Nora Helmer in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House: A Feminist concerns in English Literature

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Azmi Azam
2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Azmi Azam

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a very controversial work of literature as it provokes the concept of new women and feminism. Nora’s leaving the household for the name of self-respect is widely debated and has been marked as the first mutinous effort of female individuals against male chauvinist mentalities. The article aims to explore Nora’s mentality and the discussion of critics regarding female liberty. It also sets to find out whether Nora’s decision is acceptable under the social conventionality or her boldness throws her into more devastating situations. Textual references are given with the statements of other critics. A short comparative discussion is also presented to elucidate the concept of feminism and Ibsen’s attitude towards womanhood.


Author(s):  
Joanne E. Gates

Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1862, Elizabeth Robins established herself in the American theater and then relocated to London in 1888. She epitomizes the grasp that the plays of Henrik Ibsen held on performers in the 1890s. Indeed, she outshone other professionals by laying claim to performing and producing the first English-speaking Hedda Gabler (1891) and the first Hilda Wangel (1893, in The Master Builder). She felt that the stage-management system prevented women from having a say in their profession, and therefore she welcomed the Independent Theatre Movement. She formed the Joint Management Company with American actress Marion Lea, her stage partner and co-producer for Hedda Gabler, and she organized several subscription series to mount not only Ibsen’s plays but also other artistic theater. Her feminist play Votes for Women (1907) was at the vanguard of pro-suffrage drama. Performances organized by Robins of Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder were rivaled in impact only by the initial sensation created by Janet Achurch as Nora Helmer in her London production of A Doll’s House in 1889. Robins’ other Ibsen roles included Martha in The Pillars of Society, Asta in Little Eyolf, Agnes in a production of Act 4 of Brand, Ella Reintheim in John Gabriel Borkman, Mrs Linde in A Doll’s House, and Rebecca West in Rosmersholm.


Author(s):  
Saima Akter

This article aims to present a re-reading of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House from a feminist perspective. Ibsen’s play is a pioneering feminist play, and he is credited for creating the first real feminist character in the history of theatre. The central female characters are analyzed, and the article also addresses the attitude of society towards women and how they struggle to prove themselves. Feminist literary criticism and feminism constitute the conceptual framework of the paper. In this play, Nora Helmer is under the illusion that her married life is perfect and that she owns what she deserves. Torvald, her husband calls her a ‘twittering lark’, ‘squirrel’, ‘song-bird’, and she is pleased with it. However, her illusion shatters when she faces the reality of finding herself being treated like a doll. As soon as she realizes that there exists an individual self of her, she revolts. She leaves the house, challenging the social institutions which contribute to women’s subjugation. Nora protests against the ill-treatment towards her by society for her willingness to get her right back, for her self-respect, and for finding herself.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Md. Amir Hossain

<em>The term, “empowerment” is undoubtedly a debating issue to many critics, scholars, politicians, academicians, practitioners, feminists, researchers, and litterateurs around the world; it is difficult to define in a practical sense. This study would like to apply this term with a view to empowering Bangladesh’s female teachers. And, the term, “empowerment” would be connected with women empowerment in the Bangladesh Perspective to clarify the discussion of this study. Truly speaking, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House bears the everlasting testimony of a feminist play around the planet. Though Ibsen’s outstanding creation of Nora’s character is still a globally controversial question, but to womankind, she is regarded as a model of freedom, power, and protect. In Bangladeshi colleges and universities, the participation of women is on the increase day by day across the country. Many of them are keenly interested in teaching profession, especially Bengali and English literature. It is interesting to note that many female teachers are very much eager to teach and carry out their scientific research project on A Doll’s House in the light of Bangladesh. They would like to find out an innovative and potential aspect of contemporary women’s issues differently through an epoch making creation of Ibsen’s female character, Nora. Some of female teachers regard Nora as an inspiration of women empowerment in the Bangladesh perspective. They have a popular notion that Nora is not only for the Scandinavian women, but also for Bangladeshi. In this regard, the researcher would like to frame Nora as a pioneer of women empowerment to Bangladeshi female teachers. Moreover, this study would like to examine how Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is now being evaluated, learnt, and taught in the Bangladeshi colleges and universities.</em>


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Salma Haque

Strained marriage is a traumatic experience which is influenced by complex social, financial, cultural and psychological factors. For this study two European literary couples Nora-Helmer and Gertrude-Mr. Morel from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers are taken and their problems get visible for real life couples to see. This paper is mainly related to the fact that many issues regarding strained marriage are still under-researched.  This study attempts to go into the depth of this global issue by providing information through critical textual analysis. In  nature, it is an explanatory as well as exploratory research.  A qualitative approach will be employed to know about the causes of strained  marriage relationship and  its consequences on the couples and families.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Izza Amalia Rahman ◽  
Mutmainnah Mustofa ◽  
Irfan Susiyana Putra ◽  
Abdul Moueed

In education, teaching literature is an essential way to strengthen students’ character building. A kind of literature to teach character building is drama. Drama is literary work that contains so many characters. It can be used as a tool for character development to students who have been taught with literature. This article aims to discuss the characters of Nora Helmer (a woman lived in Victorian era when women had powerlessness) in A Doll’s House Drama written by Henrik Ibsen. The method used is descriptive qualitative. It concentrated on providing explanation in the form of description about Nora Helmer’s characters that could be taught as students’ character building. The analysis of Nora’s characters results several findings. Woman’s figure represented by Nora’s characters are loyal, love and compassion; obedient; care and helpful; patience and spirited; responsible; brave. The findings show that a woman at that time even though she had a lot of difficulties, she tried to solve the problem, she tried to be the best for her husband and family. But when she was disrespected, she had to be brave to uphold her dignity. This article expects the students can increase their good characters, competence, conscience, and compassion in learning language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 209-214
Author(s):  
Tanzin Sultana ◽  
Durdana Nower

This paper attempts to bring out the nineteenth century's women’s quest for self-respect and self-actuality in the mirror of Nora’s developing consciousness following Marianne’s growing sensibility.  Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House are two prominent genres of ninetieth century’s English literature where both writers show the contemporary women’s soul being entangled to social norms as well as their gradual try to be non-conformist against these norms by their thought and action. In the 19th century, English society creates impediments for unmarried women like Marianne and married women like Nora to think and to talk in their way.  It is the patriarchal society where women’s social dignity and security depend on their marital status and husbands. Since marriage is their identity, they show their loyalty and sincerity to their husbands or the men they love. In Austen’s novel, as an ordinary woman, Marianne takes Willoughby’s attention as a scared bonding and challenges the seniors’ matured advice. In Ibsen’s play, Nora does forgery and secretly takes a loan to save her sick husband’s life. She considers it a spouse’s duty and believes that her husband will understand her as he cares for her. When the time comes, both Marianne and Nora betray their loyalty from their partners to whom they are not human beings but puppets to be entertained. From this violation of trust, they realize that they need to be considered human beings first before being respected women in a family and society. It is their strength that despite being taken as soulless creatures, they dare to think about own self beyond the society and become self-reliant. Their growing self-reliance makes today’s women progressive in creating a space in society and family for themselves as human beings.


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