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Matthew
Professor Suppes
Eng. 205 Section 04
Drama and the Women’s Rights Movement
The women’s rights movement fought to obtain qualities of life for women, including
equal job opportunities, marital rights, and parental rights. The dramas Trifles by Susan Glaspell
and A Doll House written by Henrik Isben, both contain underlying feminist messages. Written
during the time period of the women’s rights movement, both Trifles by Susan Glaspell and A
Doll House by Henrik Ibsen are appropriately full of underlying feminist themes. Both dramas
contain situations and characters that epitomize the problems that the feminist movement was
fighting against.
Helmer’s pet names for Nora reflect the nature of their marriage. He refers to her as a
squirrel, lark, songbird, and creature. Nora is not seen as an equal human by Helmer, who views
himself as her superior. Nora is a pet with which Helmer can play with in his house.
Nora, while conversing with Mrs. Linde, says, “A man handles these problems so much better
than a woman” (Ibsen 1279). The social expectation at the time was for the husband to be in
charge of all financial matters. By taking a loan, Nora has broken a social construct by dealing
with the finances of the family. This displays the male financial dominance of which the feminist
movement sought to change.
At the end of the drama, Nora comes to a series of revelations about her marriage. “But
our home’s been nothing but a playpen. I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was
Papa’s doll-child” (Ibsen 1302). She sees herself as a toy that has been played with her entire life
by first her father and then her husband. She needs to free herself from the role of a toy to
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become an independent woman that is educated and self-supportive. This desire to be an
independent woman is an ideal that was shared by the women’s rights movement. Women, like
Nora, wanted an education, the opportunity to get a good job and be able to have a comfortable
living without depending on a husband to economically support them.
Isben leaves somewhat of a mystery at the end of the drama, as the audience is not told
what will become of Nora once she leaves Helmer. However, by looking at the social and
economic situation Nora is entering into with her departure, the audience can infer what is
certain to happen. Despite Nora’s hope and optimism when she leaves Helmer, she is facing an
almost impossible task. She has never held a job, is not highly educated, and most importantly is
a woman. The male dominated world of this time was not set up to allow a woman to be
financially independent. Unfortunately Nora inevitably will again have to turn to the support of a
man. This exemplifies the dominance of jobs and economy by men during the women’s rights
movement
Trifles, like A Doll House contains fixtures of feminism in the theme. The men in Trifles
fail to discover the evidence that proves Mrs. Wright killed her husband because of their refusal
to look at what they consider to be feminine and therefore unimportant objects. The kitchen
where the women stay during the play contains all of the evidence that explains the murder. The
men do not look in the kitchen because the kitchen is seen as the woman’s place and therefore
considered insignificant to the men. The items such as the spoiled fruit, messy kitchen, and
stiches in the quilt, give evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, are considered trivial by
the men because they are items for women.
The broken birdcage found by Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale is a symbol for how Mrs.
Wright’s marriage trapped her in a cage. Mrs. Wright was caged up by her husband and was
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changed to be the expected wife that stayed at home and cooked and cleaned for her husband.
Mr. Wright did not really care about Mrs. Wright’s wishes and did not allow her to sing or let her
belong to the Ladies’ Aid group. Mr. Wright strangling the bird symbolizes how the husband
took the life from Mrs. Wright. The canary represents Mrs. Wright before she was married. Mrs.
Hale describes how Mrs. Wright was before the marriage, “I heard she used to wear pretty
clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But
that-oh that was thirty years ago” (Glaspell 1052). Mrs. Hale later draws the comparison to Mrs.
Wright’s life and the bird, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird- a thing that sang. She used to
sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell 1055). This oppressive marriage that the Wrights had is
exactly the kind of relationship that the feminist movement was trying to end. Feminism strives
for freedom and ability to choose what a woman can do without being regulated and placed in a
virtual cage by the husband.
Trifles and A Doll House share similar feminist themes which go along with the ideals of
the women’s rights movements. Both dramas present problems that the feminist movement was
looking to resolve.
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Works Cited
Isben, Henrik. A Doll House. Trans. Rolf Fjelde. The Compact Bedford Introduction to
Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer.
8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.