THE HUSBAND – WIFE RELATIONSHIP IN “A DOLL’S
HOUSE” DRAMA BY HENRIK IBSEN
By: Andi Pateddungi
Email: ddiy08@gmail.com
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR, 2014
Abstract
The purpose of the research was to analyse the husband – wife relationship and the position of
woman as wife in “A Doll’s House” Drama by Henrik Ibsen. The writer uses feminism approach to
analyze and describe the husband – wife relationship and position of woman as wife in “A Doll’s
House” drama. The result of this research showed that there were several elements or requirements of
ideal husband – and wife’s concept that doesn’t exist in the relationship of husband and wife in the
drama, they are no equal level between them, lack of sharing, lack of communication, there is no love
between them anymore and the most important is they don’t put God as the guidance of their marriage.
The position of woman as wife in A Doll’s house drama is nearly same with the reference about the
fact of woman as wife in 19th European society where the woman is lower than man or inferior. The
man always think that woman is a weak creature and it is shown when Torvald Helmer always call his
wife, Nora, by using names that implies a weak creature and hopeless like “little lark”, “poor soul”
“little brittle bird” and “poor Nora”. Nora as a woman and wife in this drama also doesn’t have any
freedom, even just to eat her favorite snack.
Keywords : Husband – Wife Relationship, Feminism, Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House.
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Introduction
Literary works are media used by the writers to address their ideas or concepts. As media,
literary works become bridges that link the ideas of the writer and then communicate them to the
reader. In the term of relations between the writer and the reader, literary works occupy different roles.
Other than ruling in the transfer of information process from the writer to the reader, literary works
also contribute as text that writer creates and the text that being receipted by the reader.
The creation of literature always rooted from the realities that are living in the society
(Rampan, (1984: 16) in Ratna, N. K. 2004). In literary works, the thing that depicts about the society
can be represented in social structure of the society, function and roles of each member in society, even
the interaction between one and another in the society.
Trivially, literary works depict the elements of society that consist of man and woman. The
interactions that shown between both of them are an interesting theme to inspect because it is about the
relation between two different types of sex that forming the social order of society in way of social and
culture.
In the wider and complex system, the relationship between man and woman is being
manifested in much form and behavioural pattern that represents the agreement of man or woman
towards the position of another sex. This process is strengthen by the realities in many cultures that the
position of man is and always higher in structural than woman. That thing proves that the interaction
that has bond is just demanding man to be the higher position. The man side as the winner has a bigger
power and role in the social process than woman. The taking of decision in a family cannot release
from the domination of man that has a bigger authority.
Family as the smallest form of society also get affected by the concept that explained above.
A family finally sets up on a patriarchal basis, with the husband and father determining fundamental
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conditions and making the key decisions, and with humble obedience owed to male authority.
Patriarchal family structure rested on men's control of most or all property, starting with land itself.
Then, marriage finally puts men as the superior and women as the inferior one.
There is a comprehension which is stated that woman is not only as a mother, wife and
housewife for family, but in social and culture; woman also has a wider role. But, when the roles for
parts of family are dominated by men, woman doesn’t a significant role in way to manage something
because her roles have been managed by man.
Literary works that will be investigated in this research is “A Doll’s House” drama by Henrik
Ibsen. In literature history, Henrik Ibsen is a famous writer that wrote drama script in Norwegia. He
was born in Skien, Norwegian on 20 March 1828 and died on 23 May 1906. He is the most influencing
drama writer in Norwegia. His works is the second of most performed drama play in the world after
Shakespeare. Ibsen was prying the realities that occur behind the much of walls; an individual, family
and society, and the most of the content is demolishing the things that arousing the controversy and
restiveness of the people in his period.
A Doll’s House is one of drama that Henrik Ibsen wrote on 1879. A Doll’s House tells about
a life of Nora, Torvald Helmer; a man who works in Bank and lives in middle class. By seeing at a
glance, Nora has an ordinary life, she looks being coddling by his husband, always called by a special
name “My White Goose”, shopaholic, and her longing is always be agreed by his husband. In the other
side, Torvald, husband of Nora always grumble and complaining “that’s the woman!”. Nora in this
story is imagined as a doll. A doll that is loved, taken care, and made a beautiful as she could, but her
“status” is still as jewellery” in a family.
