The Role of a Woman in Henrik Ibsen’s Play “A Doll’s House”

The play A Doll House Written by Henrik Ibsen presents themes such as the sacrificial role of women, and money and work. Women in the late 1800s were only supposed to do what their husbands told them to do. Women wet treated like pets instead of humans. A Doll House was written during the late 1800s, during this era people believed that everything a women-owned her husband owned also the men had the right to everything even the wife’s body. A Doll House goes against this idea when Nora the wife of Torvald leaves her family. The author of the play seems to say that women should have more authority and should not have to depend on their husbands to do everything.

The sacrificial role of women, the role of women has alternated naturally throughout the years, guided by women who took the opportunity in representing examples for others to follow. Henrik Isben, the author of a Doll’s House, said “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view”. This shows that Isben knew about male control in the community of people during the 1800s. His play “A Doll House,” has to do with male and female status giving people special favors and male control. Women appear to be seen as lower than males, and males are to be so much more advanced because most people think males are better than females. “A Doll’s House,” by Henrik Ibsen characterizes the sacrificial role of women in the 1800s, Ibsen shows a rare picture of the sacrificial role held by women of different money based and their standards in his drama play. The play’s female personalities show Nora’s statement that men decline to show their honest and good human qualities.

In order to support her mother and two brothers, Mrs. Linde found it necessary to leave Krogstad. She left her true love, Krogstad, to marry a richer man. These are some of the sacrifices that women have to make to provide for their families. The nanny had to leave behind her own child to support herself by working as Nora’s nanny and babysitter. As she often told Nora, the nanny thinks about herself as very lucky to receive the job as the sitter, since she was a poor girl who was left away from what was right. Isben concerns about women in the world are brought up throughout the play. He believed that women had the right to develop their own quality that makes something stand-alone, but only if they made a sacrifice.

A female is given all her tasks and duties managed by the planning run by a male. Men control and rule over the world of females, while women have to always follow orders and rules given by the male, and women have to be obedient to their husbands giving them what they want. They are usually promised in marriage, working as either toys or tools for their husbands. As women were given this authority is deeply set within and part of their community and female character while their identity as human beings with the right to enjoyment, and power is almost completely given up. While the world is basically run by men and a structure on which bigger things can be built, they are represented by a set of self-sacrificing and obedient attributes; Most women suffer from labeling as victims of the male ruled over the community of people for their disobedient spirit. Ibsen intelligently describes a range of disobedient characters and lets everyone know about the related religious holy trip; they have gone through their constant pursuit of freedom from slavery, freedom, and bitter struggle to regain their identity and power as human beings.

In the late 18th century most of the people were working class. In order to be considered middle class, you had to have at least one servant. Most servants were female. Male servants were much more expensive because men were paid much higher wages. Throughout the century service was a major employer of women.

In the play, money is a physical object to represent an idea or emotion and the power that characters have over one another. In the first scene, Torvald’s ability to control how much Nora spends on Christmas presents shows his power over her. Meanwhile, the money owed that Nora owes Krogstad allows him to have power over her and Torvald. Both Nora and Mrs. Linde cannot earn large incomes because they are women; their inability to access big amounts of money is one way that they are badly mistreated by the sexism of the time. The play also shows that, while earning money leads to power, it also can be dangerous. At the beginning of the play, Nora is proud of the fact that she “raised” the money for her and Torvalds trip to Italy herself But the money she owes soon becomes a source of terror, fear, and shame.

In the 1800s the new middle class split into two groups, the upper middle class, and the lower middle class. The upper middle class included factory owners, doctors, lawyers, and government workers, they were almost equal to the upper class. The lower middle class included skilled workers, toolmakers, and factory supervisors. They usually lived in the city because they had to work in businesses.

Finally, the early class of people who work hard and don’t make a lot of money involve workers that worked in factories, shops, and other businesses. They were the ones that hurt the most. In the coal mines, many women and children died of black lung. In fabric factories, children had been getting hurt by the machines. If they didn’t work hard enough or took a short break, factory supervisors would whip them. The women had no big advancement in working conditions for them either. They had to work 14 hours a day and they lived in cramped small houses, dirty streets that did not have sewers, and barely any lighting. If a worker died, there was no insurance involved. They would just get replaced by another woman.

Most middle-class families leased their houses instead of owning them, with really small rooms on the top floor for the maids. They were also quite clothed conscious, especially women, workshops, sewing machines, and department shops had reduced the price of clothing, and middle-class families were sharply familiar with and exactly followed the rules of a beautiful dress. They also wanted to present their children with the finest education possible. Daughters spent hours practicing piano, and tours of foreign countries after school were all carefully thought about big aspects of education. The middle classes also enjoyed proper behavior which ruled behavior and sense of right and wrong. Middle-class families work hard, self-control, and personal action of accomplishing or completing something challenging were stressed. Anyone who performed a crime, or worse, fell into poorness,

The upper class of people who work hard and do not make a lot of money were as aware of people’s position in society as the middle class and adopted a unique quality, almost religiously strict action to isolate themselves from the lower class. The family and money-based advancement were important to them. Families saved money frequently, bothered about the education of their children, and admired good housing.

Yet they did not hope for the middle class but rather thought about themselves as natural leaders and pace setters of the class of people who work hard and do not make a lot of money. They were well aware of the moral lapses of those below them, and in order to preserve the difference, practiced a stern set of rules for right and wrong and self-control.

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