Power In Henrik Ibsen's Four Major Plays

Throughout history, the distribution of power among different groups in society has affected the role that individuals can play in their personal development. Henrik Ibsen’s Four Major Plays shows the way women’s activities can be controlled by the interests and the views of women in the community. The distribution of power in these plays is based on the gender of the characters as the women have been left out in major decision making. In the first play, A Doll’s House, Nora’s activities are based on the views of her husband who does not think women can make decisions. She cannot borrow money to develop her husband 's activities, but she cannot let him know of her activities without making him angry. She has to confront her darker side to avoid being caught in the activities that Torvard does not approve (Ibsen 129). …show more content…
Alving are not important as the people praise his military husband hero. Her family members including her son praise Mr. Alving’s activities in the military, and they fail to recognize the pain that his wife had to go through. They push her to the point of revealing the way their marriage was affected by Mr. Alving’s activities with other women and the pain she had to bear (Puttick 71). The third play is Hedda Gabler where the character Hedda is just from a honeymoon with a husband she does not want to be with. In this play, the opinions and the feelings of women are not important in the views of the people who believe that women are there to fulfill the interests of men. In Solness, the final play, the character Solness has a dream to build a tower, and his wife Hilde is responsible for supporting his dream (Puttick