The Doll House

In “The Doll House” it is evident that Ibsen displays the expected gender roles of both genders. Throughout the first two acts Nora exemplifies the ideal house hold wife of the generation in which this play was written. We see her as immature and dependent on her husband Torvald. This is seen by all the pet names that he gives her. He continuously calls her his little “song bird” and “little skylark” and other names that depict her as small and helpless. She is also very obedient and does whatever Torvald wants or expects from her. We see that she alone is responsible for taking care of the children completely by herself which is known to be a womanly job. She is submissive to all of Torvald’s request including chores and also sex. These are some of the indirect ways that Ibsen displays how woman are viewed but he also does not hesitate to explain the gender roles directly through the dialogue of the characters. The way that Torvald talks, even directly to Nora’s face shows that society views women as helpless, dependent on men, and not equivalent to men. In his speeches Torvald often says the way Nora acts is typical of a woman indicating that all women are exactly the same, which is essentially why Nora leaves him in the end. He does not recognize her as an individual as she wishes and does not appreciate things that make her different. He simply uses her for appearance, raising the kids, and sex, all of which any woman could do. He never has a serious talk with her because he does not wish to know specific things about her only that she obeys him. Towards the end while Nora is getting ready to leave we see many of the common things that women expect of men. For example Nora is appalled when Torvald is not willing to take full blame for the incident in order to save Nora. He is not the brave hero that women look for in men. I also find it quite ironic that Nora is leaving Torvald because she wishes to become independent and to understand herself, when in reality her reasoning for leaving him is actually that he did not swoop in and save the day and make everything all better by taking responsibility for her actions. If Torvald had done this it would have shown that she is dependent on him and she would have been happy with having him being her superior. “The Wonderful” that Nora so often speaks of is a symbol of what women truly want. It is a vague image which shows that it is different for all women. “The Wonderful” that Nora wants is a strong, fearless, and dependable man. Although the life they live is fake and doesn’t show any flaws, if he still helps and loves her after he finds out her flaws they can live a life more true to themselves. Overall we see that many of the stereo types and gender roles that society has put in place are actually very false. He shows that men aren’t always the brave ones and that women can be independent and make decisions on their own and don’t need men to function. This is why it was such a controversial play.