The writer chooses “A Doll’s House” drama by Henrik Ibsen as the object of his research
because of several reasons. First, drama is rarely become an object of research for English literature
student in Faculty of Language and Literature, UNM. Secondly, Henrik Ibsen is one of most famous
drama writer in the world. His works is the second most frequently performed drama in the world. The
last and the most important reason, “A Doll’s House Drama” bring and shows the issue of inferiority
of woman in family that still be shown in Indonesia’s families nowadays.
This activity motivates the researcher to conduct a research study, under the title “The
Husband – Wife Relationship in “A Doll’s House” Drama by Henrik Ibsen”.
1.2 Problem Statement
The problem statements that are researched in this research are:
1. How is the relationship between Husband and wife that occurs in the story of A Doll’s
House drama in relation with the marriage concept of 19th century European society and
other cultures?
2. How is the position of Woman as a wife in family in the story of A Doll’s House in
relation with feminism theory?
1.3 Objective of the Research
The objectives of the research are as follows:
1. Describe the relationship between husband and Wife in A Doll’s House drama in relation
with the marriage concept of 19th century European society and other cultures.
2. Describe the position of woman as wife in story of A Doll’s House drama in relation
with feminism theory.
1.4 Significance of the Research
This research has two benefits; Theoretical Benefits and Practical Benefits. Theoretical
Benefits, the result of the research about the Husband-Wife relationship and the position of woman as
wife in family hope able are used to enrich and improve the knowledge about the ideal husband – wife
relationship and feminism theory and will become an information and reference for a kind of
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researches on the future. Practical Benefits, for the student, the result of this research can help the
student to know and understands A Doll’s House drama in feminism side. For other researchers, the
result of this research is expected to improve the knowledge and as the reference to analyse A Doll’s
House (as one of most famous drama in the world) from another method of analysis. For the drama
teacher, this research is expected to be one of the teaching references. For the society, this research is
expected to be a reference and knowledge about how to be an ideal member of family, especially being
a good husband and wife.
1.5 Scope of the Research
The writer focuses on the script of A Doll’s House drama, references about the concept of
marriage in 19th century European society, ideal husband – wife relationship and the feminism theory.
2 THE REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Feminism
As a modern movement, feminism born at the beginning of 20th century which are become
popular by a book “A Room of One’s Own (1929)” by Virginia Woolf. The development of that
feminism was sky-rocketing as one aspect of contemporary culture in 1960’s. The analysis form of it is
Mannering, contextual and so relating with the aspects of social, politics and economy.
Etymologically, feminism derives from Greek word femme which is meant woman (single)
that struggling to take the women’s rights, as a part of social class. In this term, we should differentiate
between male and female (as an biological aspects, as nature essence), masculine and feminine (as the
distinction of psychology and culture). In the other words, male-female are referring to sex, masculinefeminine are pointing to gender, as she and he (Selden, (1986: 132) in Sugihastuti & Saptiawan, 2010).
So, the objectives of feminism are balance, and gender interrelation. In the widest definition,
feminism is a movement of women to refuse everything that is marginalized, subordinates and lowing
by dominant culture either in politics, economy and social, woman emancipation in contemporary
social context known as the gender equivalence.
Selden ((1986: 130-131) in Sugihastuti & Saptiawan, 2010) stated that there are five problems
that usually occur in feminism theory; a) biological problems, b) experiences, c) discourse, d)
unconsciousness, and e) socio-economic problems. Basically, biological problem doesn’t make a big
controversy because both man and woman can accept it. The experiences problems that correlated to
the specialization of woman as biological differences, such as; menstruation, being pregnant, born a
child. These experiences in the next affecting the distinction of perception and emotion, that then
labouring the woman’s writings. The biggest controversy in feminism theory is caused by the
discourse that woman is marginalized by the domination of man’s discourse.
