HOW WOMEN'S SUCCESS PROSPECTS HAVE BEEN MUFFLED BY MEN

Women have over centuries struggled to free themselves against Male dominance. However, men have always stood in the way of their achievements. In his play, A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen looks at how women have always been downplayed by the male dominated society. Interestingly, women on the other hand have been the leading advocates on their men's success. 

Nora is a vibrant bubbly woman with the heart of a child. She is the manager of the house and ensures that the children are kept busy so as not to disturb Helmer while he is working. Furthermore, she entertains Helmer's guests until when it is appropriate for them to get into Helmer's office. Although she does all this, she does not receive appreciation from Helmer or an adult talk that would open her vistas to new opportunities. instead, she is treated like a child. Helmer only finds time to pamper and toy with her like one would a child. 

Furthermore, instead of being led into adult discussions, the adults around her apart from Dr Rank isolate her to play with the kids. Indeed she enjoys playing with the kids but she also needs time to share her intimate secrets. Although she has lived with her husband for eight years, he has never known about her secret loan and how frustrating it is for her to raise the funds to pay back. It is only when Mrs Linde visits that she finds someone in whom to confide. It is from here that we understand the superficial relationship between Nora and Helmer. 

As we can infer, Helmer trusts Nora to be careful in her expenditure but does not engage with her on matters of financial management. Within this family set up, the man's responsibility is to bring money and the woman is to make sure that the money is well spent. Helmer does not understand how things run, but he understands the scarcity of money and therefore, expects Nora to live and shop within the budget. 

Being a righteous man, Helmer does not believe in borrowing and expects that his wife should do the same. Nevertheless, Nora seems ti have a deeper understanding of how money works. She therefore knows that however long her husband works, he cannot meet the familial obligations entirely. In fact, eight years ago, he could not afford a medical holiday to save his life. 

Knowing this fully well, Nora forged her father's signature on a document she used to secure a loan. Although her father was still alive, he was too ill for her to request such a huge favour. To save her father's agony and her husband's deteriorating health, she did what most people in desperate conditions did. 

Being indebted to someone is a difficult choice. It requires guts.  But this was not Nora's choice at the time. Her only desire was to save her husband no matter what. By taking the loan, and trying to reason with Krogstad, she showed a sense of maturity. She showed that creating legal loopholes like taking a very sick child to hospital and lying to the doctors was a necessary evil. 

However, her husband had never given her the opportunity to exercise her free will. He had always muzzled her with legal technicalities she did not understand and moral gibberish that made sense only to a blind society. If only he had given her an opportunity to rise from her doll's house, she would have blossomed into a better woman who wouldn't have left her family.

Mrs. Linde is also tested by poverty until she relents and marries for money instead of the man he loved. In matrimony, she helps her family but when her husband dies, she is left with nothing but a poor woman she was.     

Interesting Fact:
Henrik wrote an alternate play where Nora stays at the house but decided against it choosing a rather sad ending.
Part 2 of A Doll's House was written in 2017 by Patrick Hnath.