Chris Gardner once said, “If you want something, go get it. Period.” When comparing Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House,” to Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles,” many similarities are seen. Gender roles continue to evolve and change—it has only been for a relatively short time that women have broken through their defined roles to be seen on the same level as men on a wide scale basis. Indeed, much of history’s pages are written from a patriarchal perspective, opening the way for the female protagonists and complimentary characters in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House to challenge those gender roles, providing interesting points of comparison and contrast between the plays and challenging us to think about gender roles in a new way.
Trifles
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For example, in at least one of the relationships in A Doll's House, there is a complete reversal of typical gender assignments. This is demonstrated when Mr. Krogstad loses his job to Kristine Linde, a woman who proves herself completely capable of solving problems on her own—without the help of men—during the events of the play. And not only does she replace him at the bank where Torvald, Nora’s husband, is to serve as manager, but also later renews the relationship between the two of them from ten years prior and offers to work while he stays at home—at least during the outset of their relationship—because his taking the job back “benefits” no one (Ibsen1292). Additionally, it was she who fixed her family’s problems years before by taking it on herself to break off the original relationship with Krogstad and marry a richer man. And even Krogstad himself steps out of gender role when he accepts the circumstances that fall upon him—he does not care that he is not to be the breadwinner of the family: he cares only that he and Ms. Linde are at last