Woman Question in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House

Running head: WOMAN QUESTION IN HENRIK IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE
WOMAN QUESTION IN HENRIK IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WOMAN QUESTION IN HENRIK IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE
Born in the year 1928, Henrik Johan Ibsen is a celebrated Norwegian playwright, port
and theatre director. He is considered to be one of the most influential playwrights of the
nineteenth century. He is further known to have introduced the concept of modernism in the
theatre and is referred to as the father of realism (Catalog.hathitrust.org). A Doll’s House is one
of the most important plays that had been composed by the playwright. The play is considered to
be significant due to the portrayal of the lives of the married women in the late nineteenth
century. The following paper sheds light on the feminism as is demonstrated through one of the
most celebrated novels of Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House. The essay opens with a discussion on
the woman question as is demonstrated through the play, A Doll’s House. The essay nears a
conclusion with the discussion on the socio-political changes that were faced by the nineteenth
century which have been mentioned within the play, A Doll’s House by Henrick Ibsen.
The play, A Doll’s House, is set in the Victorian era and depicts a time when the women
of the house is known to have been treated like dolls in the house holds. The women in the
Victorian era had been subjected to the patriarchy in every single sphere of their lives. The
female members of the household are observed to have been dealing with the dominance that is
demonstrated by their male counterparts. The men of the household are depicted to have been
considering their wives to be gullible and not to have a brain of their own. The men are observed
to have been comparing them with the playthings. The playwright through the play attempts to
reveal the treatment of the married women as well as the unmarried daughters at the hands of
their husbands and their fathers respectively. The play states that the women members within the
family were treated as dolls and were not allowed the freedom to deal with their own lives as per
their own wishes. The female members of the house were expected to have been leading their
lives according to the track that have been set by the men.

2WOMAN QUESTION IN HENRIK IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE
The play opens with Nora, the female lead of the play entering the room with the
Christmas gifts and the other materials that would help in decorating the Christmas tree. She is
greeted with a rebuke on the part of her husband who is playful in his rebuke towards her and
addresses her as his “little squirrel”. The comparison of Nora to a squirrel by none other than her
husband sets the tone of the play at the very opening of the play. The husband is further observed
to be reflecting back to the Christmas celebrations of the past year when Nora had been
struggling to make the gifts on her own since they had been running short of finances. This is
followed by the arrival of the guests who are seen to have been visiting for different purposes
altogether.
The lady who had been visiting the house, Kristine, seeks employment from Torvald, the
husband of Nora, who holds a responsible position at the bank. Nora reveals that she had been
facing troubles on her family front too due to the illness on the part of her husband. She reveals
that she had received the required amount from an “admirer”. In actuality she had received the
money by forging the signature of her father since the women in the nineteenth century had no
rights to withdraw or deposit finances to the banks without the supportive signature of their
husbands or their fathers (ŞAFAK). Nora had done this act of forging and Krogstad, a lower
level employee at her husband’s bank had knowledge of this misdoing. Krogstad is observed to
have been manipulating Nora and asking her to talk to her husband and help in saving the job of
Krogstad who is likely to be fired by Torvald.
The second act of the play reveals the helpless condition that is faced by Nora. She faces
a confession of love form one of her dear friends, Dr. Rank, who is revealed to be fighting the
terminal stage of tuberculosis and is extremely likely to breathe his last in a very short time in the
future. Krogstad has already been fired by Torvald leading to a desperation on his part to regain