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Kristine Linde’s story illustrates the difficulties single women faced in the nineteenth century. Single women in the 19th century, such as miss Linde faced challenges such as loneliness, poverty, and depression. When miss Linde enters into Nora’s house as an almost forgotten friend and a lonely widow, Nora doesn’t spend time listening to her friend’s troubles hence showing his insensitive and self-centred character to the widow. During their conversation, Miss Linde tells Nora that she was desperate and had to turn her hands to anything to provide for her mother and his boys after the demise of her husband who had left them nothing. She says “The last three years seemed like a long working day with no rest” (Ibsen, Act 1). From the illustrations, it is evident that single women faced a lot of challenges in the 19th centuries. They faced frustrations, poverty, loneliness and even lacked opportunities to have regular work like others in the offices.
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Ibsen, in his book “A Doll’s House shows a miserable picture of the sacrificial role held by women in society from different economic classes. In the play, women sacrifice their integrity for selfish interest. For instance, Miss Linde abandoned Krogstad, a penniless man and married a rich man. The nanny in Nora’s house also abandoned her child to take care of Nora’s children so that she could provide for herself. Although Nora is economically stable compared to the other women, she takes a loan to help his husband and hide it from him. The society dictates that the husband is the head of the family and should never buy the idea that his wife can save his life. According to Stephanie “The drama ends with the sound of the heroine” with Nora Helmer, walking out of the family home and shutting the door, deserting her husband and their three young children. The act of Nora leaving her children is an act of self-sacrifice since she loved them. However, she chose to leave them, believing that their nanny would be a better mother. These illustrations paint a clear picture of how women in the “A Doll’s House” sacrifice their happiness and integrity at the expense of their loved ones.
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A Doll’s House shows an imbalance of power and the restricted role of women during the setting of the story. In the story, Torvald treats Nora like a pet and material property and thinks that he cannot trust his wife with money since she is not responsible and smart. He says “But now tell me, you extravagant little person, what would you like for yourself?” (Ibsen, Act 1). Although Nora gets frustrated by his husband’s behaviour, she promises herself that she will never disobey her husband. According to “Women Identity in Henrik Ibsen’s The Doll’s House and Robert Frost’s Home Burial: A Comparative Study” both men and women struggle for equality in the A Doll’s where “women were dolls” in the eyes of men. (No Reg-7).
Work Cited
Forward, Stepanie. “A New World for Women? Stephanie Forward Considers Nora’s Dramatic Exit from Ibsen’s A Doll House.” The English Review, vol. 19, no. 4, 2009. Literature Resource Center, http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA196227179&v=2.1&u=avl_jeff&it=r&p=GLS&sw=w&asid=6ead042d6bbff3698f5a16a7c32c0ea8.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll House. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, edited by Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp, Thirteenth Edition, Cengage, 2018, pp. 1128-1187.
NO, REG. WOMEN IDENTITY IN HENRIK IBSEN’S THE DOLL’S HOUSE AND ROBERT FROST’S HOME BURIAL: A COMPARATIVE STUDY. Diss. UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT, 2017.