Doll's House

4 Pages 926 Words

Modern marriage consists of an equal partnership between two individuals. However, in the nineteenth-century setting in which Henrik Ibsen set his play, “A Doll’s House,” marriage was an institution with strict social standards of the roles for both men and women. Men were the independent providers, and women were the caretakers, dependent on their men. The marriage between Nora and Torvald Helmer is an example of these roles, and demonstrates the consequences of breaking with the traditions, for which neither one is responsible. When Nora borrows the money, she steps outside of her traditional, dependent role, which leads her to the realization that her role in her marriage to Torvald does not fulfill her as an individual, and she decides to leave her home and the situation that she has created, hoping to start her life again and live independently.
Women in the nineteenth century were expected to live as dependents, first as daughters, and later in life as wives. Nora makes frequent references to her dependence on both her father and her husband throughout the play. For example, when Doctor Rank visits Nora in Act II, she compares her relationship with Torvald to the relationship with her father, saying to Rank: “you can see how it’s a bit with Torvald as it is with Daddy,” (760). This quote demonstrates to the audience the transition between dependent roles of nineteenth century women, who were allowed few opportunities to live independently of men, with professional choices limited to the textile arts, such as knitting and embroidery. “The woman of the well-to-do classes was made to understand early that the only door open to a life at once easy and respectable was that of marriage. Therefore she had to depend upon her good looks, according to the ideals of the men of her day, her charm, her little drawing-room arts,” (Spartacus).
Though the marriage between Nora and Torvald appears to be healthy and ideal, every...