Western culture sees like that there is only one kind of sex, male, and female is just
incomplete sex. Irigaray (1985. 2:25-27) rejects the Freud and Lacan’s concern on penis. Vagina is
deemed as a home for penis, clitoris is deemed as a small penis. Conversely, Irigaray stated that
woman has sex organ almost place of body. The bliss’s geographical of its are more varieties,
complex, smooth and soft.
Social feminism arose in the late 1960’s.It grew out of the same social ferment and the same
consciousness-raising groups that produced other form of feminism. Socialist feminist attempted to
produce a creative synthesis of debates raging in the feminist community in the 1970’s about the roots
of the oppression woman. At the crux of socialist feminist thought is the understanding that nor just
one system of oppression is at the heart of women’s subordination; rather, it is a combination of
systems related to the race, social class, gender, sexuality, and nation. As the result, socialist feminists
focus on a full range of oppression, not simply the sex or gender system.
Long before the feminist movement was declared, there are many woman writers that had been
realized the condition of women which are get oppressed by men because of the system that ruled the
society, patriarchy system. Two of them are Simone de Beauvoir and Mary Wollstonecraft.
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Simone de Beauvoir was probably best known as a novelist, and a feminist thinker and writer, but
she was also an existentialist philosopher in her own right and thought a lot about the human struggle
to be free.
Beauvoir’s most famous work about feminism is The Second Sex from 1949, a hugely influential
book which laid the groundwork for second-wave feminism. Where first-wave feminism was
concerned with women’s suffrage and property rights, the second wave broadened these concerns to
include sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, and so on.
Beauvoir in The Second Sex outlines the ways in which woman is perceived as “other” in a
patriarchal society, second to man, which is considered—and treated as—the “first” or default sex.
Beauvoir says that men represent both positive and neutral while women represent only negative.
She is asserting the idea that when men's manhood have influence over something, it can only be of a
positive nature, unless of course it is neutral. Women's woman hood can have a negative influence.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) argues that women are taught since their infancy to have the
“softness of temper, outward obedience, and scrupulous attention”. Because women are already
accompanied by the gift of beauty, these attributes will ensure them the protection of man.
Mary Wollstonecraft also stresses that man tries to secure the good conduct of a woman by
reducing her to a state of innocence and childhood. She (1792) states, “Children, I grant, should be
innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term of weakness.”
From the two of feminist above, the writer concluded that women get oppressed by the men
because the women are not deemed as an equal sex with them. The oppressed that the men do is
caused of the men thought that women are weak creatures. And then men at the time can easily do
something that lowered the status of women because the man had the authority from the social system;
patriarchy system which can make men make laws that gives their sex advantages over the women.
2.2 Drama
a. Definition Of Drama
The word drama derives from French word drame which is used to explain the acts about the life of
middle class society (Harmsworth in Soemanto, 2001).
The origin western drama can be traced to the celebratory music of 6th century BC Attica, the
Greek region which is centred on Athens. In 19th century the romanticism drama appears. In its purest
form, Romanticism concentrated on the spiritual, which would allow humankind to transcend the
limitations of the physical world and body and find an ideal truth. The Romantics focused on emotion
rather than rationality, drew their examples from a study of the real world rather than the ideal, and
glorified the idea of the artist as a mad genius unfettered by rules. Romanticism dominated the theatre
of most of Europe. Many of the ideas and practices of Romanticism were evident in the late 18thcentury Sturm und Drang movement of Germany led by Goethe (Faust. 1831) and the dramatist
Friedrich Schiller (William Tell, 1804).
Henrik Ibsen who worked in theatre as dramatist at the time, brings a different genre of drama
which is usually performed at the time. Bjorn Hemmer (2010) stated that for half of a century, Ibsen
had devoted his life and his energies to the art of drama, and he had won international acclaim as the
greatest and most influential dramatist of his time.
