Hedda Gabler Gender Roles

Born in Skien, Norway on March 20, 1828, Henrik Ibsen has written some famous works such as the plays A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler (Biography.com). Both plays were written in the late 1800s, a time period where gender roles were clearly defined. Education wise, a woman would attend school to gain knowledge of “music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages….; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions…” (Hughes). In terms of marriage and sexuality, women of this time period were thought to desire marriage to become mothers and housewives rather than for sexual or emotional satisfaction, and to marry a man who earns enough money to support her, himself and a family (Hughes). The men were expected to “govern their society and their homes” by being the breadwinner, providing for himself, his wife and his family and being the protector (Miller). Ibsen clearly represent these gender roles throughout both his plays through his characters, which has an impact on the story of the play itself. A Doll’s House takes place at the home of Nora and Torvald Helmer on Christmas Eve. Nora had just come back from Christmas shopping, buying Christmas gifts for everyone. Torvald sees everything that Nora had bought and scolds at her for spending lots of money and thinks that Nora is careless with money and is childlike. Nora tries to reassure Torvald that they can afford all these Christmas gifts since Torvald had just received a new position at the bank as the bank manager and that they are more financially stable. Before Torvald received his new position at the bank, he had fallen ill. The doctors prescribed him to go to a place of a warm climate to help with his illness. Knowing they didn’t have the funds, Nora takes out a loan, without Torvald’s knowledge, and pays for the trip so Torvald’s health can improve. Due to this loan, Nora has outstanding debt and has been paying it off slowly with bits of her allowance, all without Torvald’s knowledge. As the play continues on, it is found that in order for Nora to get the loan, she needed her father’s signature. The loan had her father’s signature but wasn’t signed and dated by her father because her father had already died and couldn’t have possibly signed the loan. This is proven by the date written next to the signature. Nora had forged her father’s signature to get the loan and keeps this a secret from Torvald but the secret doesn’t remain a secret for long. Torvald eventually finds news of the loan through a blackmail letter. After finding the news and reading …show more content…
Ibsen shows this through the behaviors and actions of each character and how they work off of one another. To viewers of the time period both of these plays were released, some may find it empowering and others not. A Doll’s House seems more empowering to the women audience than the men due to its dramatic ending. Instead of acting like a “woman” should, Nora went against the norms and stood up for herself and no longer let herself be a “doll.” This caused quite a conflict with certain audiences, finding it controversial that Ibsen created an alternative ending to the play to suit others. In this alternative ending, Nora stays with Torvald, only for the children so they aren’t motherless and doesn’t make a person out of herself. Hedda Gabler seems less controversial to the eye but the main character, Hedda, seems to speak the truth about women during her time period. She married a man for his stability and income, not because she loved him and many other women were exactly in Hedda’s shoes. Feeling trapped, Hedda ends her life to escape and save her freedom. Many female audiences deep down may be able to connect with this play but not express it because of their husbands being right next to them, being the dominate and superior one, that all they can do is bite their tongue and agree with the men. The play could go both ways with men. Either men will understand the women’s position or