The Damages of a Society’s Expectations

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It has been stated that Nora Helmer of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is an ignorant, manipulative, and selfish woman who cares only about spending money and having “stacks and stacks” of it (Ibsen, 798). One can argue though, that Nora is a victim of the time in which she lived, and not simply an insensitive being. It was expected of women from Nora’s time and wealth to live with their fathers until they were married and moved in with their husbands, so it is only natural that Nora would have been shielded from important monetary decisions throughout her life. Women of the 1800’s were expected to marry, be housewives and mothers with the aid of servants, and do little else with their life, and many societies would chastise any woman who tried to stray from this ideal. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a modern, well-made play that uses realism to convey the damages done to women and their relationships by these societal expectations of women in the late 1870’s. Because it was what her society expected of her, Nora lived with her father until she married Torvald and never gave the situation a second thought until the very end of A Doll’s House. Nora “went from Papa’s hands to [Torvald’s]” who “arranged everything to [his] own taste” and was never given the chance to live or work on her own. The woman was always cared for, shielded from monetary issues, as many women of her time were, and forced into the mold society had for all women of her time. Nora was thrust into a position to be the perfect mother and wife, without ever being given the chance to figure out if that is what she wanted. As two English professors from Razi University have said, Nora “subdued right[s] from herself only for the sake of her spouse and children” which only furthers the idea that Nora was damaged by what society expected of her. This quote explains how Nora thought that she had duties to herself, but

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