He has a big role in the development of realistic drama and also called as “Father of Modern
Drama”. In his lifetime, his works was often considered as a scandal. When Victorian values was hold
strongly in family life and in society of Europe. Any challenge that against those values were judged as
an immoral action and will provoke the anger of society. Ibsen's works investigate the realities that lay
behind many walls in the European society at the time. On the surface, the middle-class homes gave an
impression of success - and appeared to reflect a picture of a healthy and stable society. But Ibsen
dramatizes the hidden conflicts in this society by opening the doors of those walls, and secret rooms of
the bourgeois homes. He shows what can be hiding behind those beautiful walls: moral duplicity,
confinement, betrayal, and fraud, not to mention insecurity.
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From the explanation above, we could see that Henrik Ibsen has a big influence in 19thcentury drama in Europe which in the first period, the dramas at the time were expected to show moral
stories with noble characters who fought against the forces of darkness. Each drama at the time was
expected to end with conclusions that are morally appropriate, in case that goodness will bring
happiness, and immorality will only bring misery. But Ibsen challenged this understanding and belief
of his day and destroys the illusion of the audience by bringing a different type of drama, realistic
drama.
2.3 Marriage in 19th Century in Europe
It takes a considerable leap of the imagination for a woman of the 21st century to realise what
her life would have been like had she been born 150 years ago. We take for granted nowadays that
almost any woman can have a career if she applies herself. We take for granted that women can choose
whether or not to marry, and whether or not to have children, and how many.
According to Helena Wojtczak (2001), Women of the mid-19th century had no such choices.
Most lived in a state little better than slavery.
Most women had little choice but to marry and upon doing so everything they owned,
inherited and earned automatically belonged to their husband. This meant that if an offence or felony
was committed against her, only her husband could prosecute. Furthermore, rights to the woman
personally - that is, access to her body - were his. Not only was this assured by law, but the woman
herself agreed to it verbally: written into the marriage ceremony was a vow to obey her husband,
which every woman had to swear before God as well as earthly witnesses.
Wojtczak (2001) stated that every man had the right to force his wife into sex and childbirth.
He could take her children without reason and send them to be raised elsewhere. He could spend his
wife's inheritance on a mistress or on prostitutes. Sometime, somewhere, all these things - and a great
many more - happened. To give but one example, Susannah Palmer escaped from her adulterous
husband in 1869 after suffering many years of brutal beatings, and made a new life. She worked,
saved, and created a new home for her children. Her husband found her, stripped her of all her
possessions and left her destitute, with the blessing of the law. In a fury she stabbed him, and was
immediately prosecuted.
From the explanation above, the writer concludes that there is a big gap and lack of
relationship between husband and wife, which is the man as a husband has full authority on her wife
and it strengthen by the law that occur at the time.
2.4 Marriage Concepts in Other Cultures
Over the last 50 years, psychologists have envisioned what the dimensions of the ideal family
would be, especially the ideal concept of husband and wife relationship. What are the dimensions of
the hypothetical ideal husband – wife relationship? First, in the perfect setting, each family member
would be acknowledged, heard, felt, and experienced by the others in a way that gives that person a
sense of his/her own unique identity.
Barbara Jones (2009), stated that the ideal family would have a spirit of easy sharing and a
lack of possessiveness. There would be an open exchange of feelings, thoughts, ideas, good times, and
humour.
Sun Myung Moon (1998) says, “The ideal family is the place of the eternal love of parents,
the eternal love of husband and wife, and the eternal love of children centering upon God). Sun Myung
Moon indeed captured the essence of an ideal family, which is beneficial to all because having God
means good work”.
Communication between husband and wife is the key. A husband and wife relationship is
based on love, respect and communication. Everyone probably acknowledges that love, respect and
communication are crucial in any relationship (Jacqui Lanier: Husband – Wife Relationship;
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Communication in Marriage: http://ezinearticles.com/?Husband-Wife-Relationship---Communicationin-Marriage&id=5049163).
According to Jones (2009), a husband has to perform many important roles for working his
marriage successfully. He and his wife must work equally towards marital growth and responsibility
together.
In islam view, It is very sad that this relationship which Allah (SWT) has established for the
good has been made a source of contention, deception, trickery, tyranny, humiliation, and abuse. This
is not the way marriage is supposed to be. Allah (SWT) described marriage very differently in the
Holy Quran:
“. . . He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquillity with
them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts) . . . “ (Holy Quran 30:21, Yusuf
Ali Translation).
