The Wave of New Women

A detailed Summary of The Wave of New Women

In Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" today, one may find it hard to imagine how daring it seemed at the time. Its theme, the emancipation of a woman, makes it seem almost contemporary. Written during the Victorian era, the controversial play featuring a woman seeking individuality caused more trouble than any of Ibsen's other works. This play portrayed the role of women as the comforter, helper, and supporter of man, "A Doll's House" introduced woman as having her own purposes and goals in life that they would like to accomplish. Nora Helmer, the helpless wife, slowly changes through the play and eventually realizes that she must stop being her husband's "doll" and become an individual.

Although Nora's relationship with her husband was to be expected during the time it was written, there were many clues that set off at the kind of marriage Nora and Torvald had. Throughout the play it was obvious that Torvald did love Nora, but only how a person would love a prized possession. She relied on him for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet who is dependent on its puppet master for all of its actions. He enjoyed how everything was perfect, how he could do anything with her and loved having his perfect wife in his p

In today's society, many women are in a situation similar to Nora's. Although women have been accepted and treated as being equal to men, there are still people in modern America who are doing their best to suppress the feminist revolution. People ranging from conservative radio-show hosts who complain about "flaming femi-nazis," to women who use their "feminine charm" to accomplish what they want are what is holding the female gender back. Both of these views are expressed in "A Doll's House." An example of today's stereotypical man would be Torvald, who is only interested in his appearance to the community and the amount of control he has over a person, and does not care about the feelings of others. Nora, on the other hand, is a typical example of the woman who plays to a man's desires. She makes Torvald think he is much smarter and stronger than he actually is. When Nora finally slams the door in Torvald's face, he realizes what true love and equality are, and that they cannot be achieved with people like Nora and himself together. If everyone in the modern world were to view males and females as completely equal, and if neither men nor women used the power that society gives them based on their sex, then true equality can exist in our world.

Torvald had a tendency of wanting to control everything. In an actual dollhouse everything looks pretty and perfect, but nothing in it actually functions as it should. The same is true of the marriage in this play, everything seems fine, but in reality things are not the way they should be. One example of this involves the issue of whether or not Torvald should fire a certain employee. Even when Nora pleaded to Torvald for insisting on firing the man, he insisted so because of the fear of what the employees might think or say.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Torvald Torvald, Doll's House, Torvald Throughout, Torvald Aren't, Nora Krogstad, Nora Helmer, Written Victorian, House Torvald, doll's house, , Torvald Leave, nora's duties wife, duties wife, nora's duties, nora person, finally slams, slams door, nora finally, ibsen's play, finally slams door, nora finally slams,

Approximate Word count = 1209
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History