Humanism and Feminism in ''A Doll House''

 

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Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian Playwright of the 19th century. He was the founder of modernism in theater and is also known as the father of realism. Henrik has a great influence on playwrights and authors. He inspects how his work is effective for women's rights and social justice. His plays were often considered controversial because he raised such issues which are not in trend at that time.

Humanism and Feminism
Humanism considers all human beings equal. All human beings have equal rights of living. It values human reason and thought while on the other hand, Feminism focuses on women's rights only.  Feminism raises voices for basic rights for women, like education, jobs, marriage, and much more. Humanism and Feminism have a slight difference. Humanism means all human beings are equal; all deserve equal rights, respect, and love while on the other hand, feminism means women should be treated equally like men or sometimes more.

Characters in Doll House

Nora Helmer

Torvald

Krogstad

Mrs Linde

Dr. Rank

A Doll's House

A Doll’s House is a great Novel by Henrik Ibsen. In the Play, the writer has discussed many themes but Humanism and Feminism are major themes of this Novel. In this novel, the writer tries to speak for human and women's rights. Nora was a beautiful, young, confident, and charming lady, she was a traditional woman of her own time who loved to look after her house, husband, and children. She loves to spend on herself and on her house. Torvald who is Nora’s husband is a wealthy and successful man. He works in a bank like a typical dominating husband of the 19th century the role of a husband is to protect and look after the family only and guide his wife because the wife needs the guidance of a male. He thinks that he is strong emotionally, intellectually, and mentally. although the couple struggled a lot in the first five years of their wedding now their condition was quite stable. The family looks perfect but as it said “appearance is deceiving”.

                                                 Feminism and Humanism in ''A Doll House''

In the play Ibsen shows that women after all of their sacrifices did not get rights, they were considered weak. When Helmer comes to know about Nora’s lie he without understanding and realizing that she does all that for him becomes angry. He insults her and calls her a liar, and a bad mother but when he gets Krogstad's second letter he suddenly changes and in that time Nora realizes that she has duties regarding herself before the duties of being a mother or a wife and she decides to speak against all these things, which clearly symbolize that Henrik tries to show the basic principle of feminism. Nora is described by the titles of being a mother, daughter, and wife, which are imposed by men in society.

Through the character of Nora Ibsen shows how Nora saves her husband, how she supports her family, and how she can stand alone and support herself while on the other hand, Torvald symbolizes society, the thoughts, and perception of society about women that they only must look after the family and nothing else but Nora finds herself in the end and spoke for all women of that era that they have the right of freedom, freedom to do want they want to do. Templeton says that Nora turns into a very mature and sensible woman from an immature child-like behavior, although Ibsen didn’t want or have any motive to write this play as a feminist play it became natural. (Templeton 28) .

Other critics like Billington and Gelber, strongly say this Novel is humanistic because the actual reason behind writing this play is to make people aware of the fact that everyone should identify themselves first, they should try to explore who they are. (Gelber 361).

When this play was published Ibsen was aware of the fact that women in their society were just doing what their husbands asked them to do, they didn’t have any choice, they were not allowed to become independent or like Nora women were not allowed to take a loan from a bank that’s why all these things prove that it is about feminism but in subconsciousness, but Ibsen says that he rights for human rights from the character of women that he has deep respect and confidence in them.

Ibsen demonstrates to the audience the significance of treating all persons with equal regard for their identities and liberty. Ibsen exposed flaws behind the face of a seemingly perfect marriage between a married couple. Nora has become a doll rather than a human in the hands of her father than in her husband’s hands.

ADoll'sl House is overflowing with symbolism through symbolism and irony, which portray the individual's injustice and controversial picture of society. However, if we examine the entire play, we can conclude that it showcases feminism and humanism to evoke the idea that everyone should first identify themselves, as demonstrated by the character of Nora because superiority can occur in both aspects of some relationships. This play exemplifies a humanist point of view on women's issues. At the end of the play, we have a strong message that Henrik Ibsen is a humanist who cares about feminist issues.