3. METHOD
The method of this research is descriptive analysis method. The writer uses descriptive
analysis method to describe about the husband-wife relationship, and position of woman as wife in a
family.
In this research, the writer uses two sources of data. They are primary and secondary data.
Primary data is the dialogues from “A Doll’s house” drama script by Henrik Ibsen that has been
translated into English version by Jim Manis. The secondary data is obtained from book, articles and
information from the internet that discuss about drama, the relationship of husband-wife, the concept
of marriage in 19th century European society, the position of woman as wife in a family and the
inferiority of woman and feminism theory. It helped the writer to analyse the relationship between
husband-wife in “A Doll’s House” drama.
Based on the source of data before, the writer carried out the technique as follow, (1) Read
carefully the drama script 7 times carefully and tried to find out the content of the drama. (2)
Analysed the dialogues in the script that were related to the topic of the research. (3) Collected some
of data that related to the topic. They are taken from books, article about the relationship of husband
wife, marriage in 19th century European society, the position of woman as wife in a family and
feminism theory. (4) Read the related data to support the object of the research.
In analysing the drama, the writer uses feminism approach which emphasizes the husbandwife relation in family and position of woman as wife in family because this approach has relation to
this research in which analyse and describe the husband-wife relationship in A Doll’s House drama.
Then, in achieving the objective of the research, the writer employs some techniques, they
are: (1) Selecting and sorting the data (primary and secondary data). (2) Identifying the primary data
collected which is taken from the dialogues in A Doll’s House drama script. (3) Identifying the
secondary data collected which is taken from books and article that is related to the husband and wife
relationship and position of woman as wife in a family. (4) Finding out and interpreting the husbandwife relationship that is shown in A Doll’s House drama. (5) Describing the husband-wife relationship
that are found in the drama based on the dialogues in the drama script and then relates it to the books
or article that support it. (6) Finding out and describing the position of woman as wife in family that
are found in the drama based on the dialogues in the drama script and then relates it to the books or
article that support it.
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4. DATA ANALYSIS
The writer found that the relationship between husband and wife that occurs in A Doll’s
House drama shows that there are several requirements that make the relationship of Nora and Helmer
as a husband and a wife cannot be called as an ideal relationship.
The condition between a husband and a wife in marriage of Nora and Helmer can be related to
the theory of social feminism which is stated by Simone de Beauvoir and Mary Wollstonecraft.
The first condition that shows the lack of marriage between Nora and Helmer is no equal level
between them. “Them” refers to the position between Nora and Helmer as a husband and a wife. The
problems that finally occur in Nora and Helmer’s marriage and finally makes Nora decides to leave her
husband, Helmer, because Nora realizes that she is not treated equally. She finally realizes that her
position in a family is inferior. It is strengthen by the dialogues below:
Nora: No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but
playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have
been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun I played
with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald. (Ibsen, 2001:75)
The dialogue above shows that Nora doesn’t feel that she is treated like a wife but like a doll.
It implies that Nora feels she is inferior. Besides that, the condition of marriage between them that
finally cannot be maintained also caused by there is no equation between Nora and Helmer as a
husband and a wife. Wollstonecraft (1792) accepts the definition of her time that women's sphere is the
home, but she does not isolate the home from public life as many others did and as many still do. For
Mary Wollstonecraft, the public life and domestic life are not separate, but connected. Men have duties
in the family, too, and women have duties to the state. She believes that a stable marriage is a
partnership between a husband and a wife. It is strengthen by her argument in her book A Vindication
of Rights of Woman, which is stated that a marriage is a social contract between two individuals. A
woman thus needs to have equal knowledge and sense, to maintain the partnership.
Moreover, the condition that shown in dialogue before strengthens the position of woman in a
family is inferior. The condition that dialogues before implies that woman is not treated as a human
being but perceived as “other”. De Beauvoir (1976) argues that throughout history, woman has been
viewed as “a hindrance or a prison” and woman is always depicted as secondary to man. She doesn’t
exist as an entity by herself but as the other.
