Gender Roles in A Doll's House - Analysis and Discussion

Running head: GENDER ROLES IN A DOLL'S HOUSE
GENDER ROLES IN A DOLL'S HOUSE
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Author Note

1GENDER ROLES IN A DOLL'S HOUSE
Henrik Ibsen is one of the most famous playwrights of the nineteenth century. The
playwright is of Norwegian origin and is known as one of the major forerunners of the Modernist
movement in the theatres. The playwright is known as the father of realism and is known to be
one of the most influential of the playwrights who existed during the given time. The playwright
is known to have influenced a number of the novelists and the playwrights who belonged to the
same era (Tam). The majority of the plays that were composed by the playwright were known to
have been composed in the backdrop of the playwright’s own family background. The plays that
were composed by Ibsen were known to have a huge amount of influential effects on the
contemporary culture of the time. A Doll’s House is one of the most celebrated play by the
famous Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen (Abbas and Afsar). The following essay discusses
the gender roles that are strikingly present in the famous play of Ibsen, A Doll’s House.
The play of Ibsen revolves majorly around the live of Nora Helmer, a married woman
who lived in the nineteenth century. Nora is the protagonist of the play and is known to lead a
family life along with her husband, Torvald Helmer and three children. The play opens with the
setting of the Christmas tree within the household and the husband, Torvald rebuking Nora in a
playful manner for spending on the Christmas gifts (Wing-bo, Tso, and Lee). He further stated
that they could afford to spend for the gifts this year unlike the conditions that they had faced in
the earlier year. The husband is observed to be reminiscing on the fact that Nora had to spend
longer time the last year since they could not have afforded the cost of the gifts last year and she
had made them all on her own. This point of time marks the entry of another significant female
member of the play, Kristine Linde, a friend of Nora along with Dr. Rank, a character who is
known to be one of the closest friends of the Helmer family (Karim et al.). The situation
presented herewith reveals that Nora is being made to undergo the turmoil due to being faced

2GENDER ROLES IN A DOLL'S HOUSE
with the blackmail from one of the lower level employees at her husband’s workplace who
threatens her with consequences if she does not save him from getting fired from the workplace.
The play further proceeds with the protagonist Nora facing a constant inner turmoil that is
caused by several factors. These factors include the health conditions of Dr. Rank, a family
friend of the Helmers.as well as the looming danger of her secret being ousted in front of her
husband. The situation is more aggravated when she learns that Dr. Rank harbors more than
friendly feelings for her and she learns that he is gradually reclining to the lap of death (Ibsen).
The blackmail on the part of the Krogstad leads to the anxiety on the part of Nora and she
distances herself from her children. The story takes an interesting turn when the protagonist
seeks help from a friend of hers who had been selected as a replacement for Krogstrad at the
bank, Christine. Christine manages to abstain Krogstad from blackmailing Nora.
However, on the other way, the blackmail note that Krogstad had left for Torvald had
been read by Torvald who bars his wife from being in vicinity of the children due to the fact that
her presence might even lead the children to get influenced by her immoral ways of getting
things done without paying attention enough to the reason behind the adaptation of such means
of actions. This has a setback on the part of Nora who had expected a completely different set of
actions on the part of her husband (Christian). Thus she decides to leave the house, though not
before declaring that the marital bond that was shared by Torvald and Nora was not a true one
and that he treated her always like a doll without even giving a thought that this might be in
contradiction with the various activities and sacrifices that she had been undertaking in favor of
the needs of her family (Ibsen). This leads Torvald to some realization and he begs with his wife
not to leave but the request falls to deaf ears when she leaves Torvald and their children and
leaves the house shutting the door behind her with a slam.