Breaking Away From Society A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen...

Modern interpretations of â€Å"A Doll’s House† and â€Å"Trifles† portray that these dramas are solely works of feminism, when in fact they address a more important issue of the time: marriage ideals. During this time, marriages were nothing but a masquerade. Husbands and wives hid behind their commitment, and were overly focused on the appearances and opinions of society. Society played a key role in the formation of the attitudes and opinions of marriage in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. â€Å"A Doll’s House† by Ibsen was written in 1879 and focuses on the problems within the traditional marriage of the time. â€Å"Trifles† was written several years later in 1916 by Susan Glaspell and was also a story that brought the issues with marriage ideals to the†¦show more content†¦Their marriage is strained mostly because of Torvald’s inability to see the wrong in society. Torvald treats Nora as if she were a young child. He patronizes her by calling her nicknames such as, â€Å"Little Miss Sweet Tooth†, â€Å"little pigheaded miss†, and â€Å"my little featherbrain†. (Ibsen 1602, 1599, 1625). While some may argue that Torvald’s patronizing and demeaning attitude is the sole cause of the deterioration of their marriage, the real reason behind the fall out is a collection of much deeper issues. From early on in the story we can tell that there are more problems with their marriage than Nora leads on. When Nora sees her old friend Mrs. Linde, she acts as if her life is going perfectly as planned. Nora brags about her husband exclaiming, â€Å"Just imagine, my husband’s been appointed manager of the bank!† (Ibsen 2604). Nora only reveals the positive parts of her marriage and keeps her hardships and struggles locked away. Later on in the story it becomes very apparent that in the late 1800’s, secrecy was a key part of matrimony. Nora went to extr eme lengths to keep secrets from not only her husband, but from herself; she acted completely oblivious to the demeaning attitude that Torvald emitted towards her. The couple also faced problems with honesty. Nora felt that she could not trust Torvald; hence why she kept the forged signature a secret from him. Torvald, himself, also was not completely honestShow MoreRelatedRebellion Against Society in Ibsens A Dolls House Essay677 Words   |  3 PagesRebellion Against Society in A Dolls House      Ã‚  Ã‚  An underlying theme in A Dolls House, by Henrik Ibsen, is the rebellion against social expectations to follow what one believes in their heart. This theme is demonstrated as several of the plays characters break away from the social norms of their time and act on their own beliefs. 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