Patriarchy in a Doll's House

Marriages have evolved greatly through time, and a woman’s role in society is more present now than ever. Nevertheless, something that has always characterized gender relationships is the innate need of the men to feel superior than the women. In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen pointedly captures the patriarchal role of women in Victorian society through his doll symbolism, Nora's behavior and characteristics, and Torvald’s attitude towards her. With these characters, Ibsen dismantles the idea of the perfect, happy marriage couples were expected to exemplify in the 19th century.

Nora’s ignorance traps her on a bourgeois idea of marriage set by society, especially because at the beginning, she is portrayed as a happy wife. Our first impression of Nora is of a simple minded trophy wife who has been passed from father to husband. She has never learned to think for herself because men always did that for her: “When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions: and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it” (Ibsen 3.604-607). When she married Torvald, it was more of the same dreadful situation: "Surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa." (2.503,504). Everything she has known or thought, she has been taught. This inability to develop her own ideas and opinions causes her to happily live in the cage of her marriage and be unaware of who she is beyond her role of a mother and a wife. Just before leaving her husband, she tells him “[Torvald,] you have always been so kind to me”, but not even in that moment can she realize that it was the kindness of a superior, an authority, not an equal. However, she very much appreciates said kindness because many women at the time didn’t even receive this basic decency from their husbands. Even when Nora’s life seems awfully easy and careless at the beginning, we later learn that despite the boundaries society has imposed on wives, she is a determined woman who does what is needed for the best of her loved ones.

Approaching the end of the play, Nora has an epiphany in which she realizes that her husband is a different person than she once believed. Nora thought that Torvald would selflessly give up everything for her, but when she realizes he had no such intentions, she accepts the fact that their marriage has been an illusion. As she becomes aware of the reality of their sham of a marriage, Nora understands how her father has also wronged her: “I’ve been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls” (3.628-630). Nora realizes she has raised her children the same way as she and Torvald were raised. It has become a vicious circle.

When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like a poor woman--just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you...You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life...Oh! I can't bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits! (3.616-621)

Nora’s epiphany opens her eyes on the reality of her life and the society she grew up in, which doesn’t fail to shock her. She feels unfulfilled, and it makes her more determined to turn her life around.

As A Doll’s House is a modern tragedy, we can consider Nora the tragic hero of the play. She sacrificed herself and gave up the “necessities of life” for eight years without anyone noticing, which strongly speaks on her will power and determination. It also speaks on the importance of keeping the debt a secret and the consequences it would have, had her husband found out, because of how imprudent it would have been in Victorian society. By the end of the play, Nora is willing to kill herself in order to save Torvald from having to step up for her and “do the wonderful thing.” At this moment, she is a hero for her family and her husband’s honor. After the wonderful thing does not happen, Nora becomes a hero for the thousands of women who live in a situation like hers, by eventually confronting him with the fact that giving up her honor for her husband “Is a thing hundreds of thousand of women have done” (3.757). Nora quits on the sham marriage and walks out of her home into a world without sympathy for women, showing us an incredible amount of courage and determination to discover the truth about herself. Some may argue that Nora leaving not only Torvald but her children is a selfish act, but I believe that Nora feels she knows so little about herself and society, that she is an inadequate mother. She leaves the children because she feels it is for their benefit, painful as it may be to her. Despite Nora being portrayed as just an ordinary Victorian housewife, it is undeniable that she does in fact possess great strength and courage, making her a modern tragic heroine.

On the other side of the same coin, we find that Torvald’s entitlement towards his wife was one of pillars that kept this marriage under approved society standards. He treats Nora as if she were one of his possessions, and doesn't hesitate on letting