Many familiar themes sporadically came to my mind when reading Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House." Indeed, much like in the short stories we read earlier this Summer session, including: "Chrysanthemums," "A Rose for Emily," and a "Yellow Wallpaper", a woman is portrayed stuck in a societal rubric that is very patriarchal. Nora is in a very controlling relationship with her husband Helmer. While he is very loving, not abusive, supports her financially, and shelters her, he is controlling as a father would act to a young daughter. He treats her as she is a child and eventually this culminates into events that end with Nora leaving her controlling husband at the story's end. I would compare Ibsen's "A Doll's House" mostly to "A Yellow Wallpaper" because while the husband is controlling, he is doing it for a number of mildly intentioned reasons. Firstly, in both stories, the husbands wish to help their wives; indeed, both husbands are 'controlling' because this is how they show their love to their wives. The second aspect one should consider is the societal morals that were in play in the cultures that inspired both stories. Woman were very subservient and had a much smaller voice in the household (as well as society) in comparison to today.
Lets not overlook the fact that the wife in "Yellow Wallpaper" was crazy. When drawing a comparison, this fact must be taken into account.
ReplyDeleteThat is true, but was her schizophrenia not enhanced by her husband's illusion of control? I believe that if the husband's steps were conducted differently and not as controlling, the wife might not have lost it like she did.
ReplyDeleteI like the content of what you have written here. But the only comment I have is the structure of it. I would have expanded the points more and you could have even made three different paragraphs. This should be easy for you because it is obvious that you have the information.
ReplyDeleteA comparison to Chrysanthemums is a great idea! I did not think of that before reading your post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joshua, I tried not to make my blog post too lengthy, and I wanted to write a concise post. To Mike: Thanks, I appreciate that, and there are very many similarities between all the materials we have read this summer session.
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