A Doll’s House Gender Imbalance and Its Influence on Money PDF

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Olasehinde B Adebayo Justine Gieni ENGL 100 17th October 2019 A Doll’s House: Gender Imbalance and Its Influence on Money A Doll’s House is a story written by Ibsen Henrik. In the view of Gieni (2015) it is a dramatic play consisting of three acts. The action in this story took place in Helmers house while the characters in the story are Torvalds Helmer, Nora (his wife), Doctor Rank, Mrs Linde, Nils Krogstad, Helmer's three young children, Anne (their nurse), Helene (a housemaid) and a porter. The story is about a married woman, Nora, who felt satisfied with her life under the direction and love of her husband. Whereas to her husband, she is just like a property. Her husband regards her a doll while demeaning and insulting her with nicknames like my little lark, featherhead, skylark, featherbrain and squirrels which can be affirmed when he said: “HELMER [calls out from his room]. Is that my little lark twittering out there? NORA [busy opening some of the parcels]. Yes, it is! HELMER. Is it my little squirrel bustling about? NORA. Yes! HELMER. When did my squirrel come home? … HELMER. Nora! [Goes up to her and takes her playfully by the ear.] The same little featherhead!” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 1) This, however, tells more about the nature of a man as inherently oppressive, looking for every situation to take advantage of others to oppress and suppress by words or actions. Nora depends so much on her husband for money. As such money which depicts power and formed one of the factors used to control her as a woman, inability to make money led to a huge

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imbalance between Nora and her husband. As the story develops, her husband, Torvalds insulted her for forgery which was done to help preserve his own life despite been finally told the truth. Unfortunately, as the husband tries to calm her later, she discovered herself. She realised she is not loved; she is just a doll which finally led leaving her marriage: NORA. That our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye. [She goes out through the hall.] HELMER [sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands]. Nora! NORA! [Looks round, and rises.] Empty. She is gone. [A hope flashes across his mind.] The most wonderful thing of all--? [The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.]” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 3) This was a huge discovery of the need for freedom, slammed the door in preparation for new personhood and identity. This story present as a lot of information about our modern-day society, the way men controls women, discrimination against women, the way men feels that women existed just for them, how men see women as nothing more than just a wife and mother. This essay will focus on the imbalance of gender and money and the gender influence on access to money during the period the story was written. From childhood, I grew up to understand that some certain people in the society are considered as lesser while some are superiors. In traditional African culture, the men rule over the women, it is an abomination, a taboo for women to be the head of towns or communities. Women have to take up their husband’s name after marriage while those that are unmarried are completely discriminated against. In short, humans have set different factors like sexuality, gender, race status to oppress and suppress, make some inferior and others superior. A Doll’s House reveals the social expectations of women and men. This story shows that women role in society is to serve her husband in every area of life. Torvald engaged in playful sexual advances to Nora who refuses to accept it. In other to remind Nora that she has no right to

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refuse the advances he said, '“What’s that? You're joking, my little Nora! You won't--you won't? Am I not your husband--? [A knock is heard at the outer door.]” (SparkNotes 2002. Act3). This further reveal that it is a norm that the men wishes must not be refused by women or wives as Mrs Linde put it when she decided to pursue her relationship with Krogstad, “…[tidying up the room and laying her hat and cloak ready]. What a difference! what a difference! Someone to work for and live for--a home to bring comfort into. That I will do, indeed” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 3). In the same vein, when Krogstad threatened Nora, and she begged her husband to reinstate Krogstad back to his position at work, Torvald did not listen to her. This goes a very long way to show women are regarded as incapable of making good decisions that can lead to positive progress. Despite all of these, women still want their husband respected by anyone that meets them, this is evident in Nora conversation when he said to Krogstad, “…a little respect for my husband, please” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 2) The imbalance of these roles resulted from unequal access to money. The men have access to money than women. As they can engage in paid work. Unfortunately, the men paid jobs depend on the unpaid job undertook by the women (wives) just because they are “husbands”, jobs like house cleaning, childrearing, cooking, laundry and so on. For all these roles, they are not regarded as a worker just because it has no monetary value attached to it. And since there is no monetary value, it deprives them of the power to "buy" self-determination and decisions like providing for their own needs and living without depending on the husband. Women roles are regarded as lacking value and do not warrant any financial compensation. This can be ascribed to economic oppression on the part of the women. The inability of women to control money base on gender and society definition of their roles led Torvald to tell Nora “… has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 1). This further reveal that society gives the control and monitoring of money to men. This is an act is an of

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economic oppression against women. As it helps me to claim dominance and wield control over the women An additional form of oppression is the lock on the letterbox by Torvald’s which gives him the lone ability to mail retrieval. When a letter was dropped in the mailbox by Krogstad and Nora would have loved to retrieve the letter so as not to face ridicule if Torvald discovered the content of the letter, unfortunately Mrs Linde asked, “…and your husband keeps the key? Nora responded, “Yes, always.” (SparkNotes 2002, Act2) The key and the lock can be tagged a form of material oppression as it prevents Nora from accessing the letterbox, another role the society at that time placed on man. Unfortunately, society has failed to recognise that men and women role is very similar. Women tend to make more sacrifices than men. For instance, when Mrs Linde placed her family as her major priority as she had to marry a rich man just to be able to care for his mother and brother”, “My mother was alive then, and was bedridden and helpless, and I had to provide for my two younger brothers; so I did not think I was justified in refusing his offer.” (SparkNotes 2002, Act 1). Also, when Torvald becomes sick probably as a result of work-related stress and Nora wanted them to take a trip to Italy. It’s so sad that Torvald allowed his gender role to becloud him of the reality of Nora’s true intention. Instead of listening to Nora, he refused to finance the trip. Despite his refusal, Nora still went ahead to get money for the trip by forging her father’s signature to get a loan. In term of role play, I can assert that women are stronger at taken dangerous risk just to ensure that their families and loved ones are happy, unlike men.

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Reference SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on A Doll’s House. Retrieved October 17, 2019, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/ Gieni, J. (2015). Henrik SparkNotes 2002's: "A Doll's House" " Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7URufqzd9w&list=PLIQMaXkcRjhLp6ruSySDSRw8BuuwwJzx&index=2&t=0s...