The Roles of Husbands and Wife and the Importance of Friendships

“The Doll house”, by Henrik Ibsen is a play which portays women as inferior people as compared to men in the society. The main protagonist is Nora who is married to Torvald Helmer and is a mother of three. She has been living all along pleasing her husband and abiding to his rules and demands even though deep inside she does not like it. Her husband is guarding his reputation and ensures his wife does everything he says. Thus the play identifies women as objects used by men to please themselves rather than men making them happy. Marriages in this play are viewed as unsuccessful since most married women are not happy in their marriages. For instance, Mrs. Linde opens up to Nora and tells her that she got married in order to help her family financially. Thus she got married to a rich man so that she could cater for the needs of her family since they had financial problems. While people get married because of love it is clear from this play that women get married because of money too. Thus women are viewed as people who depend on men for financial stability. Women in this play have very strict roles as they are limited to being wives and mothers while their husbands are the bread winners and superior. Therefore this paper will discuss the play showing how it gave a voice to all women and left an uneasy feeling with the men. It revealed completely how a woman had lived her life, by fulfilling her husband’s and her father’s desires only to see that those dreams were not her own.

Women are important people in the society and therefore deserve to be treated with respect regardless of their financial status. Traditionally, women were viewed as objects and therefore inferior compared to men unlike in the 21^st century where men and women are all treated equally. Henrik Ibsen in his play portrays women as people who cannot make decisions on their own and thus men have the final say (Ibsen 65). For instance, Nora who is the main protagonist is not allowed by her husband, Torvald, to make any decision since he views her as an object more so a pet which is supposed to do everything that pleases him. He does not respect his wife and the mother of his children and to some extent his actions suggest that he does not love her. He ensures she remains confined to their home and does household chores and her duties are those of a wife and a mother. Nora does not love this life and is determined to change her life since she want to discover herself as she is lost in a marriage she is not happy in (Ibsen 67). She says that her husband and father are not different since they treat her equally confining her to duties of a wife. This shows that women in this society are not treated with respect and are not happy in their marriages since they are not allowed to make decisions affecting their lives and even those of their families. Women in this society are viewed as objects to please their husbands and treated like children and must adhere to the rules made by their husbands.

In the 21^st century women are given equal education chances to men. Women get the best education in the best schools which is the same case to men. Women of today are empowered and capable of doing everything men do and in some cases even perform better than men. Henrik Ibsen however, portrays women as uneducated people who depend on men in order to survive. Women in this society were not educated and especially they did not get university education as opposed to men thus men were intellectually superior compared to women (Ibsen 59). As a result of this women were treated like children and men taught them how they were supposed to live telling them what to or not do. Women in the 21^st century has transformed since they do not need a man to guide them since they make their own decisions and live as they please. Nora lived a life full of stress since she had to obey her husband and do as he pleases since this is what she was expected to do even by the society. Therefore this shows that the society supported the oppression done to women since they viewed women as inferior people who could not live without depending on men and decisions made by men too. Women had two roles which were that of being a mother and a good wife to the husbands unlike the woman of today who chooses to remain a wife or not. This play shows that women started realizing themselves since Norah left her husband and children so that she could gain her freedom back and discover herself since she had been lost in an unhappy marriage (Ibsen 120). Therefore women started discovering themselves and fighting for their rights which had been violated in the past.

Men and women had their different roles in the marriages. Men were educated people thus formally employed therefore making them the bread winners in their families. Mrs. Linde preferred to get married to a rich man since she did not have money to support her family. This shows that men owned property unlike women who depended on men for financial support (Ibsen 76). Men had a major role to make important decisions regarding their families and also gave women instructions on what to do or not to do. For instance in the beginning of the play, Nora was prohibited by her husband not to eat sweets. This is one sign of showing how women could not make decisions by themselves and thus followed oppressive decisions made to them by men. Women on the other hand had their roles of remaining subjects to women regardless of whether it their husbands. They had to obey all men and treat them well and respect them as well. Women had strict roles of pleasing their husbands and obeying them. Their main roles included that of being good mothers and the best wives. They were not allowed to make any decisions concerning themselves or even their families. For instance, Nora was not allowed by her husband to contribute to his decision regarding the bank’s decision when he was sacked. She even went to plead with Krogstad but she was dismissed because she is a women. Krogstas says that "It's because you plead for him that I can't help him. Everyone at the bank knows that I've sacked him. If it comes out that the new manager changes his mind when his wife demands it" (Ibsen 49). This implies that he cannot do anything suggested to him by a woman.

Women are well known to share their problems unlike men. Women share their problems with fellow women and learn they are not alone. Mrs. Linde shared with Nora that she got married so that she could help her families financially (Ibsen 87).She sacrificed her life and ensured her family got financial support from her rich husband. In most cases women are seen to sacrifice themselves so that other people can live happily. Women who were not able to work for themselves had to look for alternatives so that their families survived. Women sacrificed their own happiness and ensured their children and husbands remained happy. Nora shared her marriage life with Mrs. Linde who encouraged her and by doing this they both got revealed and learnt they shared almost similar stories since they were not happy in their marriages. Nora borrows Mrs. Linde money in order to help her husband but she advices her it would result to more problems. This shows that Nora is ready to do anything so that her husband remains happy and his reputation is not damaged (Ibsen 53). Anne Marie is seen to give her child for adoption just to ensure she and her baby get financial breakthrough. She is not ready to see her child suffer and thus shares her story with Nora who wonders why a mother would give up her child for adoption. She works extra hard to ensure she get enough finances which will maintain her and her child since she is a single mother.

Finally, the play portrays women as people who have been denied their rights but have now realized this and are ready to fight for their rights back. Nora runs away from her family since she has had enough and now wants to discover herself and fight for her rights as a modern woman (Ibsen 120). Women are oppressed because of their gender and thus men cannot listen to them simply because of their feminine gender. Women are important people and not objects or subjects to men as shown in the play. Women deserve respect and are supposed to be involved in decisions not only affecting their families but the entire society as well. Unlike in the play, women deserve to be given the best education so that they can live independently and not treated as children and intellectually inferior. Henrik Ibsen portrays women as having two major roles as good mothers and the best wives (Wilderet et al 87). Women go beyond performing these two roles and are important people in the society where they work and earn and live independently without men. In this play women are viewed as people who cannot live without men and depend on men for financial support. This is not seen in the 21^st century woman since women in this century are independent women who ensure they work and earn their own money. In the play women sacrifice their happiness for the sake of their children and husbands. Instead of enjoying happy lives they sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others. Thus women need to live happy lives where they are not deprived off their rights and are given freedom to live happily and equally with men.

Work cited

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House: A Play in Three Acts. Boston: W.H. Baker, 1890. Print.

Wilder, Thornton, and Henrik Isben. A Doll's House. , 2016. Print.