Women and Men in 19th century Europe - a discrepancy

By Gaurang Lamba

In the book, a Doll's House we notice there a subtle hints of gender roles throughout the play. Each of these hints helps establish a character as well as develop the story. In this blog post I will be looking at the the gender roles portrayed in " A Doll's House" and analyze the effect the gender role plays and how it is established throughout the play.

Firstly, The first gender role present in the book is of Helmer acting as the " Head of the house", this is noticed as Nora has to hide and eat Macaroons as Helmer has banned them in the house. Part of Act 1, this conveys Helmer's position in the house and how Nora responds to them, therefore giving us the idea that Nora cares about her husband and follows his rules, but only when he is watching or attentive. Whereas, behind his back she may choose to break these rules giving us an idea of her character and helping us relate to her. An example of this could be when Helmer asks her if she went to the Candy store which she denies, though she had.

Related to the role above, we notice that Helmer displays a parent like attitude as he is more mature out of the two, creating the gender role that " Men are more responsible", this is visible when calmly talking about money and asking her questions. Also, it is visible throughout Act one as he talks to Nora about various topics such as Krogstad. This displays their relationship as what is primarily portrayed is that Helmer is more mature but Nora is childlike. This is also noticed by the control of money in the marriage as Helmer or Torvald controls the money. Therefore, giving us a hint about their relationship.

Unlike Helmer, Nora is completely dependent on her husband. Therefore creating the stereotype that a woman requires the financial support of her husband, this is noticed when she asks her husband for money or when she completely relies on him( A common misconception we see today as well), this creates the impact that Torvald does not Trust Nora financially, as he believes she might spend the money carelessly; leading us to another gender role which is that a women cannot handle money as in some occasions we have heard Nora speak about shopping which , but she requires the money for something else.

A gender role most noted in Nora is that Women mainly care for their children as Nora spends heaps of time with her children playing and doing other such activities in order to entertain and spend time with them. However, we do not see Helmer doing the same with the children. Therefore symbolising that " It's a womens job", which is a gender role. Creating the point that men are not that active at home compared to work.

The point above, leads us to another gender role that men have to be more concentrated, ambitious and aggressive at work. It is also noticed how Helmer looks at Krogstad at the work place as it would ruin his reputation his office as he is to look aggressive whereas Krogstad will ruin that reputation as he will decrease that look and make Helmer look more like a friend instead of a boss.

Similar, we notice that Nora exhibits the role of being "chatty" a persistent gender role related to women. This is noticed by her long conversation with Mrs. Linde where she does some extent of " Gossip" or talks about the neighbourhood. This to an extent displays Nora's character as it shows that Nora likes to talk and sometimes says important information she should not communicate.

Another, Gender role we notice is a wife's influence in the house as we can see that Nora spoke with Helmer and got her a job. Aswell, as we notice that Krogstad tells Nora that he wants his job back understand this gender role of the position of a wife in a family and how she can persuade her husband. However, this does not work out as Helmer understands her plot and says this is not possible. However, this still displays the gender role of a women being able to persuade her husband.

To conclude, We notice the gender roles in the play and see the effect is portrays ion many ways such creating us to like or dislike a character, or the way these gender roles help evolve the story to another chapter. But, most important these gender roles show us how the Time affects the gender and creates these gender roles helping us understand the society of those times.