Wollstonecraft (1792) also strengthens that only when woman and man are equally free, and
woman and man are equally dutiful in exercise of their responsibilities to family and state, can there be
true freedom.
As Mary Wollstonecraft has stated before, with equality between husband and wife, a stable
marriage will emerge by itself. And a stable marriage surely will represent a nice relationship in all
aspects of family, including mutual understanding (easy sharing) and an open communication.
But by the turbidity condition between Nora and Helmer in their marriage, the condition that
occurs is contradicted with the statement that Mary had stated about a stable marriage before. The
condition that occurs in marriage of Nora and Helmer are lack of sharing (mutual understanding) and
lack of communication. The condition that shows is strengthened by dialogues below:
Nora: No. that’s just it. You don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either – before
tonight. No, you mustn’t interrupt me. You must simply listen to what I say, Torvald, this is a settling of
accounts. (Ibsen, 2001:73).
Nora: we have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two,
you and I, husband and wife, had a serious conversation?
Helmer: What do you mean by serious?
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Nora: In all these eight years – longer than that – from the very beginning of our acquaintance, we never
exchanged a word on any serious subject. (Ibsen, 2001:74)
Both of dialogues above shows that the condition of relationship between Nora and Helmer is
very contradict with the concept of stable marriage that Mary Wollstonecraft had stated before.
Instead, the dialogues above show the lack of relationship between Nora and Helmer as a husband and
a wife.
The previous explanation also shows that the position of woman as a wife in A Doll’s House
drama by Henrik Ibsen is inferior. The husband always sees her wife as a weak creature, less
intelligent and everything that less than man is in woman.
Henrik Ibsen the author of drama A Doll’s House did not say that it is a feminist drama
because this works was written far before the feminist movement was declared in 1960’s. But I
claimed this drama supports feminism. After read and analysed the drama, I can found some feminism
aspects, especially social feminism.
In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer, the wife of Torvald Helmer was under the
illusion that her marriage was perfect and that she was an ideal wife and mother. She was happy in the
knowledge that she could please Torvald Helmer, her husband, with her pretty tricks and that Torvald
Helmer being the champion of honour and would lay down his life in order to protect her and his
family. Her illusion is finally broken when she is confronted by the reality of her situation.
There are several things that show some oppression that Nora; wife of Torvald Helmer, get
from her husband. The feminists stated that the woman get several limitation from the authority of
husband which the wife only get freedom in domestic area. It showed when Nora says to Christine that
she stealthy has got a job outside the domestic are.
Nora: Well, I have found other ways of earning money. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of
copying to do; so I locked myself up and sat writing every evening until quite late at night. Many a time
I was desperately tired; but all the same it was a tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning
money. It was like being a man. (Ibsen, 2001:16)
The dialogue above also shows that Nora feels that she had been like a man by doing
something and earning money. It indicates that the job that outside housekeeping and caring children is
not a woman’s job. In the other hand, we could say that domestic area is just for woman and public
area is for man. But Nora shows her struggle against that rule by getting such job.
Nora is the best illustration of the illusioned woman who lives in a society where the male
oppresses the female and reduces to a mere doll or plaything. Nora is a doll who lives in her fake doll
houses, which strengthen the fragile idea of a stable family living under a patriarchal and traditional
roof.
The writer believe that Nora as figure of woman portrayed in A Doll’s House is the best
model of the “second sex” or the “other” that the French revolutionary writer Simone de Beauvoir said.
De Beauvoir (The Second Sex: 1976) argues that throughout history, woman has been viewed as a
“hindrance or a prison” and woman is always depicted as secondary to man. She does not exist as an
entity by herself but as the “Other”.
Since her childhood, Nora has been regarded as the “other” by her father. Then, her father
handed her to her husband who treated her like a valued possession not like a human creature. It
strengthens by the way of Nora’s Husband, Helmer, treat her. In Helmer’s eyes, Nora is just nothing
but “squirrel”, a “little skylark”, a “song bird” whose thoughts are nonsensical and typical to any other
woman’s. This is best depicted by Nora’s self-realization and awakening towards the end of the story.
