutes when she accuses her father and husband of committing a grave sin against her by treating her like a doll (Charan 193). When she advertises herself as a doll wife who makes a fortune doing tricks, she demonstrates Margaret Fuller’s theory that a man wants no lady but a girl to play ball. When she is unfit to do anything in life, she discloses her remedy: “I must try to educate myself”(Nasrin 4). She epitomizes nineteenth-century feminism’s universally agreed-upon concept for women’s emancipation. When she tells Torvald, that she doesn’t understand how to be his wife, she reflects nineteenth-century feminism’s generally accepted foundation for women’s freedom.
Nora highlights the crucial feminist principle that women, like men, have a moral and intellectual nature that must be developed: the fundamental purpose of their efforts should be to excavate their capacities. Nora’s most significant concern is that her spouse will find out that she used her dad’s security credentials to get the money she required to go abroad. Her motivation was unselfish, as the trek saved the life of her terminally ill husband. Nora understood her partner’s image would suffer due to the disclosure; however, she got the strange sense that if he knew she had done it to save his life, he would defend her.
Nora is in a situation where she must hide the shame if her husband knows about the loan. Nora did this to save her husband, not knowing things were to change on the way. The freedom she yearns for is affecting her relationship with her husband. Ibsen argues that women want to be independent and stay away from their husbands. Nora’s illusion, like the doll home, is shattered, as shown by Nasrin (5). The doll eventually understands that the Other has been her sole purpose. She recognizes that she is the one who agreed with the definitions of One and Other. Nora had a significant epiphany when she discovered that her spouse values his work and reputation over his love for her.
Torvald’s fury and accusations, which he feels after learning what she’s done, end up being a blessing in disguise. Torvald shouts, Nora has been her pride and delight for eight years, and now he has discovered her to be a hypocrite and a liar, and worse, worse than a criminal. In every direction, there’s a chasm of terror; she should be embarrassed. She makes the brave decision to leave her family to break free from the shackles of her patriarchal culture (Nasrin 5). She is determined to venture out into the world and gather experience. She is adamant about being able to reason things out for herself and make her own choices.
In the play, the woman nature is seen as a text of culture that celebrates all cultural features between men and women. Feminist ideology is supported and reinforced in a societal context where women have little cultural, governmental, or economic influence (Siagian 7). Ibsen portrays the drama depicts the sacrificial female roles of all socioeconomic groups in his culture as dismal. The women characters in the play demonstrate Nora’s assertion that hundreds of thousands of women have lost their integrity. Despite men’s refusal to do so. In the institutions of marriage and parenthood, Women are portrayed as socially and mentally dependent on males in A Doll’s House. Mrs. Linde, like Nora, had to divorce her fiancĂ© to marry a man who could support her, her mom, and her brothers (Charan 193). We also have the physician who, to keep her career, had to give up her child from a prior relationship.
Nora has a difficult existence despite having a better financial condition than the other female characters since society expects Torvald to be the dominant spouse in the marriage. Nora must keep her loan a secret from Torvald since he will never believe that his wife (or any other woman) saved his life. She must also work in secret to repay her loan, as borrowing money without her husband’s approval is unlawful. Nora’s deception is driven by Torvald and society’s morals, leaving her open to strangers.
It’s possible that Nora’s decision to abandon her children was unselfish. Nora chooses to abandon her children despite her intense love for them, as seen by her interactions with them and her dread of corrupting them. Nora is confident that the nanny will be a better mother than she is and that surrendering her children to her will benefit them. Nora’s marriage, like her relationship with her husband, is a ruse. As she approaches Torvald, she remarks, that their house has never been anything but a playhouse (Charan 193). When she was at home, she was her doll just as she was the father’s baby child. They’ve also served as her dolls and children. When they played games with her, she used to appreciate it just as much as they did when she played games with them. Torvald, that’s all about their marriage.
As a result, her miniature life resembled that of the cave people strangely. She saw a warped representation of reality rather than the proper thing. She was satisfied in her role as a submissive wife whose fate was in the hands of her husband. She never inquired as to why her link appeared at the bottom of the page. Her complete trust demonstrates this in her capacity to keep the truth about Torvald’s life-saving loan hidden. Nora has an undying love for her husband. She decides to do everything to save her husband.
Throughout the play, Nora’s idea of what it means to be free evolves. In the first act, she feels that after paying off her debt, she would be genuinely free, able to concentrate only on her home responsibilities. She reconsiders her sense of independence after being blackmailed by Krogstad, and she wonders if she is happy at Torvald’s house, where she is subject to his dictates and edicts. Nora is yearning for a new type of freedom by the end of the play. She wants to free her families and communities to follow her objectives, perspectives, and identity.
Conclusion
The play is a groundbreaking drama that highlights the shortcomings of civilized society. Ibsen writes that women cannot be independent in today’s world since it is a fully male civilization with rules established by men and district attorneys and courts who judge female behavior from a male perspective. Gender feminism is a central theme portrayed in the play, and it is reflected in modern society. Women want to stay independent regardless of their status. In a civilized society, feminism has reduced by a small percentage since men’s dominance has reduced. It will be a greater achievement to reduce such practice in our society to promote social cohesiveness.
Works cited
Benhabib, Seyla. “Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism.” The New Social Theory Reader. Routledge, 2020. 156-162.
Charan, Dr. Swati. “Shift In the Role of Women In The Society: Through The Lens Of A Doll’s House By Henrik Ibsen.” International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, vol 5, no. 4, 2020, pp. 191-193. AI Publications.
Nasrin, Sohana. “New ways of activism: design justice and data feminism.” Social Movement Studies (2021): 1-5.
Siagian, Farida Hannum, I. Wy Dirgeyasa, and Indra Hartoyo. “Feminism in patriarchal society reflected in the main character of Perempuan Berkalung Sorbian movie.” LINGUISTICA 7.3.