Breaking Free from the Doll House

Despite the overwhelming sexist stereotypes that flood the pages of A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen depicts his beliefs on how the women of the time should break free from their confinements in the “doll house” reality in order to find their true identity separate from the identity of which society forces upon them.

To demonstrate his point, Ibsen uses Torvald to represent the flaws of the present form of marriage. The play begins by depicting the typical middle-class family, with the dominant husband and submissive wife relationship. At the beginning of the play, Ibsen depicts the husband-wife relationship as immensely superficial. Characterized by childish behavior, Nora uses flirtation and childish manipulative tactics to get money and other favors from her husband. Initially Nora and Torvald seem equally content in their relationship with one another, but as Nora’s past deception, when she forged her father’s signature in order to get a loan, comes to light Torvald begins to distance himself from his wife. Though Nora ¬committed this felony for the sake of love in her hopes to help her too prideful of a husband, Torvald ¬¬¬shows no loyalty to his wife in fear of the effects that will befall his career and reputation. And finally when a letter arrives containing Krogstad’s apology and Nora’s forged signature arrives, Torvald exclaims, “I’m saved!” forgetting the implications that would have ensued for Nora and only caring about himself. By depicting Torvald as a disloyal husband, Ibsen demonstrates the superficiality of men, thereby warning women of the importance of being independent from their husbands.

Along with sending a warning on the treacheries of marriage, throughout the play Ibsen makes Nora grow more and more defiant as she learns of the disloyalty of her husband. Initially, Nora disobeys her husband in small measures like eating macaroons when he detests the eating of treats in his house. Her rebellious ways manifest for she begins to work as a copier in a time when married women were not supposed to hold jobs since their work resided at home. As Nora begins to realize she means little to her husband although she has sacrificed so much for him, including her reputation for falsifying documents, she takes the greatest step by leaving home. Nora finally realizes her need for her own independent identity when she states "I believe that, before all else, I'm a human being, no less than you-or anyway, I ought to try to become one." Although she even realizes that it is against the way of the times for she states, "I know the majority thinks you're right, Torvald, and plenty of books agree with you, too. But I... have to think over these things myself,” she knows she can no longer live as a doll, an echo of her husband’s wishes. Nora realizes she must take it upon herself to leave the “doll house” and become her own person.

By depicting untrustworthy, self-centered husband and the joys that follow Nora as she tastes the fruits of independence, Ibsen uses his play to encourage women to break from the norm and pursuer their own independence.

Shakespeare's Women

Although Hamlet focuses on the journey of a son in his hopes of avenging his father, Shakespeare uses women to help catapult the story further. In his efforts to tell Hamlet’s story, Shakespeare often comes off as an antifeminist as he characterizes the women, mainly Ophelia and Gertrude, as weak and unfaithful individuals.

Even at first meeting the character of Ophelia, Shakespeare deems her as weak and naïve. When Ophelia tells her father of her meetings with Hamlet, her father pours scorn on her for meeting a man sin chaperon and insists that Hamlet only wants her for sexual favors and nothing else. After her father’s warnings, Ophelia suddenly spurns her relationship with Hamlet even though Hamlet had, as Ophelia previously stated, “importuned [her] with love in honorable fashion.” Ophelia’s insecurity in her relationship with Hamlet and weak character allowed her to be easily overcome by her father’s advice thereby allowing her to reject Hamlet which in turn helped manifest Hamlet’s “madness.” Likewise, later in the play, Ophelia is once more overcome by her weak persona, which brings her to kill herself. Too overwhelmed with emotions and unable to deal with her situation as a strong woman, Ophelia once again demonstrates her feeble character by killing herself (well sort of---we don’t know for sure if she committed suicide but I vote yes.) Although Shakespeare uses Ophelia to develop the story since she serves as one of the numerous figures that help catapult Hamlet on his mission to avenge his father, Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia as naïve and easily overcome demonstrates his demeaning view of women.

Shakespeare also depicts Hamlet’s mother as an insensitive and unfaithful individual throughout the play. At the mark of the play, we find Gertrude has wedded Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, only a few months after his Hamlet’s father’s death. Gertrude’s quick marriage demonstrates her unfaithfulness to her husband. Even the ghost speaks of her betrayal for when the ghost returns as Hamlet’s father, it acknowledges Gertrude’s unfaithful behavior and tells Hamlet to leave her to be judged by God. Gertrude likewise never shows any sign of remorse after her speedy remarriage for Shakespeare writes, “now our Queen…/ Have we, as ‘twere, with a defeated joy,/ With an auspicious and a dropping eye./ With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,/ In equal scale weighting delight and dole,/ taken to wife.”

Despite both women’s imperative roles in developing the plot of the play and Hamlet as a character, Shakespeare’s characterizations of Ophelia and Gertrude as insensitive and weak individuals mark him as an antifeminist author.