Nora: (undisturbed). I mean that I was simply transferred from papa’s hand into yours. You arranged
everything according to your own tastes as you else’s I pretend to, I am really not quite sure which – I
think sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had
been living here like a poor woman – just from hand to mouth, I have existed merely to perform tricks
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for you, Torvald. But you would have it so, You and papa have commited a great sin against me. It is
your fault that I have made nothing of my life. (Ibsen, 2001:74).
Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: 1792), the 18th century writer
argues that women are taught since their infancy to have the “softness of temper, outward obedience,
and scrupulous attention”. When woman is accompanied by the gift of beauty, these attributes will
ensure them the protection of man. It is shown when Helmer persuades Nora, his wife.
Helmer: (standing at the open door). Yes, do. Try and calm you self, and make your mind easy again,
my frightened little singing-bird. Be at rest, and feel secure; I have broad wings to shelter you under.
(Walks up and down by the door). How warm and cosy our home is, Nora. Here is shelter for you; here I
will protect you like a haunted dove that I have saved from a hawk’s claws; I will bring peace into your
poor beating heart. It will come, little by little, Nora, believe me. Tomorrow morning you will look upon
it all quite differently; soon everything will be just as it was before. Very soon you won’t need me to
assure you that I have forgiven you; you will yourself feel the certain that I have done so. Can you
suppose I should ever think of such a thing as repudiating you, or even reproaching you? You have no
idea what a true man’s heart is like, Nora. There is something so indescribably sweet and satisfying, to a
man, in the knowledge that he has forgiven his wife – forgiven her freely, and with all his heart. It seem
as if that he made her, as it were, doubly his own; he has given her a new life, so to speak; and she has in
a way become both wife and child to him. So you shall be for me after this, my little sacred, helpless
darling. Have no anxiety about anything, Nora; only be frank and open with me, and I will serve as will
and conscience to you-. What is this? Not gone to bed? Have you changed your mind? (Ibsen, 2001:73)
Moreover, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) stresses that man tries to secure the good conduct of a
woman by reducing her to a state of innocence and childhood. Wollstonecraft (1792) states, “Children,
I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term of
weakness.” This is very clear that Helmer treats Nora as a child. He forbids her to eat macaroons; he
makes her dance for him, dresses up and recites for him.
Helmer: (wagging his finger at her) Hasn’t Miss Sweet Tooth had been breaking rules in
town today?
Nora: No, what makes you think that?
Helmer: Hasn’t she paid a visit to the confectioner’s?
Nora: No, I assure you, Torvald.
Helmer: Not been nibbling sweets?
Nora: No, certainly not. (Ibsen, 2001:7).
On the other hand, not only Nora is treated as a spoiled child but also as a sexual object that
her husband fantasizes about. He fantasizes that they are just arriving from their wedding and are alone
for the first time together. It shown in the dialogue below:
Helmer: And when we are leaving, and I am putting the shawl over your beautiful young shoulders – on
your lovely neck – then I imagine that you are my young bride and that we have just come from the
wedding, and I am bringing you for the first time into our home – to be alone with you for the first time
– quite alone with my shy little darling! All this I have longed for nothing but you. When I watched the
seductive figures of Tarantella, my blood was on fire; I could endure it no longer, and that was why I
brought you down so early. (Ibsen: 65).
When Nora and Helmer get fight or squabbling, Nora realizes that it is time that she regained
her status as being the “One” after a long time of submission, which established her role as the
“Other”. Nora has been taught not to take but to receive. She has gained only what her husband and
father has been willing to grant her. In this sense, Nora’s domestic life in such a patriarchal society is
just a reflection of the middle class women of her time that De Beauvoir depicted in her essay, The
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Second Sex, “They live dispersed among the males, attached through residence, housework, economic
condition, and social standing to certain men—fathers or husbands—more firmly than they are to other
women. If they belong to the bourgeoisie, they feel solidarity with men of that class, not with
proletarian women.”
Nora’s biggest fear is her husband hearing that she had forged her father’s signature to get the
loan, which she needed to travel to Italy. Her motives were absolutely selfless because that trip saved
her husband’s life.
