It is tradition for many centuries that women are suppose to stay at home and watch the children and the house while the husband works. It has always been practices and became a custom especially during the earlier centuries. When a women does not follow that tradition, she is looked down upon and seen as not normal. In A Dolls House, Nora who is married to Helmer is not too happy with her life which fell under that tradition and
struggles with it through out the play. Women should not have to follow a tradition if they would rather do
something else such as get a job of her own or know who she is before getting married.
Nora is a mother of three children and does not work instead she stays home and watches them and
takes care of the house. That is the normal tradition to do and to stand by your husband and never lie to him or leave him. Nora has a deep secret though, that she once borrowed money from Krogstad, a man who works with Helmer. She had to borrow the money to take a trip to Italy that was too cure her husband of a sickness he had. What she did is seen as a horrible thing to go behind her husbands back and hold a secret from him for so long.
It is not right too have women follow this culture because "it is tradition", women should have the right to
be anything they want to be without having to worry about being ridiculed for it. Nora had to live to live with her husband for 8 years even though she was unhappy and did not love him. She did this because she was living under the tradition and never noticed how unhappy she actually was, which happened very often in the earlier centuries. " You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasent be in love with me" (76, A Dolls House) Helmer also fell under tradition because he thought the "perfect" wife was a wife you takes care of kids and who never does wrong.
When Helmer finds out about what she has held from him for many years he yells at her and calls her a "thoughtless women" (72, A Dolls House) and he cannot believe his "perfect" wife would have done this to him and continues to yell at her about it until he receives a note that says that it is all forgotten and Helmer is happy and tries to make it seem like everything is okay but Nora does not accept it and leaves the home and Helmer is very shocked because this goes against the tradition.
Women should not have to stick to a tradition because it has been followed for many centuries it is not fair to them. They should be able to do what they want and not have to worry about if they will get no respect for doing so. Nora was very brave and strong for walking out even though she left behind her children but she needed to find her self first before anything. Hopefully women can be seen just as worthy as men are in his society.
Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment