Nora is more a form of entertainment for Torvald than she is an equal partner in marriage. She has become a sort of plaything to her husband, even when she is doing something she loves to do, something that shows an important feature she owns. It still seems to be owned and controlled by Torvald. Nora’s realization of this,
“NORA. [Shaking her head.] You have never loved me. You only thought it amusing to be in love with me.”
(3.42.14)
“NORA. ...I seem to have been living here like a beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald.” (3.42.29) coupled with the labor she underwent for Torvald’s health, leads to her climactic confrontation with her husband. Ibsen writes, “ HELMER. You alarm me, Nora. I don't understand …show more content…
Published in 1963, Betty amplifies the voice of hundreds of thousands of married women, unsatisfied with what roles they are pressured to play, which was dubbed: “The problem that has no name”. This problem represents a widespread unhappiness of women in marriages. A problem that is powerful enough to relate to women from many time periods and places. Betty writes, “Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night - she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - 'Is this all?’” (15). Nora silently struggled with the feeling that something was missing. She knew there was more for her, which is why she left her husband and children to find her independence. Nora’s confrontation with Torvald further proves that their relationship is dysfunctional: “NORA. We have been married eight years. Does it not strike you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have talked together seriously?” (3.41.58). This statement shook Torvald, and it is these kinds of statements that Betty Friedan pushed for in the female …show more content…
How free your life must feel! MRS. LINDEN. No, Nora; only inexpressibly empty. No one to live for! [Stands up restlessly.]”
(1.6.50).
Friedan comments on the occurrence of women that adjust to the housewife role, like Mrs. Linden, “Women who ‘adjust’ as housewives, who grow up wanting to be ‘just a housewife’, are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps...they are suffering a slow death of mind and spirit”. All Mrs. Linden knew during her life was to serve someone else, which is why she makes the later statement of aspiring to continue her work: serving others. She became accustomed to serving her late husband, so now that he is gone, Mrs. Linden wants to fill the emptiness she that feels without having the role of caretaker to fall into. Friedan leaves a call to action for readers that suffer from the “problem that has no name”: “We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: ‘I want something more than my husband and my children and my home”. She encourages women to be proactive with their dreams, and to listen to their own needs before anyone else’s. Ibsen writes,
“NORA. Oh, Torvald, you are not the man to teach me to be a fit wife for you.
HELMER. And you can say
“NORA. [Shaking her head.] You have never loved me. You only thought it amusing to be in love with me.”
(3.42.14)
“NORA. ...I seem to have been living here like a beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald.” (3.42.29) coupled with the labor she underwent for Torvald’s health, leads to her climactic confrontation with her husband. Ibsen writes, “ HELMER. You alarm me, Nora. I don't understand …show more content…
Published in 1963, Betty amplifies the voice of hundreds of thousands of married women, unsatisfied with what roles they are pressured to play, which was dubbed: “The problem that has no name”. This problem represents a widespread unhappiness of women in marriages. A problem that is powerful enough to relate to women from many time periods and places. Betty writes, “Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night - she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question - 'Is this all?’” (15). Nora silently struggled with the feeling that something was missing. She knew there was more for her, which is why she left her husband and children to find her independence. Nora’s confrontation with Torvald further proves that their relationship is dysfunctional: “NORA. We have been married eight years. Does it not strike you that this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have talked together seriously?” (3.41.58). This statement shook Torvald, and it is these kinds of statements that Betty Friedan pushed for in the female …show more content…
How free your life must feel! MRS. LINDEN. No, Nora; only inexpressibly empty. No one to live for! [Stands up restlessly.]”
(1.6.50).
Friedan comments on the occurrence of women that adjust to the housewife role, like Mrs. Linden, “Women who ‘adjust’ as housewives, who grow up wanting to be ‘just a housewife’, are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps...they are suffering a slow death of mind and spirit”. All Mrs. Linden knew during her life was to serve someone else, which is why she makes the later statement of aspiring to continue her work: serving others. She became accustomed to serving her late husband, so now that he is gone, Mrs. Linden wants to fill the emptiness she that feels without having the role of caretaker to fall into. Friedan leaves a call to action for readers that suffer from the “problem that has no name”: “We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: ‘I want something more than my husband and my children and my home”. She encourages women to be proactive with their dreams, and to listen to their own needs before anyone else’s. Ibsen writes,
“NORA. Oh, Torvald, you are not the man to teach me to be a fit wife for you.
HELMER. And you can say