Nora knew that the revelation would have put her husband’s reputation at stake, but she felt
deep inside that her husband would sacrifice his reputation to defend her as soon as he came to know
that she did that to save his life. But the feeling is just become a fake hope when Helmer stated that no
man will sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.
Helmer: I would gladly work tonight and day for you, Nora – bear sorrow and want for your sake. But
no man would sacrifice his honour for the one she loves.
Nora: It is a thing hundreeds of thousands of women have done. (Ibsen: 78)
It’s a moment when Nora realizes that her husband values his reputation and jobs more than
he values his love for her. The dialogue below shows Torvalds‘s resentment and accusations after
knowing about what she had done comes as a blessing in disguise.
Helmer: (Walking about the room). What a horrible awakening! All these eight years – she who was my
joy and pride – a hyspocrite, a liar-worse, worse-a criminal! The unutterable ugliness of it all! For
shame! For shame! (Ibsen: 70)
Simone de Beauvoir (1976) says that if the woman seems to be the inessential which never
becomes the essential, it is because she herself fails to bring about the change. But here, Nora is
willing to bring about the change by doing the thing that had saved her husband, Helmer, from death.
She hopes that she will make his husband realizes that Nora has given a sacrifice for the family like her
husband did, even though she done it by stealthy.
But the reality smacks her in the face; a wave of disillusionment wakes her up that her
husband, Helmer, will never sacrifice his honour even for the one he loves. She decides bravely to
abandon her family to escape the restrictive confines of the patriarchal society she lives in. She is
resolved to go out into the world and gain real experience. She is determined to think out everything
for herself and be able to make her own decisions.
Nora: What do you consider my most sacred duties?
Helmer: Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children?
Nora: I have other duties just as sacred.
Helmer: That you have not. What duties could those be?
Nora: Duties to myself.
Helmer: Before all else, you are a wife and mother.
Nora: I don’t believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just
as you are-or, at all events, that I must try and become one. I know quite well, torvald, that most
people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I can no
longer content with what most people say, or with and what is found in books. I must think over
things for myself and get to understand them. (Ibsen: 76).
From the dialogues above, it shows that Nora finally found and decides what her sacred duty
is and what things that she really need to do. Even though the decision that Nora takes is contradict
with the culture and religion which a wife should priorities her children and husband, her decision is in
the line with the feminist thought which a woman has right to find out herself and identity. The
struggle and decision that she made also strengthen by Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of The Rights of
the Woman: 1792) which stated that “It is time to affect a revolution in female manners - time to
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restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming
themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.”
5. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusion
Based on the analysis above, the writer takes some conclusion, they are:
1. The relation between husband and wife in A Doll’s House drama by Henrik Ibsen is
not working properly because many of important requirement of ideal marriage or
family has not occur in between them anymore, such as no mutual understanding/no
equal level between them, lack of sharing, lack of communication, there is no love
between them anymore and the most important is they don’t put God as the guidance
of their marriage.
2. The position of woman as wife in A Doll’s house drama is nearly same with the
reference about the fact of woman as wife in 19th European society and social
feminism theory where the woman is inferior. The man always think that woman is a
weak creature and it is shown when Torvald Helmer always call his wife, Nora, by
using names that implies a weak creature and hopeless like “little lark”, “poor soul”
“little brittle bird” and “poor Nora”. Nora as a woman and wife in this drama also
doesn’t have any freedom, even just to eat her favorite snack.
5.2 Suggestion
Based on the conclusion above, the researcher put forward some suggestions as follows:
1.
2.
3.
To have a good husband – wife relationship, a husband and wife should have a mutual
understanding, sharing each other about everything about their marriage, loving each
other and have a good communication. Besides that, love is also a key to maintain the
marriage and the most important is we always have to put God in every decision that
we are going to take for the best of the marriage.
All women have to rebel toward oppression they get, whatever it is. It is important for
them in order they do not be judged as a week person anymore and can life properly
as men do.
The writer hopes that people in the world especially the men will more care and
respect women especially their wife in all aspects of their life especially their
marriage, finally they can help women to change their life better and be more
precious.
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