Feminist Perspective of A Doll's House Essay

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen has been heralded as one of the great feminist masterpieces of the nineteenth century. The play centers around a strong female protagonist, Nora Helmer, and questions the role of women in society. Joan Templeton argues in her article “The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen,” that the piece was not meant to be a feminist work of art, it was instead supposed to be a scrutinization of humanity as a whole. Although, Templeton uses quotes and examples to get her point across, it does not change the fact that Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a feminist play due to the specific questions about women in society that are brought up. By writing a story about a female Ibsen intentionally involves himself with…

A Doll’s House, written during the Nineteenth Century by Henrik Ibsen revealed three acts, in which, one of the first examples of realist drama was presented in theatre. Based in the Helmer household, Ibsen created the stage to ensure that the audience was able to identify with the setting of the stage. In terms of the modern audience viewing the text both Feminist and Marxist literary criticism perspectives assists to widen the appreciation of Ibsen’s questioning of his society. Through the…

“ A Doll’s House is no more about the women’s rights than Shakespeare’s Richard II is about the dive right of kings or Ghosts about syphilis or An Enemy of the People about public hygiene. Its theme is the need of every individual to find out what kind of person he or she really is and strive to become that person” (Meyer) Herik Ibsen (1828-1906) can be considered as the father of modern drama and the first dramatist who wrote various tragedies concerning ordinary people. This makes him one of…

What connects “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Trifles, and A Doll’s House is the underlying feminist overtones. Throughout all three pieces the status of women is a major underlying point that drives the stories. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the status of women drives the narrator into a state of psychosis, In Trifles the status of women, paradoxically, is what allows the murder to be solved (and covered up), and in A Doll’s House the status of women, along with a general statement of the human condition,…

conform to an attitude and lifestyle approved by her husband is further demonstrated as he calls her his ‘lark’ referring to her as a bird. This reference to Nora as a lark is reminiscent to the idea of her being a caged bird. She is confined to the world of the domicile. The bird also reflects a passage by Mary Wollstonecraft in which she criticized male expectations that women “have nothing to do but to plume themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to perch” . This idea that Nora is…

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, a play written and published in 1989 brought sensation as it dealt with the lives and rights of the women. Henrik Ibsen was a noticeable poet and screenwriter of nineteenth century, composed “A Doll's House” for a social reason that brought a voice for women. He aimed to seek equality for men and women, which he hence exhibited in this play through the character of Nora Helmer. This play is not only Ibsen’s distinguished play but a tremendous contribution to…

Performance History of A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House is a play written by Henrik Ibsen in Norway and first took place at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen on December 21, 1879. The play is set in an upper-middle-class home and demonstrates the importance of social class in late-19th century in Norway. Ibsen himself being born into the upper-middle class not only did he understand the importance of social class, but also the expectations placed on its members. Likewise, A Doll’s…

"A Doll's House is the first full-blown example of Ibsen's modernism." While looking at the unreconciled ending of A Doll's House, which sets Nora's need to be first and foremost a human being against her roles as doll or as wife and mother, and offends society's need for faith in the idea of the divine and the beautiful to survive". The celebration and self-fulfillment of women was atypical for this time Promotion of equal rights and liberties I would like to look at this play from the…

In A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, people today can clearly see how Torvald mistreats his wife Nora. He treats her like a pet and calls her by little nicknames that are not appropriate for someone such as your wife. For example in the opening scene he says to her, “Is it my little squirrel bustling about?”(Ibsen), this is something people today find to be completely sickening but then it was a thing that was common and accepted. During the time it was written people acted in the exact…

It is not always easy to read a play, as you need to be all of the actors in the play. In some way, this is a good way to experience all the characters personally. It does become easier as one reads on, but it requires much concentration. Such is the case with Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House. One can gather from Act I that the story takes place over the Christmas period. As Nora reveals: “Nora. Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it…