A Doll's House Gender Roles

In a marriage, specifically Nora and Torvald’s, the male gender role is superior to the female gender role, in that, the male is responsible for providing for the family financially, physically, and even emotionally. From a young age, men are programmed to be masculine, self-sufficient, and “tough” (Windle, Smith, 2009). With these traits, comes dominance, which reveals itself most in a marriage. In Henrick Ibsen’s “A Doll House,” Torvald Helmer is very dominant or superior to his wife, Nora. What he says goes. He controls all things such as finances, and everything in the home. In the nineteenth century, the husband was the “bread winner,” while the wife stayed at home taking care of the children and the household duties. The Helmer residence is your typical family, with Torvald working and providing funds for his wife and children, while Nora stays at home, runs errands, and takes care of her husband’s needs, and wants. The play “A Doll’s House,” is set in the nineteenth century. The Helmer’s are a quintessential middle class family. Torvald Helmer, just landed a very well paid job, working at bank, making it possible to provide the best for his family. Nora Helmer, is a stay at home mom, if

They were seen as accessories to their husbands. Throughout this time period, marriages were not viewed simply as relationships, between a man and a woman. Nora’s child hood is not talked about much, but it is said that she somewhat blames her father for the way that she had been raised. She had been taught that it was ok for a man to have the control, that is the way things were supposed to be. A marriage was comparable to a “utilitarian contract.” It was superficial. Henrick Ibsen referred the relationships between a man and a woman as “A woman cannot be herself in modern society. It is an exclusive male society with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who asses female