It isn’t difficult to determine that A Doll’s House deals with women’s issues. The entire last scene in which Nora and Torvald have their one and only meaningful conversation with each other is filled with Nora finally asserting her own independence, wants, and wishes, culminating in her decision to leave Torvald. On the surface, it may seem that the ending and the play itself is a condemnation of marriage overall. After all, Nora realizes that she has been Torvald’s “doll-wife”, and Torvald treats her in a completely patronizing way, calling her his “sky-lark”, and saying that her helplessness makes him attractive to her (Ibsen, 1599). However, the play is not a condemnation of the entire institution of marriage itself. Rather, it is meant to show how the particular idea that Victorians had of marriage and the strict gender roles inside those marriages had a negative impact on women and men. The negative effects of the Victorian version of marriage is reflected in the deterioration of Nora and Torvald’s marriage, and the damage of Victorian
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Some of the roles and expectations came about due to economic and societal shifts away from how marriage and gender roles operated in the 18th century. According to the book “A Man’s Place: Masculinity and the Middle Class Home in Victorian England” by John Tosh, women in middle class families in the 18th century were much more involved in their husband’s work and business. For instance, if a man owned a shop, then his wife would essentially act as a junior partner on his business (15). She would be involved in other aspects as well, like booking keeping or buying raw materials (Tosh, 15). Some women were even more involved than that. On the northern coast of modern day Portugal, some women were co-owners of ships with their husbands and were actively involved in the cod fishing business (Locklin,
Some of the roles and expectations came about due to economic and societal shifts away from how marriage and gender roles operated in the 18th century. According to the book “A Man’s Place: Masculinity and the Middle Class Home in Victorian England” by John Tosh, women in middle class families in the 18th century were much more involved in their husband’s work and business. For instance, if a man owned a shop, then his wife would essentially act as a junior partner on his business (15). She would be involved in other aspects as well, like booking keeping or buying raw materials (Tosh, 15). Some women were even more involved than that. On the northern coast of modern day Portugal, some women were co-owners of ships with their husbands and were actively involved in the cod fishing business (Locklin,