Wife As Her Husband's Possession example essay topic

Reading Ibsen's A Doll's House today, one may find it difficult to imagine how daring it seemed at the time it was written. Its theme, the emancipation of a woman, makes it seem almost contemporary. Women were treated as possessions during the Victorian Era; whereas today they are thought of as almost equals. Nora Helmer is a perfect representation of the ideal Victorian wife. One example of this is Torvald, her husband, forbidding her to eat any sweets.

She loves to eat macaroons, but Torvald is afraid they will ruin her teeth; so she feels that it is necessary to hide the fact that she eats them. This allows the audience to know that the Helmer's marriage is one not based on trust, but rather control. Torvald does not trust her with any finances; he believes her to be his spendthrift (971). This presents another example, Torvald's pet names for his wife. He calls her my squirrel (970), and my sweet little lark (972); this show how he does not think of her as an equal, but rather his possession. Unfortunately, that is the way society regards a wife, as her husband's possession.

A woman's only responsibility is to her husband, and her family; she is not allowed to have any of her own debts, or business associates if she has a husband to do it for her. Nora knows this. She has a debt that she has not told her husband about; she has kept this from him for most of their marriage. This type of thing is unheard of; a woman has to tell her husband everything. Nora believes however, that if her secret ever comes out he would take the blame totally upon himself. She believed this to be a miracle, and she prayed for it to come true.

However, when the truth of Nora's debt does come out, Torvald does the exact opposite. He blames her, worries about how it may effect his reputation, and how society will react. This makes Nora come to a realization; that Torvald treats her as if she were a doll that he could do with as he pleased. She decided that, in order for her to be truly happy, she must experience life on her own. Nora needs to solve her problem by herself. Henrik Ibsen is known for his problem plays, and this play is no different.

Nora is a Victorian wife who finds herself in dilemma; she can no longer live in her home, with a husband she does not love. She decides to leave, and slam the door on all the responsibilities society has forced her to accept. She comes to accept that she comes before everything and everyone else. This is a truly contemporary idea. A woman in the Victorian Era is to put her family first, and herself last. This concept is believed to true up until the 1920's; in the 1920's the Woman's Rights Movement changed that.

It made women realize that if they were not happy, then how could she possibly bring happiness into her home. The woman of modern time has accepted this, and it is not as unusual for a woman to leave her home if she is unhappy; whereas then she would have been condemned.