Slamming the door in ADH

More Notes and Questions: A Doll’s House

The Slamming of the Door in A Doll’s House

 

The slamming of the door at the end of A Doll’s House was a sound that reverberated around the world. As a symbol of Nora’s assertion of her freedom and independence, this sound represented a direct challenge to the existing beliefs concerning sex roles. In the decades that followed the publication of the play, the role of women in society began undergoing a dramatic transformation. Because of its startling impact and the changes that followed, the slamming of the door is now viewed by many as a pivotal starting point in the modern feminist movement.

WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY



At the time the play was written, the idea of a woman leaving her husband and children to live freely and independently was considered unacceptable by the vast majority of people in the Western world. It was widely believed that women were inferior to men, and as a result women did not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men. Few women were provided with a quality education, and they had severely limited career opportunities. Rather than pursing a career, women were expected to marry and to devote their lives to serving their husbands and raising their children. In doing so they were expected to respect and obey their husbands without question.



NORA’S REBELLION AGAINST SOCIETY



By leaving Torvald and her children to educate herself and to search for personal fulfillment, Nora was rebelling not only against Torvald’s authority but against the attitudes and expectations of society as a whole. When she tells Torvald that she plans to leave him, he at first tries to forbid her, then warns her that she is “not even thinking about what people will say.” Nora responds that she is not concerned with what other people think, and she goes on to say that her duties to herself are more important than her duties as a wife and mother. She declares, “I’m a human being, no less than you—or anyway, I ought to try to become one. I know the majority thinks you’re right, Torvald, and plenty of books agree with you, too. But I can’t go on believing what the majority says, or what’s written in the books.”



THE IMPACT OF NORA’S REBELLION



When Nora finally leaves and the door slams shut behind her, Torvald is left in a state of shock and dismay. Similarly, the early audiences were shocked and dismayed by what they saw. Yet this sense of shock forced many people to begin reevaluating the role of women in society, and in the years that followed, women began to gain some of the rights and privileges that they had previously been denied.

During the course of the twentieth century, the status of women has continued to steadily improve. In virtually all Western democratic countries, women have gained the right to vote. In addition, the educational and professional opportunities available to women have expanded tremendously. Many women have involved in politics, and in a number of countries, women have been elected to the highest government post. As a result of such changes, women from many nations now enjoy virtually the same status as men, although there are still a few areas in which women are subject to discrimination.



IBSEN AND FEMINISM



Because of Nora’s actions in A Doll’s House, Ibsen is often regarded as one of the pioneer spirits in the feminist movement. Although Ibsen himself might have argued that he did not deserve this label, it cannot be denied that he was one of the first men to openly express concern about the needs of women, as well as about their role in society. Ibsen’s preliminary notes to A

Doll’s House clearly indicate that he wanted the play to capture the way in which society inhibited the freedom and growth of women. He wrote, “There are two kinds of spiritual law, two kinds of conscience, one in man and another, altogether different, in woman. They do not understand each other; but in practical life the woman is judged by man’s law, as though she were not a woman but a man…A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is exclusively a masculine society…”



QUESTIONS

1. Explain why Ibsen’s observation does or does not apply to contemporary American society.

2. Explain why Nora’s actions at the end of the play would or would not be considered acceptable in contemporary American society.

3. Do you think there are many men in contemporary American society who share Torvald’s attitude about women? Support your answer.