Women and the Law: The legal situtions illustrated in `A Dolls House`

Women and the Law : Legal Inequity in Ibsen 's A Doll 's House

Although , Ibsen consistently asserted that his ground-breaking play , A Doll 's House , examined and interrogated issues pertinent to humanity in general rather than to the `women 's movement ' in particular , it can hardly be denied that the text has proved seminal in increasing consciousness about the social , political , economic and legal marginalization of women in the European society during the last half of the nineteenth century . The Women 's Movement embraced Ibsen as one of the leading champions of

its causes after the publication of the play not only because the playwright had sympathetically portrayed a woman demanding her rights and questioning the basis and sanctity of marriage itself , but also because A Doll 's House brought to the forefront certain issues that formed the core of the Women 's Movement of the time , viz the standing of women in the eye of the law . This intends to examine in detail the legal status of women in Europe during the second half of the nineteenth century as presented in Ibsen 's A Doll 's House and further assess how far a woman 's lack of economic independence as well as the patriarchal society 's understanding of women and their role in the scheme of things was responsible for such inequality in legal status

From our present privileged position it is in fact difficult to gauge how oppressive and restrictive the position of a Victorian woman was in society . A woman was merely considered her husband 's property . She had no rights : no right to education , no right to work , no right to earn her own living , no right to participate in the political or economic advancement of her country . In fact everything beyond her own household was considered out of bounds for her . The primary tool for the perpetration of such injustice over half of the population was the law of the land . Very few even realized the situation as an oppressive or repressive one . It was simply the way things were , the way things had always been , the way things were meant to be . Ibsen 's was among the first voice that served as an eye-opener for the society . In fact , as Harold Clurman notes , in A Doll 's House , Nora 's slamming of the door in farewell to her husband .is a door slam which reverberated around the world (223

Stripped of its psychological implications , Ibsen 's play runs thus Thorvald Helman fell seriously ill and needed a long holiday abroad Nora , in to save her husband 's life and having no other means of acquiring money , forged her father 's name on a promissory note and raised the funds required for that holiday , then slaved and saved enough behind her husband 's back to pay to Krogstad the installments of the debt as they fell due . However , as Krogstad takes to blackmailing Nora she is left with no other options but to...