Ibsenutilizes cliché gender stereotypes in his portrayal of Nora and Torvald allthrough the body of A Doll House, concluding by suddenly turning around the generalizationsin the last snapshots of the play to demonstrate that internal strengths andweaknesses are elements of being human, not elements of masculinity or femininity.A Doll’s House uncovered the constrained role of women amid the era of itswriting and the issues that emerge from an exceptional irregularity of controlamongst males and females.
Throughout the novel Nora is treated as a child.Torvald refers to her as his ‘pet’ and his ‘property’, and alludes that she istoo irresponsible and ignorant to be trusted with money. Most characters suchas Dr. Rank and Krogstad dismiss her and even Ms. Lind a woman refers to her asa ‘child’. While this treatment does not seem to bother Nora, she playsalongside it, calling herself “little Nora” and promising that shecould never dream of overstepping her bounds with Torvald.
However, there aresigns that she isn’t content with the constrained position she has as a lady.When uncovering the mystery of how she obtained money to finance the journey toItaly, she implies it as her “pride” and says it was satisfying to bein charge of money, communicating it as “practically like being aman.” This is the reason Nora’s announcement that she additionally had”a duty to herself” stunned viewers of the time. Not solely was the patriarchalstructure a social custom and something expected of the upper class, howeverthere were additionally laws that promoted this philosophy. For instance, ladieswere not permitted to borrow money without their spouses’ authorization. Oncemore, Nora disregards social standards when she takes a loan from andreimburses cash to Krogstad without Torvald’s knowledge. Perhaps the only thingabout the world of the play that differs from the world of Ibsen is that Nora’sbehavior was completely unprecedented in the 1870’s.
