Doll's House Gender Roles

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a Norwegian play set it the late 1800’s. Often argued to be a feminist play, A Doll’s House has diverse, round, female characters and a male antagonist. Nora Helmer is married to Torvald Helmer, who recently came into a high paying job at the bank. Their household seems to be picture perfect: little dolly children running around, a beautiful wife, and a husband who can support his family financially; yet we soon learn this is not this case. Their dollhouse is turned upside down when Nora is revealed to have forged her father’s signature on a loan with Krogstad to fund a trip in order to save Torvald’s life. This creates tension as women were not allowed to take out loans at their own will at the time, it could only be done by a male family member or husband. Dr. Rank and Mrs. Linde provide outside insight to matters at hand and allow Nora to step out of her role as obedient housewife. A Doll’s House uses conflict, and character development, represented through dialogue and diction, to convey how Torvald limits Nora and to criticize gender roles.
Ibsen uses dialogue to highlight how Torvald limits Nora and treats her without respect. The conversations between Torvald and Nora, and those between Nora and Mrs. Linde show the blunt contrast between a healthy, equal relationship and a toxic one. When the audience is first introduced to Nora and Torvald, Nora has returned home and Torvald is calling out to her in pet names: “my little lark… my little squirrel” (Ibsen 2) using possessive terms. Torvald often …show more content…
There are multiple types of conflict in the play: person vs. self, person vs. person, and person vs. society. Nora plays into the societal expectations of the time, especially when talking to men. She often lets Torvald be the ‘knight in shining armour’ and tells